Difference between revisions of "Electricity"
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Revision as of 21:33, 31 October 2015
Electricity is a system and resource in Space Engineers that is used to power most devices. It is created using a large or small reactor, or by using a Solar Panel. It can be stored in a Battery. Any device that has a direct block connection to a reactor will be powered by a reactor; that is, if a reactor is on a ship, all devices attached to that ship should receive power granted there is enough power to receive. Electricity can pass through rotor blocks, pistons, and locked connectors (incl. small-to-large connections), but not landing gear. Most blocks have off switches if you want to save electricity temporarily.
Contents
Electricity fundamentals & Terminology
In Space Engineers, electricity is based around several concepts. When referring to consumption or demand, a Watt of energy demand will consume 1 watt over 1 second. Watts come in various unit conversions from KW to MW, as seen in the table. When referring to energy stored or energy needed over time, a Watt-hour (W-h) is typically used to represent this amount over an hour (3600 seconds). This is typically used to refer to stored energy in a charged battery or to fuel like uranium ingots. Reactors are the main source of reliable electricity, and they require Uranium Ingots as fuel.
1 kg of refined uranium ingots converts to 1 MW-h of power, that is a reactor that needs to supply 1 MW per second to ship or station will consume all of its uranium in 1 hour. If the reactor needs to supply 2 MW per second, it will consume 1 kg of uranium in half the time and so on. For example, a large block Small Reactor generating electricity at maximum capacity 15 MW to supply a large ship's total electrical needs (such as refineries, thrusters at full capacity, etc), will consume 1 kg of uranium in 4 minutes. While a large block Large Reactor will consume 1 kg of uranium ingots in as little as 12 seconds, at it's full output of 300 MW per second. Consumption of Uranium is solely decided by your current energy demand. There is no difference in efficiency between large and small reactors per uranium ingot, so a large reactor doesn't use uranium or extract any more energy out of a uranium ingot than any small one would. It also makes no difference how many reactors you have online, reactors that are not needed will not draw any unnecessary power or use any uranium within them until required.
A Battery is special it doesn't general electricity it merely stores it for later use, its wise to combine renewable electrical generation from solar panels with batteries and never use reactors as the battery is only 80% efficient. That is while it will draw 4 MW per second and store 3.00 MW-h (for large blocks), the battery will actually end up demanding/using 3.75 MW-h from electrical sources - 750 KW-h will be wasted. A Large Ship battery continuously at full output 12 MW, at maximum charge 3.00 MW-h will be completely depleted in 15 Minutes.
Conversion Table | Watt (W) | Kilo-Watt (KW) | Mega-Watt (MW) |
---|---|---|---|
Mega-Watt (MW) | 1'000'000 W | 1'000 KW | 1 MW |
Kilo-Watt (KW) | 1'000 W | 1 KW | 0.001 MW |
Watt (W) | 1 W | 0.001 KW | 0.000001 MW |
Energy sources
Maximum output for Electricity Sources:
Energy Source | Block size | Dimensions [size in m3] |
Maximum Output [KW] |
Mass [kg] |
Mass Efficiency [KW/Kg] |
Energy Density [KW/m3] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Large Reactor | Large | 3x3x3 [421.875 m3] | 300'000 | 73795 | 4.065 | 711.11 | |
Small | 3x3x3 [3.375 m3] | 14'750 | 4793 | 3.845 | 960 | ||
Small Reactor | Large | 1x1x1 [15.625 m3] | 15'000 | 3901 | 3.077 | 4370.37 | |
Small | 1x1x1 [0.125m3] | 500 | 278 | 1.799 | 4000 | ||
Solar Panel | Large | 2x4x1 [125 m3] | 120* | 441.4 | 0.272 | 0.96 | |
Small | 5x10x1 [6.25m3] | 30* | 159.2 | 0.188 | 4.8 | ||
Battery | Large | 1x1x1 [15.625 m3] | 12'000 | 4845 | 2.477 | 768 | |
Small | 3x2x3 [2.25m3] | 4'320 | 1040.4 | 4.152 | 1920 |
(*) Solar Panels have a maximum output depending on their angle to the sun and the amount of actually lit surface. Given values are the maximum achievable output with perfect conditions, therefore efficiency and output may vary.
