Power

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Power is electrical energy that powers the operation of certain appliances, including workbenches, lights, temperature control devices, automated defenses, and more. Access to power is crucial to survival, especially in late game. The success of a colony often relies upon a fault-tolerant power grid with a reliable power flow that ensures that your appliances are working at all times, especially in emergencies.

Power generators

Chemfuel powered generator

The chemfuel powered generator produces power from chemfuel. The generator is an exact analog to the wood-fired generator, only the type of fuel is different.

Wood-fired generator

The wood-fired generator is identical to the chemfuel generator, except that it is fueled by wood and is slightly cheaper to construct. Requires no research for New Arrivals. Unlocked by researching Electricity for Tribal starts

Geothermal generator

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The geothermal generator is a power generator that can be built on top of a steam geyser to convert natural heat into electrical power, providing a constant 3,600W. Steam geysers are randomly generated per map, sometimes close to each other, others scattered towards the edges or center. Colonies are often seen built in their proximity from early days for future benefit.

Geothermal generators can be placed on steam geysers to produce power. Requires research.

Solar generator

Requires no research for New Arrivals. Must be researched separately by Tribal starts.

Wind turbine

Wind turbines generate a variable amount of power directly proportional to the wind speed. Requires no research for New Arrivals. Unlocked by researching Electricity for Tribal starts.

Watermill generator

A watermill generator provides power from a moving river. It is relatively cheap and requires no upkeep, but is also fairly large and cannot be placed too closely to another without degrading performance. Requires research.

Ship reactor

Although it is a ship part and not listed in the Power menu, the ship reactor is perfectly usable as a power generator. It provides 1000W of power, with no need for fuel or other maintenance; it does not generate any heat. It is normally only built as part of the space ship to win the game, and must be powered up to become operational for the ship, which triggers a 15-day long enemy invasion event. Requires research.

Vanometric power cell

Similar to the ship reactor, the vanometric power cell provides a consistent 1000W of power at all times with no upkeep or restrictions. It has a small 1x2 footprint and can be moved freely. The catch is that these power cells are very rare; they cannot be manufactured or purchased, only received as a quest reward. With their comparatively low output, there is no reliable way to acquire enough to satisfy more than a small fraction of a normal colony's power budget, but they are a convenient way of powering high-priority or off-grid equipment.

Unstable power cell

Effectively a smaller, less powerful and significantly more explosive vanometric power cell from the Royalty DLC. It can only be captured from Mechanoid clusters. It provides 400W with no need for fuel, in 1x1 footprint that can be moved around freely. While more common than the vanometric power cell, its fragility and explosive tendencies can make it hard to capture from clusters and care must be taken to shield it from damage when in use. It also only produces a relatively small amount of power, so like the vanometric power cell, it is most useful for off-grid or high priority items rather than supplementing the main power grid.

Power generator summary

Type	Cost	Size	Max Output (Watts)	Variable Output	Day	Night	Placement
Solar	100 3	4x4	1700	✓	✓	✗	In sunlight
Wind turbine	100 2	5x2	3450	✓	✓	✓	In open ground
Watermill generator	280 80 3	5x6	1100	✗	✓	✓	On riverbanks
Chemfuel generator	100 3	2x2	1000	✗	✓	✓	Anywhere
Wood-fired generator	100 2	2x2	1000	✗	✓	✓	Anywhere
Geothermal	400 8	6x6	3600	✗	✓	✓	On geysers
Ship reactor	300 500 150 25	6x7	1000	✗	✓	✓	Outside (can roof over afterwards)
Vanometric power cell	N/A	1x2	1000	✗	✓	✓	Anywhere
Unstable power cell	N/A	1x1	400	✗	✓	✓	Anywhere

Power transfers

Power conduit

A power conduit transmits power from generators or batteries to appliances up to six squares away. Conduit doesn't block the placement of other structures and isn't blocked by them, so conduit can be placed wherever it's needed, even in walls, except unsmoothed mountain rocks and ores.

Power switch

Power storage

Batteries

Battery

Stores electricity for later use. Charged batteries explode when exposed to rain or fire.

Base Stats

Type

Building – Power

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Market Value

  ^[Note]

Mass

20 kg

Beauty

-15

HP

100

Flammability

100%

Path Cost

50

Building

Size

1 × 2

Minifiable

True

Placeable

True

Passability

pass through only

Cover Effectiveness

40%

Blocks Wind

True

Terrain Affordance

Medium

Efficiency

50%

Creation

Required Research

Battery

Work To Make

800 ticks (13.33 secs)

Resources to make

70 + 2

Deconstruct yield

35 + 1

Destroy yield

17 - 18 + 0 - 1

Technical

thingCategories

BuildingsPower

</noinclude>

The battery is an electric device that stores power to use when needed.

Acquisition

Batteries can be be constructed with and after the Batteries research has completed.

Summary

Batteries connect directly to the wind turbine and the attached coolers, with no conduits. This power grid will only "Zzztt" if the batteries get rained on.

Batteries automatically charge and discharge when connected to other buildings. Each battery can store 600 Wd (Watt-days) of power at once. 1 Watt-day is equal to powering a 1 W appliance for 24 hours. However, batteries have a 50% efficiency, meaning they take in only half of a grid's excess power. For example, an excess of 200 W for 24 hours will only store 100 Wd. Power is evenly divided between all connected batteries. There is no limit or penalty for power output.

