Lategame Power Consumption over 20kw!

[a_teo]

Hey guys, i'm stuck, and wondering if anyone has gone through/solved this?
I'm in a midst of a gargantuan base easily topping out over 20kw consumption on Heavi Conductive Wire(HCW) and easily overloading the HCWs. I prefer them over small watt wires since I have maintenance tunnels around the whole base and it reduces the decor impact. Its not a question of heavy wires to transformers etc since the HCWs are overloading themselves from the over 20kw load. Any building that can linked via HCWs(liquid tepitizer etc) I do it otherwise its the standard transformer process. Currently hitting 25kw consumption and overloading HCWs in random weird spots across the base.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the solutions are?:

1)Reduce consumption rate and set time intervals for certain machines(liquid cooler etc)
2) Split the full-circuit into half including generators, batteries and split it again whenever it comes close to 20kw consumption on those circuits.
3) Developers buffing/creating  a >20kw wires
4)Sit down and cry. Cry alot.

 

[Exa]

could we have some screenshots? very curious to see how you manage to have such a heavy load

[BlueLance]

I am lucky if my power grid goes over 1.6kw let alone 20kw....

Also splitting it is probably the best solution, messy work, but prob the best.

[Yunru]

Yeah, running two separate power lines sounds like the simplest solution at that point.

[Lilalaunekuh]

For my base there are just 2 options:

1. Split my power grid (I have some huge "systems" using >5-10KW power)

2. Build a huge number of independent circuits and use automation to sperate the generators from the consumers.

=> If your power consumption is lower than continuous 20KW, else there is no benefit besides using normal wires

[BlueLance]

The only way I can imagine being that high is using a shed tonne of aquatuners XD

[Yunru]

7 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

2. Build a huge number of independent circuits and use automation to sperate the generators from the consumers.

I don't think that's an option. IIRC, any part of a circuit that's overloading can become damaged, even if it's past a power cutoff.

[a_teo]

Its currently (obviously) a debug template base. I want to draw up an endgame base blueprint I can plan towards in a real game. And yes, from the the picture it may no longer be feasible but I do intend to see this through xD

Also a thought,

Generators + Batteries separated by 20 transformers(20kjs exactly) to all Power Consumer buildings. Even if the buildings end up consuming over 20kw, the heaviwatt wires themselves don't have any more than 20kjs exactly so they would never overload?

 

 

[BlueLance]

Well, your never gonna have that many geysers... would be great but ait gonna happen. Also if the grid was that need it looks simple enough to split.

Also a large amount of that is going to be unused anyway, Pharma beds, the sweeper arms, etc will only every be used for brief periods or not a all. Same goes for all the pumps etc. 

So chances are a fair amount of that will be ok.

[a_teo]

1 minute ago, BlueLance said:

Well, your never gonna have that many geysers... would be great but ait gonna happen. Also if the grid was that need it looks simple enough to split.

Yeah I wanted to test the entrophy machine thing that consumes hydrogen without constantly fueling it. If I added another hydrogen creation process via electrolyzers now my CPU would legit fry.

[Xadhoom]

14 minutes ago, a_teo said:

Generators + Batteries separated by 20 transformers(20kjs exactly) to all Power Consumer buildings. Even if the buildings end up consuming over 20kw, the heaviwatt wires themselves don't have any more than 20kjs exactly so they would never overload?

from what i observed, a single transformer can transfer 5KW of power.

this is my setup to transfer solar power down to base when its needed:

  

the power draw on the upper segment is 5kw when the transformer is activated by the automation setup to transfer power to base.

[Lilalaunekuh]

40 minutes ago, Yunru said:

48 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

2. Build a huge number of independent circuits and use automation to sperate the generators from the consumers.

I don't think that's an option. IIRC, any part of a circuit that's overloading can become damaged, even if it's past a power cutoff.

If you use a transformer your load will be added to your main grid and could overload your heavy watt wire.

=> With some power shut offs you can run multiple power grids with a shown consumption of over 20Kw without overload damage

(Just works if your not using more than 20K on average)

Keep in mind it´s average power consumption not maximum power consumption if you use a similar build

[a_teo]

6 minutes ago, Xadhoom said:

from what i observed, a single transformer can transfer 5KW of power.

Okay thank you for that, I've been thinking all this time it was 1 transformer = stable stream 1kw. So so long as we're using heaviwatt wires on both output and input of transformers to buildings, the circuit can go up to 5kw on a single transformer and not overload. Thats awesome!

[Exa]

1 hour ago, a_teo said:

Its currently (obviously) a debug template base. I want to draw up an endgame base blueprint I can plan towards in a real game. And yes, from the the picture it may no longer be feasible but I do intend to see this through xD

Also a thought,

Generators + Batteries separated by 20 transformers(20kjs exactly) to all Power Consumer buildings. Even if the buildings end up consuming over 20kw, the heaviwatt wires themselves don't have any more than 20kjs exactly so they would never overload?