Large Reactor vs Small Reactor
Comparing them directly, the small reactors provide far more energy for the space they take up; Needing only 20 Small Reactors to equal the output of a Large Reactor with only Two-Thirds of the space used. Despite this the large reactor offers greater economies of scale, require less Conveyor complexity and in general more useful in a variety of important applications especially as Powerplants for Large Ships being both lighter and requiring less resources. Making Large Reactors ideal for ships that can take advantage of their lessened mass and accelerate or decelerate more easily and therefore use less Uranium Ingots. Small Reactors are therefore ideal for stations that do not need to move, situations where physical space is precious or relatively light power needs that would not require a larger more expensive reactor. For example, a large reactor only needs 40 Metal Grids while a small reactor needs 4 Metal Grids at approximately 10 Small Reactors (150 MW) you would start to see economy of scale benefits clearly when using the large reactor. Between them however, they use Uranium Ingots equally as efficiently neither one will manage to extract more energy than they would otherwise have to.
Power Usage
Thruster
Thruster type | Block type | Minimum Power [KW] | Maximum Power [KW] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small | Small | 0.002 | 201 | ||
Large | Small | 0.002 | 2'400 | ||
Small | Large | 0.002 | 3'360 | ||
Large | Large | 0.002 | 33'600 |
Production (Individual Usage)
Machine | Idle [KW] | Operational [KW] | |
---|---|---|---|
Projector | 0.100 | 0.198 | |
Arc Furnace | 1.00 | 330.000 | |
Assembler | 1.00 | 560.000 | |
Refinery | 1.00 | 560.000 | |
Oxygen Generator | 1.00 | 330.000 | |
Oxygen Farm | 0.00 | 1.00 |
Weaponry and tools
Device | Small Ship [KW] | Large Ship [KW] | |
---|---|---|---|
Drill | 2 | 2 | |
Welder | 2 | 2 | |
Grinder | 2 | 2 | |
Gatling Turret | N/A | 2 | |
Missile Turret | N/A | 2 | |
Interior Turret | N/A | 2 | |
Reloadable Rocket Launcher | 0.2 | N/A | |
Gatling Gun | 0.2 | N/A |
Communication
Device | Small Ship [KW] | Large Ship [KW] | |
---|---|---|---|
Beacon | 0 - 10 | 0 - 10 | |
Antenna | 0 - 20 | 0 - 200 | |
Laser Antenna | 181** | 577** |
(**) The maximum power usage of laser antenna include both beaming and rotating at once. Beaming alone would be 180 for Small and 576 For large.
Other device power usages
Device | Small Ship [KW] | Large Ship [KW] | |
---|---|---|---|
Gravity Generator | N/A | 0 - 567.13*** | |
Spherical Gravity Generator | N/A | 0 - 44800*** | |
Artificial Mass | 25 | 600 | |
Interior Light | N/A | 0.06 | |
Spotlight | 0.200 | 1 | |
Medical Room | N/A | 2 | |
Door | N/A | 0.031 | |
Sliding Door | N/A | 0.01 - 1 | |
Gyroscope | 0.001 | 0.03 | |
Ore Detector | 2 | 2 | |
LCD Panel | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
Wide LCD Panel | 0.2 | 0.2 | |
Button Panel | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
Rotor | 0.2 | 2 | |
Advanced Rotor | 0.2 | 2 | |
Piston Base | 0.2 | 2 | |
Collector | 2 | 2 | |
Connector | 0.05 | 5 | |
Camera | 0.03 | 0.03 | |
Sensor | 0 - 30 | 0 - 30 | |
Remote Control | 10 | 10 | |
Programmable Block | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
Sound Block | 0.2 | 0.2 | |
Conveyor | 0.04**** | 0.04**** | |
Conveyor Sorter | 0.1 | 0.25 | |
Cryo Chamber | N/A | 0.03 | |
Oxygen Tank | 0.001 - 1 | 0.001 - 1 | |
Hydrogen Tank | 0.001 - 1 | 0.001 - 1 |
(***) The power cost of Gravity Generator is directly proportional to the field size and acceleration (absolute value, so 1G consumes the same as -1G). (****) This is a flat rate once at least two inventories have been connected to the Conveyor.