Each tile of battery will also transfer an infinite amount of power through it, as if it were a power conduit. Therefore, electric appliances like standing lamps can connect within 6 tiles of a battery. The battery can't connect in the same way; it requires an adjacent conduit, battery, or power generator to power. A wire will appear when a valid connection is made; you may need to use the Reconnect gizmo on the appliance for it to be powered.

Batteries lose 5 W of stored power per day, even if they aren't connected to anything or are uninstalled in their minified state. Batteries can't be turned off, but a power switch can disconnect them from other buildings.

Health

An installed battery will short-circuit (the Zzzt... event) if left in the rain or snow without a roof. In addition, each battery's storage contributes towards the random short-circuit event, which can happen so long as a power conduit is connected. However, a battery-only grid is immune to the random event.

Like other furniture, batteries are not subject to deterioration, but short-circuits from rain or snow cause damage. Their health does not impact power storage, discharge, or any other function. Temperature also has no effect past fire creation. However, they can explode when reaching a low enough health.

Analysis

Batteries are most useful when using wind turbines or solar panels, both which are highly variable power sources. Using a battery creates a 'cushion', making their power more reliable. For instance, a battery is required to use any sort of solar power at night or during an eclipse. Meanwhile, fueled generators are consistent - they'll burn their fuel at a constant rate, even if it would be wasted. While you could just turn the generator off, colonists need to walk to the generator. Using a battery can help save on both fuel and micromanagement.

Even in colonies that do not use wind or solar energy, batteries are useful to cover spikes in power usage, such as short-circuits, turret arrays, or electric smelters. A battery can cover arbitrarily high power needs, the size of the array only changes for how long that is possible. As an example, an array of 20 mini-turrets and 4 autocannon turrets draws 3200 W of power. Instead of building another geothermal generator, each battery will power this for more than 4 in-game hours.

Uninstalled batteries can be used whenever power needs to be transported. They can be used to power remote deep drills, or even put on a caravan. This allows for electric appliances like mini-turrets to be used far away from your base.

As there is no limit on charge or discharge rate and power is divided evenly between batteries, the minimum number of batteries should be used to achieve the required storage. For every 600Wd is routinely left unfilled that is an additional 5W spent, components consumed by breakdowns, and spent all for no benefit.

Power storage

Separating your batteries behind stone walls will help keep fire from spreading. As you'll rarely need to access a battery itself, stone doors can be safely used for "battery rooms". You may want to keep some additional batteries behind a power switch on a separate network, so they can be brought online in the case of a "Zzzt event". Alternatively, you can uninstall batteries and keep them in a warehouse. Either way, the discharge is negligible.

When powering an emergency array, the battery group should be isolated. There should be 1 power switch to the main power grid, which should be turned on or off when needed. This keeps your power safe from a short circuit. When powering a security array, you can place another, separate switch connected to your turrets, to easily power them on or off.

Unused electric work benches and powered appliances can be turned off to reduce total power usage, via the Designate toggle power order in the work bench menu. This requires a pawn to travel to the appliance and manually turn it off or on. A faster alternative to the Designate Toggle Power order is to build a single piece of power conduit unattached to any power source near the work bench. The Reconnect order from the work bench menu will instantly toggle power connection between the unpowered, solo conduit and your main power grid, saving power usage without requiring work or travel from your pawns.

Efficiency

When calculating power capacity, keep in mind that charge efficiency is only 50%; half of the excess energy is lost. This is particularly relevant when planning a sun lamp setup. The lamp draws 2900 W during the day, and 0 W during the night, for an average demand of 1595 W. However, an average power of 1595 W is not sufficient, and only enough to power the lamp for 6 hours. Simply adding more batteries will not change this; the problem is the lack of energy. In this scenario, adding another solar generator would be enough to power the lamp.

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Charged batteries now explode while burning.

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Architect

Power

Power conduit (Waterproof) • Power switch • Wood-fired generator • Chemfuel powered generator • Wind turbine

(research)

Battery • Geothermal generator • Solar generator • Watermill generator • Toxifier generator

(uncraftable)

Vanometric power cell • Unstable power cell

Related

Ship reactor

</noinclude>

Appliances

Appliances are structures or buildings that require power but don't transmit it. Most appliances can connect automatically if placed up to six squares away from a conduit, generator or battery. When connected to the power grid, it can take a few moments before an appliance turns on.

Managing appliances

Reconnect: Click to force an appliance to reconnect to a conduit line or power source. This can also be used to change which power source an appliance is connected to if there is more than one in range.
Designate toggle power: Click to mark an appliance to be turned on (✔) or off (X) by a colonist set to flick.

Reconnect

Designate toggle power

Appliances summary

Appliance	Power consumption (in Watts)
Autodoor	50
Electric tailor bench	120
Electric smithy	210
Machining table	350
Electric smelter	700
Electric crematorium	250
Hi-tech research bench	250
Multi-analyzer	200
Fabrication bench	250
Nutrient paste dispenser	200
Standing lamp	75
Sun lamp	2900 during day only
Hydroponics basin	70
Biofuel refinery	170
Infinite chemreactor	300
Vitals monitor	80
Comms console	200
Ground-penetrating scanner	700
Long-range mineral scanner	700
Electric stove	350
Heater	175
Cooler	200
Mini-turret	80
Tube television	200
Flatscreen television	330
Megascreen television	450

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Electrical devices now short-circuit and cause fires if left out in the rain while running.

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Architect

Power

Power conduit (Waterproof) • Power switch • Wood-fired generator • Chemfuel powered generator • Wind turbine

(research)

Battery • Geothermal generator • Solar generator • Watermill generator • Toxifier generator

(uncraftable)

Vanometric power cell • Unstable power cell

Related

Ship reactor