Grid power requirements.

[Stabby Dave]

Is there any way to see how much power my grid is drawing in total? I really cant be arsed to add it all up, especially with other ships/rovers needing power when docked.

Cheers.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I rarely do the "Math", I do this by "instinct" now ;)

but we can look at the power sources in grid terminal so look at all blocks that provides power + use power and you will see stats on the right that can be use to do the Math.

On ship = Go into cockpit and keep an eye on the power usage on the right 100% - 0%.

Good thing to know :
I prefer to create "Reacharge Stations" (smaller stations) with only the needed Wind Turbines and one connector on those small stations to recharge my cars and ships faster set on auto so I don't have to always set the batteries on "recharge only".

[Stabby Dave]

That involves looking at every block which draws power and adding them all together. On a large station, there could be a large number. That's precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Is there a way to see power consumption for an entire grid in one place?

[Xpain]

A script will do it, Automatic LCD 2 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=822950976.

[Buzzard]

Depending on your power supply, you could just look at what's being produced. With windmills and solar panels, it's fairly easy, as they will produce exactly what's being used by whatever there is. If you have an easy multiple of windmills, life gets easy. Look at one, multiply, and you're done.

With batteries, there's a few potential complications, like having wind/solar charging going on as well. Without those other power sources, it's also an easy multiplication problem. XX batteries, producing Y power, each, gives a total output.

With reactors and H2 engines, things can be a little easier, as such things tend to put out enough power as single-unit providers that you can just read the one device and see the output. (or do the simple math)

There's 3 tiers of power providers: Wind/solar, Fuel-burners, and batteries. The first tier, wind/solar, gets used, up to max output before the next tier gets considered. Batteries come next, up to their max output, before the fuel-burners (reactors and H2 engines) get tapped. Each tier, as it's used, will spread the load as an equal percentage of each device's potential output.
If you've got different power supply types and sizes, then the math gets a little annoying.

As an aside, due to the way that batteries are used before fuel-burning sources, they actually end up wasting fuel, since they're constantly charging and discharging when used with fuel-burning sources. Batteries ALWAYS waste ~20% of the power used to charge them, no matter the source. This waste isn't as noticeable on wind/solar, since those sources don't actually get used up.


As to figuring out what the grid is using by just looking at all the devices demanding power... that's the hard way. It also doesn't take into account the power drawn by the conveyor network, which cannot be shut off.

While it's not completely up to date, the official wiki can help you figure a few things out.
http://spaceengineerswiki.com/Electricity

[Dan2D3D]

Originally posted by Stabby Dave:

That involves looking at every block which draws power and adding them all together. On a large station, there could be a large number. That's precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Is there a way to see power consumption for an entire grid in one place?

No, well maybe a Script but I never used and it is a bit useless to know the total power needed or used, well for me it is not important cause I create recharging stations.

[Stabby Dave]

Ok. Thanks for all the answers.