Mechanized Airlock Science

[QuQuasar]

Decided to do some experiments on pump-evacuated, vacuum-sealed airlocks, just to see whether the design I was using was the most efficient. Thought I'd share the results.

I tested the 7 designs shown below using the same system for each:

Active Power Consumption

1. 70 W
2. 250 W
3. 130 W
4. 310 W
5. 310 W
6. 250W / 70 W (depending on gas pressure)
7. 130 W

This is just a tally of all pumps and the element sensor. We can consider it roughly proportional to you could expect to pay while a busy colony of dupes make their way in and out of a main entrance.

 

Single Dupe Passthrough Power Consumption

1. 2820 J = 47 packets * 60 W
2. 4320 J = 18 packets * 240 W
3. >3600 J = >60 packets * 60 W
4. 4050 J = 27 packets * 150 W (assumed avg)
5. 3600 J = 24 packets * 150 W (assumed avg)
6. > 9000 J = >60 packets * 150 W (assumed avg)
7. 2220 J = 37 packets * 60 W

This was measured by running a 0-athletics dupe through the airlock, and manually counting how many packets were produced. This is what you pay every time the airlock is activated.

 

Porosity 

1. 1 tile
2. 2 tiles
3. 7 tiles
4. 12 tiles
5. 6 tiles
6. 9 tiles
7. 18 tiles

This was measured by rapidly running a dupe backwards and forwards through the airlock for some time to fill a storage compactor with 2200 kg of coal. Porosity was then measured by roughly estimating the amount of chlorine that got into the oxygenated area. Note that the pressure of chlorine (4kg) was more than twice that of the oxygen (1.5kg)

 

Make of those figures what you will.

[Saturnus]

@QuQuasar Note. Shut-off valves do not consume power.

[Xuhybrid]

1 hour ago, Saturnus said:

@QuQuasar Note. Shut-off valves do not consume power.

Pretty sure they do lol.

[Saturnus]

16 minutes ago, Xuhybrid said:

Pretty sure they do lol.

You'd be wrong though.

Look. Current status 0/100W. Only thing connected to the battery is 10 shut off valves. All are powered on and actively switching between on and off constantly. And yet the wire status says it consumes no power, and the battery has drained the exact same amount as the control battery next to it. I can stop this at any time and the two batteries will be drained exactly the same even though one has 10 shut off valves connected to it.

Shut off valves (and germ sensors) only needs to be connected to a power source. They consume no power but they do count for wire load.

[Mr. Rimbaud]

So, the first option is the best one? 

 

[Siromatik]

6 hours ago, Mr. Rimbaud said:

So, the first option is the best one? 

I would say the first one if you want less gas leak,
but the 7' if you only want a thermal lock and dont care about randoms gas leaks (look at the Joules part only)

6 hours ago, Xuhybrid said:

Pretty sure they do

Anyway all thoses stuffs are going to be power consummers at some point before the final release, so...

[Neotuck]

10 minutes ago, Siromatik said:

Anyway all thoses stuffs are going to be power consummers at some point before the final release, so...

And how sure are you on that?

[Siromatik]

14 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

And how sure are you on that?

Not sure, just hope they wont miss some implementations, as they already done with doors for exemples.

[Neotuck]

30 minutes ago, Siromatik said:

Not sure, just hope they wont miss some implementations, as they already done with doors for exemples.

Well it would make sense that any machine only pulls power when it's turned on or in use

However that requires a lenght of time for any power to be pulled

A shutoff only pulls power when a gas/liquid packet passes though which isn't programed by g/s so it's instant like a bridge

That's why no power is used even though power is required

 

[Nativel]

Continue this idea with Air locks

[QuQuasar]

I'll have to revisit this experiment. I'm pretty sure something went wrong with the porosity experiment for airlock 1, (it simply doesn't make sense that it would be less porous than airlock 2), and I think I shortchanged the 2-pump designs by merging their pipes and running them through a single element sensor (causing packets from one line to frequently block the other).

[Xuhybrid]

I said that because i'm pretty sure i've seen my circuits with an extra 10W usage on their line but i stand corrected. I hope it gets implemented properly in one of the QoL updates. I also hope they bring door power requirements down. Just doesn't seem right that a bunker door needs 120W and a mechanised airlock does too. Compared to all the other power costs, it seems more appropriate that the door is 60W. Maybe i wouldn't feel so bad about powering them.

[Saturnus]

40 minutes ago, Xuhybrid said:

I said that because i'm pretty sure i've seen my circuits with an extra 10W usage on their line but i stand corrected. I hope it gets implemented properly in one of the QoL updates. I also hope they bring door power requirements down. Just doesn't seem right that a bunker door needs 120W and a mechanised airlock does too. Compared to all the other power costs, it seems more appropriate that the door is 60W. Maybe i wouldn't feel so bad about powering them.

Doors only use power while they open and close. Bunker doors take a lot longer to open and close than mechanical door so they use a lot more power. Think of it this way, they have the same electric motor, the gearing is just different.

As for shut off valves. I think they're fine as they are. A real life valve would only use power while it switches from one state to the other. Otherwise it shouldn't use power. However, in the game that means you have to keep track of all the times there is a potential it could consume power thus bringing unnecessary load on the CPU for something that is really only going to be a trivial power cost for the vast majority of circumstances. Just ignoring the power cost, and just have it apply to wire load, and the necessity of having it powered is a perfectly good compromise to me.

[Xuhybrid]

6 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

Doors only use power while they open and close. Bunker doors take a lot longer to open and close than mechanical door so they use a lot more power. Think of it this way, they have the same electric motor, the gearing is just different.

As for shut off valves. I think they're fine as they are. A real life valve would only use power while it switches from one state to the other. Otherwise it shouldn't use power. However, in the game that means you have to keep track of all the times there is a potential it could consume power thus bringing unnecessary load on the CPU for something that is really only going to be a trivial power cost for the vast majority of circumstances. Just ignoring the power cost, and just have it apply to wire load, and the necessity of having it powered is a perfectly good compromise to me.

Sure but how many doors can you fit on one circuit? That's what the main problem is for me at least.

Why have it require power at all then?

[Saturnus]

11 hours ago, Xuhybrid said:

Sure but how many doors can you fit on one circuit? That's what the main problem is for me at least.

Why have it require power at all then?

You can literally have hundreds. I assume you mean for bunker doors. It shouldn't really be a problem at all in any other case.

What you do is have one smart battery connected to 4 doors. The smart batteries are kept topped of at all times. When the bunker door automation signal kicks in it disconnects the battery from the power supply. The charge in one battery is enough to open or close 4 bunker doors. You then just have a timer that reconnects the battery to the power supply again after 40 seconds or so. That way you can have all your bunker doors on a single circuit.

[cpy]

When shut off valve consume power?

[Fizzy Cyst]

11 hours ago, Saturnus said:

A real life valve would only use power while it switches from one state to the other.

The most common real life valves are spring-loaded and solenoid-operated. The solenoid acts axially along the rod that actuates the valve seal. A normally-closed valve consumes no power when closed, but does consume power when open. There are others with greater mechanical complexity that do only consume power during switching, but they are less common.