Does idle machines spend power?

[hedition]

I know certain machines draw power constantly while others only draw power when it operates.

Like I know diffusers stop drawing power when it halt on max pressure and other similar gadgets.

I am not sure about massage table and shearing station etc though.

[beowulf2010]

1 minute ago, hedition said:

I know certain machines draw power constantly while others only draw power when it operates.

Like I know diffusers stop drawing power when it halt on max pressure and other similar gadgets.

I am not sure about massage table and shearing station etc though.

Nothing that I can think of draws power when not being used. 

[DarkMaster13]

1 hour ago, beowulf2010 said:

Nothing that I can think of draws power when not being used. 

Fridges and storage units effectively consume power constantly.  Most other things can be surprisingly energy lean.

[beowulf2010]

32 minutes ago, DarkMaster13 said:

Fridges and storage units effectively consume power constantly.  Most other things can be surprisingly energy lean.

But fridges keep food from spoiling and both give out automation signals when powered, thus they are active 100% of the time matching their full time power draw. 

[Chthonicone]

1 hour ago, DarkMaster13 said:

Fridges and storage units effectively consume power constantly.  Most other things can be surprisingly energy lean.

 

1 hour ago, beowulf2010 said:

But fridges keep food from spoiling and both give out automation signals when powered, thus they are active 100% of the time matching their full time power draw. 

I am pretty sure that a refrigerator that has nothing set to be in it, and is empty, draws no power, but as soon as you tell it what you want in it, it starts to draw power.

[beowulf2010]

29 minutes ago, Chthonicone said:

I am pretty sure that a refrigerator that has nothing set to be in it, and is empty, draws no power, but as soon as you tell it what you want in it, it starts to draw power.

Hmmm... Dunno. I can't remember the last time I powered a fridge.  I just know that if you want a green automation output, it has to be full and thus draws constant power

[DarkMaster13]

9 hours ago, Chthonicone said:

 

I am pretty sure that a refrigerator that has nothing set to be in it, and is empty, draws no power, but as soon as you tell it what you want in it, it starts to draw power.

Even if that's the case, dupes dropping off random things are quickly going to make that fridge have something in it.  Unless you've got priorities set so that one fridge is filled first, though in that case dupes will instead be wasting a bunch of time moving stuff from one fridge to another.

[ChickenMadness]

Batteries lose power and emit heat. But you can turn batteries off and they will keep the 'charge' but just not be useable.

[Chthonicone]

2 hours ago, DarkMaster13 said:

Even if that's the case, dupes dropping off random things are quickly going to make that fridge have something in it.  Unless you've got priorities set so that one fridge is filled first, though in that case dupes will instead be wasting a bunch of time moving stuff from one fridge to another.

Dupes don't drop anything off unless you tell them to put something in it. I meant you have to have nothing set to be placed in the refrigerator, as in nothing allowed. The second  you allow something it turns on.

[Vaaz86]

Also things that run, but not at full capacity use full power. Pumps should have a sensor so it only runs when it would get full usage.

[Yank31]

incubators

[KittenIsAGeek]

20 hours ago, Vaaz86 said:

Also things that run, but not at full capacity use full power. Pumps should have a sensor so it only runs when it would get full usage.

This is partially incorrect. Submerge a liquid pump.  Have its output go through a valve.  Set the valve to 100g/s.  It will use 1/100th the power compared to the valve being set at 10kg/s.

 

HOWEVER, a pump that is set in not-enough liquid/gas will draw full power even if it can't fill the piped output.

[BLACKBERREST3]

1 hour ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

This is partially incorrect. Submerge a liquid pump.  Have its output go through a valve.

It uses full power regardless. The valve limits the frequency of when it pumps. If what you are saying is true, then it would pump continuously to fill the output pipe to max which is not how it works iirc.

[KittenIsAGeek]

To be clear:  A fully submerged liquid pump will keep its output pipe full, regardless of the rate at which the pipe empties.  IF the pipe is emptying at a rate less than 10kg/s, the pump will not run 100% of the time.  The rate at which the pump engages is directly proportional to the rate at which the pipe is emptying.  When the pump engages, it will draw 10kg of liquid.  Thus, for that moment, the pump is drawing full power.  However, it will remain idle and not draw any power while its reservoir empties into the pipe to maintain the 10kg full packets in the pipe.

The power over time (watts) is then directly proportional to the amount of liquid that is being vented from the pipe.  For example, over the course of a cycle, this pump is only running 2% of the time.   Thus it is not continually drawing 120 watts of power.  Over the course of an entire cycle, it draws an average of 2.4 watts/s.  Yes, when it runs it uses 120 watts, but it isn't wasting power "using full power regardless."  Its only running at 2% of capacity, and the power use is scaled accordingly.

 

The opposite side of this is when a gas or liquid pump that is placed such that it can not draw a full packet.  In that case, the pump WILL run "using full power regardless" and waste power, even though it is only putting a portion of its capacity into the appropriate pipe. 

I only ran it for a short time, and the up-time increased dramatically, reducing its efficiency.  It only has 124.9g per packet of PO, but each packet requires 240 watts of power.  Thus, in this case, it is "using full power regardless" by running continually.

Another example of this is with the aquatuner with supercoolant.  In this case, the amount of heat applied to the aquatuner is directly proportional to the amount of heat removed from the supercoolant (plus a bit for the operation of the building).  If the coolant is already at its lowest minimum temperature, then no heat can be removed from it and no heat is applied to the aquatuner (aside from that generated by simply operating).

[BLACKBERREST3]

I agree. It hurts when I see builds that suck up less than 10kg of liquid at a time. i.e lox/hydrogen condensers.

[gaucho_tche]

On 10/12/2019 at 11:00 AM, ChickenMadness said:

Batteries lose power and emit heat. But you can turn batteries off and they will keep the 'charge' but just not be useable.

Hey ChickerMadness I've sent you a PM if you could look into it please.

[DarkMaster13]

On 21/10/2019 at 12:31 AM, BLACKBERREST3 said:

I agree. It hurts when I see builds that suck up less than 10kg of liquid at a time. i.e lox/hydrogen condensers.

This is why I put pressure sensors on both my air and water pumps to make sure they only run when they can draw a full packet.