How to not overproduce power.

[Angelix]

All generators, beside Manual are generating power no matter you needed it or not. Coal generator may seems other, but thanks to big internal coal storage its also overproducing a lot. While its maybe not big problem resources wise, still all of them are producing heat and other byproducts. Utilising which require power, so to generate power you need power. And always there is heat. Wheezeworts are cool but finite. I found excelent method to counter this.

Features: generators shuts off immediately, no time spent by Dupe on wheel, any type of generators control are possible(even active Coal generator with smart airlock door usage), any scale of your base.

All you need 1 Dup, some batteries, 1 Manual generator, 1 Buffer gate, 1 Not gate, 1 Weight plate, 1 and some wiring. Also you can add switches and other logic for more control.

For Manual generator: set batteries threshold depends on your batteries capacity and power usage(Dupe need to reach reactivation spot before batteries are empty). Set priority to 9.

For Buffer gate: you need found time in which your batteries are almost full(not full) with minimal power usage.

Not gate are prevent from actualy using wheel by Dup while power generators active(you have more important tasks for them).
You can choose some generators are working all the time(extends periods to couple of cycles).

[Lifegrow]

You may want to have a look at :

 

Sadly all of these systems fall down once A) your base gets pretty spread out, or B) you have no desire to use manual generators...

Once you get NGG's you should realistically never use manual gens again (except for maybe small remote circuits) - however I appreciate that in this scenario they're being used as signal generators essentially.

[Angelix]

My method main differences are generators shuts off immediately and no time spent by Dupe on wheel. So i think its better;)

Also any type of generators control are possible(even active Coal generator with smart airlock door usage). Any scale of your base. You can choose some generators are working all the time(extends periods to couple of cycles).

[BlueLance]

I would prefer this over the coal method, Although I am thinking of a method which will use 60W of power but obviously does not need a dupe. Will post it here tonight if it works.

[Angelix]

27 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

I would prefer this over the coal method, Although I am thinking of a method which will use 60W of power but obviously does not need a dupe. Will post it here tonight if it works.

Oh i want see that
Let me know if it works

[Saturnus]

I think everyone here knows my preferred method is the temperature sensor method because it's much more precise and reliable than the manual or coal generator method. Plus it's fully automatic. No dupe interaction involved so it can be anywhere on the map.

My current iteration is to have some of my water output (1000g/s) from a water distiller which we know outputs water at exactly 40C. Each battery heat that water flow by exactly 0.3C. I use 2 small batteries as it gets a decent delta to work with for the temperature sensor. It reacts both up and down within seconds of the small batteries either losing power or filling up.

It's fantastically precise and fast reacting, and by adjusting the ratio of tiny to large batteries you can adjust the trigger percentage accurately.

The hydro sensor is there to sense if for some reason there is a cooling water failure.

[Lifegrow]

30 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

I think everyone here knows my preferred method is the temperature sensor method because it's much more precise and reliable than the manual or coal generator method. Plus it's fully automatic. No dupe interaction involved so it can be anywhere on the map.

My current iteration is to have some of my water output (1000g/s) from a water distiller which we know outputs water at exactly 40C. Each battery heat that water flow by exactly 0.3C. I use 2 small batteries as it gets a decent delta to work with for the temperature sensor. It reacts both up and down within seconds of the small batteries either losing power or filling up.

It's fantastically precise and fast reacting, and by adjusting the ratio of tiny to large batteries you can adjust the trigger percentage accurately.

The hydro sensor is there to sense if for some reason there is a cooling water failure.

I've been debating building one of these on stream, as a lot of people ask about it and although I can describe it to them - it's not quite the same as seeing it in the flesh. I actually mentioned you last night, and directed people to the forums to look at your initial build.

I like the addition of the 40 degree water, daily showers finally have a good use  

[Saturnus]

10 minutes ago, Lifegrow said:

I've been debating building one of these on stream, as a lot of people ask about it and although I can describe it to them - it's not quite the same as seeing it in the flesh. I actually mentioned you last night, and directed people to the forums to look at your initial build.