 

 

Glad I asked for screenshot. I mean, are you insane? XD, beleive me this is as far as it can from a real situation in normal game

[BlueLance]

1 hour ago, Xadhoom said:

from what i observed, a single transformer can transfer 5KW of power.

this is my setup to transfer solar power down to base when its needed:

  

the power draw on the upper segment is 5kw when the transformer is activated by the automation setup to transfer power to base.

Pretty sure generators don't count towards the load, you also have two trasformers on the grid. Why not just charge the batteries and once they are charged have automation feed the grid?

1 hour ago, a_teo said:

Okay thank you for that, I've been thinking all this time it was 1 transformer = stable stream 1kw. So so long as we're using heaviwatt wires on both output and input of transformers to buildings, the circuit can go up to 5kw on a single transformer and not overload. Thats awesome!

You will need a battery on the side that is drawing the power though, for instance an aquatuner will just turn off and on after each packet. Or for me it does. otherwise it will support 1kw stable without stuttering.

I will post my power grid tonight, I need to add my petroleum generators to it.

[a_teo]

5 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

You will need a battery on the side that is drawing the power though, for instance an aquatuner will just turn off and on after each packet. Or for me it does. otherwise it will support 1kw stable without stuttering.

Yes, I noticed this right away after a test. A battery is definitely needed to keep things stable and not turn off and on. Thanks for the heads up!

[Xadhoom]

11 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

Pretty sure generators don't count towards the load, you also have two trasformers on the grid. Why not just charge the batteries and once they are charged have automation feed the grid?

umm, i did not say so either. just that a transformer can use 5 kW of power when transforming, on 2nd picture you can see power draw on upper grid is 5 kW when the transformer is active.

bottom right transformer make sure i always have power on the upper part of the grid.

bottom left transformer is to power doors etc up above.

top transformer is to transfer power down from solar to main power grid in base.

edit: additionally, the added automation makes sure i only send power down when there is a need for power on main grid, and that i have enough power on the solar grid to send power at all.

 

[BlueLance]

4 minutes ago, Xadhoom said:

umm, i did not say so either.

Sorry, I misunderstood the picture and comment. My bad

[Bomato]

I had been wondering about this issue as well, but my 400 cycle colony is only at 9kW power consumption.

You'd obviously have to split your circuits into 20kW producers / consumers since the wires can't carry more. But hard wiring generators to each circuit would suck in case of power over- or underproduction. Of the top of my head, I can imagine generator arrays feeding into buffer batteries, when they are full, the batteries connect to your consumer circuits, which have their own buffer batteries on the 20kW side. The circuits equalize their battery levels, the generator side disengages as soon as the generator buffers are depleted or the consumer batteries are up  to a certain point, so the next generator group with full buffer batteries can connect.

Generators will be able to jump between 20kW circuits and provide power wherever it is needed, but the hard part would be to come up with the decision logic when to connect where, especially if you want to have priority circuits, e.g. for life support. But hats off to you if you build a colony that requires multiple 20kW networks.

[TOOK14]

@a_teo  One, if not my first post here, gave me the answer that a transformer can output up to 5kW, in 1kW increments, hence why you can't run an aquatuner off of a conductive wire coming from a transformer unless there's also a battery on the line.

[trukogre]

10 hours ago, Xadhoom said:

from what i observed, a single transformer can transfer 5KW of power.

this is my setup to transfer solar power down to base when its needed:

 

 

the power draw on the upper segment is 5kw when the transformer is activated by the automation setup to transfer power to base.

Last time I tested it, I was able to transfer 10kW with one transformer, with a battery and 5kW of consuming machines both on the output side of the transformer.  Without the battery on the output side it was 5kW limit.  i'm wondering if you are limited to 5 kW because you don't have any consuming machines on the output side of your transformer there (obviously you have other transformers on the output side but perhaps they are coded in differently?)  Or perhaps they nerfed transformers back down to 1kJ per tick, I think last time I set up that test was in r1.  (test specifics: tepidizers just under 1kW draw.  1 transformer with no battery could power 5 tepidizers in Ranching1, and with a battery on the output side could power 10 tepizers on the output side (with the battery still charging slowly up))  Trying to draw conclusions from very complex circuits like the one in your base is natural, but obviously won't provide as detailed information as designing a simple circuit with the only goal being testing the limits of the transformer, as the very complexity of your circuit provides a built in confound.

[martosss]

Alright, I finally finished the electricity tutorial and I think your base might benefit from it, since you can "hide" consumers behind batteries to decrease power usage, so here's a link:

I actually quoted your topic as an example which can use the smart battery pack switching design.

[greenpheonix632]

repeatable power system diagram

use smart battery automation to turn off the transformers at max charge to prevent excess heat production

[martosss]

1 hour ago, greenpheonix632 said:

repeatable power system diagram

use smart battery automation to turn off the transformers at max charge to prevent excess heat production

 

Here's a working example

However, the Power Transformer must stay turned on to charge the batteries, so you can't run from the heat there. However, you can add more curcuits with smart batteries to the transformer, as long as you have enough coal/other generators. 1 Power Transformer can supply 5x1kW circuits. So for 20kW power grid 4 are theoretically enough.

[greenpheonix632]

9 minutes ago, martosss said:

Here's a working example

you can simplify it down to just this