Can You Store Electricity?

[Java]

I'm still new-ish to the game, and I saw someone using batteries or something to store electricity in a YouTube video once. I don't really know a lot about the electrical system because I've never gotten to that point until very recently and I only know as much as I do from watching YT videos and the wiki/forums.

[Great_Puffer]

not in vanilla

[VANGUARD]

In vanilla PZ you can't charge the small (green) batteries you get from handheld devices, so you can only scavenge for them.
Cars do charge their battery but they can only be used for cars.
I don't think there's anything else that could store electricity.

There's a mod that introduces a handcrank as lootables to charge the small batteries.
Is this what you saw in the video?

[Java]

Originally posted by Sceadugengan:

In vanilla PZ you can't charge the small (green) batteries you get from handheld devices, so you can only scavenge for them.
Cars do charge their battery but they can only be used for cars.
I don't think there's anything else that could store electricity.

There's a mod that introduces a handcrank as lootables to charge the small batteries.
Is this what you saw in the video?

No, they had a bunch of batteries on a shelf and when it got to nighttime, the power remained on.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Still a mod, unless the power had not actually gone out across the region at that point or they were actually using a generator.

[Øc]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857548524

[katsuragi]

Originally posted by Ocular:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857548524

This wonderful mod. It gives you goals too as you'll constantly be searching for more panels and more storage batteries so you can power more appliances and lights all through the night.

[nephilimnexus]

I don't know how anyone plays without solar power, at least after the power goes out...

[Resident NATO Freedom Enjoyer]

Originally posted by nephilimnexus:

I don't know how anyone plays without solar power, at least after the power goes out...

Generators? :p

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Originally posted by nephilimnexus:

I don't know how anyone plays without solar power, at least after the power goes out...

That is the entire reason to have generators, and generators are the more practical option anyway in 1993.

[Øc]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Originally posted by nephilimnexus:

I don't know how anyone plays without solar power, at least after the power goes out...

That is the entire reason to have generators, and generators are the more practical option anyway in 1993.

Ever since the outbreak started there was a large group of people working on how to make solar better since they knew gas and generators wouldn't be a long term option.

There now the 'zombie game' is more realistic.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

And where would they get the rare materials needed for those panels? Less than a month from the initial outbreak and the whole world is gone, they would not have the time.

Windmills would be the better option and could be made with just the scavenged materials that could be found.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

And where would they get the rare materials needed for those panels? Less than a month from the initial outbreak and the whole world is gone, they would not have the time.

Windmills would be the better option and could be made with just the scavenged materials that could be found.

Windmills would be a viable solution too. But those panels already were created, so you find and collect them in the world. And you could probably find or even craft (if you had the knowledge) electrical generators too and rechargeable batteries. These appliances or the materials to craft DIY versions (again need good knowledgeable to craft) could realistically be found in all kinds of hardware stores and storehouses. You have to consider that most people died/became zombies. All of those materials and appliances are just stored somewhere; there would be far far more available for a long long time than just a tiny tiny amount of people can make use of.

I would actually go as far as saying that in real life it would be far too easy to find all this kind of stuff that have a very long shelve life. You know, it can last for years if stored indoor. Same goes for dry foods and canned foods. There'd be so much available everywhere that you basically would not run out of food. Only when so much time had passed that even such dry or canned food would spoil too... years. Same too with gas, you'd realistically have access to get unlimited gas for years before all of the gas would have degraded (which can vary wildly between gas types and their storage method). So in game we actually need to make it unrealistically more scarce if we want that to be a challenge.

In reality, outside of all the hostile zombies, challenges for survival is different but much more brutal when it hits and unexpected and sometimes sudden, possibly outside of your influence no matter how perfect your performance, and those kinds of things isn't necessarily fun in a video game (it COULD be, but that's personal preference).

[1ostcat]

Originally posted by Ocular:

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

That is the entire reason to have generators, and generators are the more practical option anyway in 1993.

Ever since the outbreak started there was a large group of people working on how to make solar better since they knew gas and generators wouldn't be a long term option.

There now the 'zombie game' is more realistic.

But the "Knox Infection" started in Knox County, and even the military was overrun. For most players, the outbreak has just started. Even if some people figured out huge breakthroughs in solar power, how did they get that new technology produced and scattered around overrun Knox County?

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by 1ostcat:

But the "Knox Infection" started in Knox County, and even the military was overrun. For most players, the outbreak has just started. Even if some people figured out huge breakthroughs in solar power, how did they get that new technology produced and scattered around overrun Knox County?

Depends on your spawn setting for the mod. You can choose to make them rarer. You can also lower the efficiency as low as you like and change how fast they break. Same for the batteries.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by 1ostcat:

Originally posted by Ocular:

Ever since the outbreak started there was a large group of people working on how to make solar better since they knew gas and generators wouldn't be a long term option.

There now the 'zombie game' is more realistic.

But the "Knox Infection" started in Knox County, and even the military was overrun. For most players, the outbreak has just started. Even if some people figured out huge breakthroughs in solar power, how did they get that new technology produced and scattered around overrun Knox County?

By the way, it IS possible to create your own solar cells using non rare and somewhat common materials; which at least certainly should be available in the quantities needed, which you would need to collect quite a lot of. But spread over such a large area with with industries and hardware stores and warehouses it would absolutely be possible, albeit very time consuming. And it IS possible, but very time consuming to create enough DIY solar cells to power a refrigerator. I sat an calculated a bit on it and you'd probably need at least 60 square meters (~7.8m*7.8m) of primitive inefficient DIY copper oxide solar cells to power a 300W refrigerator; requiring something like 600 smaller cells, requiring 8 hours of work every day for 171 days. So if you "only" have 4 hours every day it would take 342 days, or close to a year or two years if you had 2 hours every day. This is excluding time to collect materials in the world. Of course probably would not rely solely(haha) on solar power, but you could use it as a small part of a larger system of renewable electricity generation, like windmills or some higher efficiency commercial or professionally constructed solar panels (which we realistically could imagine COULD exist in the area but perhaps in VERY limited quantity), and/or as supplement to gasoline generators and possibly some homemade ethanol project, or wood gasifiers.