I like the addition of the 40 degree water, daily showers finally have a good use  

That'd be great. Brothgar also featured it but he made a lot of mistakes building it so it didn't work that great for him. It worked but not anything near as reliable and fast reacting as it could and should be. You on the other hand I'm sure would get it to work just fine, and would be a better show case.

[Lifegrow]

Just now, Saturnus said:

That'd be great. Brothgar also featured it but he made a lot of mistakes building it so it didn't work that great for him. It worked but not anything near as reliable and fast reacting as it could and should be. You on the other hand I'm sure would get it to work just fine, and would be a better show case.

I'll drop you a PM tomorrow, if you fancy popping in i'll build it with you there so you can teach me any nuances you've discovered . Think the next stream is going to be focused on magma, but maybe fri/sat ?

[Angelix]

i dont use distillers.
i came out with this design. fullauto but need 60w.

[Moggles]

You can profile your consumption over time and balance the battery with buffers if you have consistent consumption. By that I mean things like a bank of fridges, lights, stuff like that.

It's worthless on systems that have varying consumption, buildings that switch on and off like oxygen producers, pumps etc. If you want raw power just mass natural gas and forget power wastage. Both styles can be useful in one colony for different circuits. It's a lot of fuss over a bit of gas though.

[PhailRaptor]

14 hours ago, Saturnus said:

That'd be great. Brothgar also featured it but he made a lot of mistakes building it so it didn't work that great for him. It worked but not anything near as reliable and fast reacting as it could and should be. You on the other hand I'm sure would get it to work just fine, and would be a better show case.

Based on what I've seen from him, he knows the physics really, really well, but can't get organised to save his life.  He often gets concepts in his head that he's already done the math for several different ways, but when he tries to build them it quickly becomes a mess because the math doesn't account for construction time, space require, etc.  On top of that, he understands how the Automation logic systems work, but can't put the pieces together correctly to do what he wants.

 

He does good work, but it's an ugly cluster, to say the least.

[UristMcKerman]

17 hours ago, Lifegrow said:

You may want to have a look at :

 

Sadly all of these systems fall down once A) your base gets pretty spread out, or B) you have no desire to use manual generators...

Once you get NGG's you should realistically never use manual gens again (except for maybe small remote circuits) - however I appreciate that in this scenario they're being used as signal generators essentially.

A) just seal off one  dupe with bed, 4 meal lices, painting and (mini)pump you fire once a day just to vent off co2 buildup. The cost is only oxygen supply.

[Neotix]

1 hour ago, UristMcKerman said:

A) just seal off one  dupe with bed, 4 meal lices, painting and (mini)pump you fire once a day just to vent off co2 buildup. The cost is only oxygen supply.

And what that poor Dupe did that you want to lock him in labor camp?

[UristMcKerman]

44 minutes ago, Neotix said:

And what that poor Dupe did that you want to lock him in labor camp?

I tasked my dwarves to throw elven war prisoners into volcano because my butchers could not keep up with slaughtering them and their unicorns, used kittens to slow down goblin assaults while I'm drowning them all in magma, sending dwarven women into military service with their newborn children just because they (children) are more effective than shields; killing legendary dwarven kings because they wanted some McGuffin made of unobtanium installed in their bedroom.

Walling off a single dupe with food, oxygen in clean room with workspace is the least I can do.

P. S. I'm not a monster, it is just a description of ordinal Dwarf Fortress gameplay.

[Lifegrow]

4 hours ago, UristMcKerman said:

A) just seal off one  dupe with bed, 4 meal lices, painting and (mini)pump you fire once a day just to vent off co2 buildup. The cost is only oxygen supply.

