Question about maintenance and flywheel

[Phobos]

Hey guys, I've been playing the game for 1 week, so still a big beginner =)

Does the maintenance of the vehicles also run when they are standing still, i.e. not moving?
I ask myself the same thing about the buildings. Do they need the same maintenance when they're idle? (not pressed on pause) only when the storage is full and the buildings are not working.

And one last question about the flywheel.
Is 1 flywheel enough for a generator that I have electricity for a few minutes or how many of them do I need if the coal boiler doesn't get enough coal.

[Wanderer]

Trucks only stop needing maintenance if you pause the truck. Not sure about the diesel, I think THAT stops while they idle.

Buildings stop using electricity if they're not running. Maintenance, again, afaik only if the building is paused.

Flywheel I tend to use 1 only very early game when spooling up the turbines can be a slow thing because I'm just barely tipping power. Later in the game when you get power spikes, you want a few turbines already spun up to catch the turbines while they're covering you, at least 2-3 for each boiler.

The problem is typically the brownout that you get waiting for the turbines to spool up. If you're dealing with lack of coal (or whatever your fuel source is), you need to rearrange your setup to make sure coal is always the priority feed and that your belts have enough throughput. No amount of flywheels is going to cover you for minutes without becoming excessive.

[Tregon]

Truck fuel consumption is reduced when idle but not eliminated IIRC.
It was mentioned in one update.

[Lyam]

yes, consuming 1/3 of fuel idle iirc

[Decavoid]

Maintenance usage is also reduced to 1/3 when idle. You can measure actual maintenance consumption rate for a specific building (idle or not) by disabling the maintenance depot.

[Wanderer]

Originally posted by Decavoid:

Maintenance usage is also reduced to 1/3 when idle. You can measure actual maintenance consumption rate for a specific building (idle or not) by disabling the maintenance depot.

Interesting. Using that technique and playing with the new graphs, it looks like that may be happening for the trucks too. Good info, thanks Decavoid.

[elrie475]

The only reason to ever use flywheels is when you're running the coal power plant setup and you're not at max electrical output. The flywheels combined with the auto-power check box (don't recall what the game calls it) allows for fuel saving but the biggest rule to remember is once you have an entire turbine generating power then that turbine needs to stay on all the time or you will start having power issues. I always keep extra power sources as back ups to my turbines in case my turbines need turned to always on and I haven't changed it. It's a good idea to prioritize so that the electricity is diverted to the important things first. If you keep backups and then prioritize things such as diesel you should be able to get out of any hole you accidentally dug yourself into.

[Kaery]

I usually include two to three flywheels even if I'm planning to continously run a power plant. It gives you some more time to react if anything goes wrong with the steam supply. Not a lot, granted, but time is time.

[Phobos]

Thanks for all info =)
That means if a 2 power generator produce 4 MW and I consume 3.8 MW then a flywheel is not worth it?

[Kaery]

The flywheel is basically a battery for mechanical energy. It's vitally important if you run the turbines on auto-balance, but otherwise superfluous unless you want to include it just in case.

[Lyam]

A very good tips that you can't know at the beginning, is to have all your steam power on one shaft.

It's simplify sooooooo much the priority of elec production and the autobalance ♥♥♥♥ !

So plan place for like, 3 or 4 setup, 1 setup = 1 High pressure + 1 low pressure + generator

[Wanderer]

Be aware there is a limit as to how much mechanical power you can place on the shaft, which is 72 MW of mechanical power. Yes, it's a lot, but you can overkill it.

Wider is sometimes better. You get finer control of the auto-balancing and coal throughput.