I didn't say it couldn't be done - your idea of having a forever indentured "power controller dupe" is actually pretty cute - but seems like an unnecessary solution to a pretty much non-existent problem. This dupe would also need to be provided with O2, thermal control, and waste management (unless you make it a vomit room) which seems like a chore in itself.

That being said - it's a lovely little solution to use dupes to fix a problem, instead of using automation. 

2 hours ago, Neotix said:

And what that poor Dupe did that you want to lock him in labor camp?

My initial thoughts too.... then I considered how much we could potentially "pimp" the remote power shack to make up for it, and the idea seemed pretty awesome  

[UristMcKerman]

1 hour ago, Lifegrow said:

I didn't say it couldn't be done - your idea of having a forever indentured "power controller dupe" is actually pretty cute - but seems like an unnecessary solution to a pretty much non-existent problem. This dupe would also need to be provided with O2, thermal control, and waste management (unless you make it a vomit room) which seems like a chore in itself.

That being said - it's a lovely little solution to use dupes to fix a problem, instead of using automation. 

My initial thoughts too.... then I considered how much we could potentially "pimp" the remote power shack to make up for it, and the idea seemed pretty awesome  

Dupe can generate power on the other wheel or do some other productive activities like producing PW in lavatory, petroleum or fertilizer.

[eggsvbacon]

On 11/22/2017 at 10:57 AM, Angelix said:

i dont use distillers.
i came out with this design. fullauto but need 60w.

How does this work, can I see the wiring/automation overlay? What's the temp set at, what's it connected to?

[Angelix]

16 hours ago, eggsvbacon said:

How does this work, can I see the wiring/automation overlay? What's the temp set at, what's it connected to?

ofc.

main power cycle is on batteries. working pump holding gas away from sensor and when power are failed, gas get to sensor and activate it. and generators get activated by it. generators fill your batteries(need buffer gate for this). 

 

you need to have there 30-49g of gas(pump 50g/s). set pressure above 5g(not below). the lower - the more sensitive

vents are simple

atmo sensor are connected to buffer to give generators a time to charge batteries.

[Saturnus]

2 hours ago, Angelix said:

main power cycle is on batteries. working pump holding gas away from sensor and when power are failed, gas get to sensor and activate it. and generators get activated by it. generators fill your batteries(need buffer gate for this). 

Note that such a "brown out" system should not be used for power regulation but only for absolute emergency back up systems.

And in that case it's much easier and less power hungry to use a 10W shut off valve as a vent bypass.

[Angelix]

1 hour ago, Saturnus said:

Note that such a "brown out" system should not be used for power regulation but only for absolute emergency back up systems.

And in that case it's much easier and less power hungry to use a 10W shut off valve as a vent bypass.

it work good enough. black out time are about 1-2 sec(on x1 speed). this is acceptable for me.

about shut off valve maybe you right. but valve need pump anyway, so no less energy required. what setup you have in mind?
 

[chemie]

So with 400 ton of coal (and growing) and 1 unused gas geyser, why worry about excess power?  TBH, power is something I never worry about since learning the power of hatch coal.

[Angelix]

14 minutes ago, chemie said:

So with 400 ton of coal (and growing) and 1 unused gas geyser, why worry about excess power?  TBH, power is something I never worry about since learning the power of hatch coal.

my main concern are heat. i have 2 natural gas geysers which is more then enough to fuel 8 generators(PW from which going to fertilizer synthesizer and produce even more gas), so i dont worry about fuel.

 

[Saturnus]

22 minutes ago, Angelix said:

about shut off valve maybe you right. but valve need pump anyway, so no less energy required. what setup you have in mind?

You can put the valve by-pass in-line on any liquid or gas line you currently have.

Something simple like this will work.

 

[Angelix]

36 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

You can put the valve by-pass in-line on any liquid or gas line you currently have.

Something simple like this will work.

not that simple to understand, but work fine. thx.
i prefer standalone dedicated systems. the more complex system, the more hard to find/fix bugs.

UPD. not so fine. building order is important. water can always ignore shut off.