Hydrogen engines seem really weak, trick to using them?

[NorfolkDave]

They seem to burn through fuel really fast but not actually put out much power, is there a trick to using them on a rover?

[frag2k4]

Hydrogen have the most power of all 3, it also depends on how large a tank you have, can you drop a BP or screenshot of this rover so we can have a look.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Do not rely on the production of O2/H2 generators for supply to hydrogen thrusters! If you do, you may not be getting a full supply to each thruster, depending on how many thrusters you have. Use one or more hydrogen tanks for two reasons: 1) you get full supply to your thrusters, and 2) you can see how much fuel remains at any given time. O2/H2 generators, however, are necessary on your ship for refueling; stop by a handy asteroid or ice lake and load up to refill your hydrogen tank(s),

[NorfolkDave]

Originally posted by frag2k4:

Hydrogen have the most power of all 3, it also depends on how large a tank you have, can you drop a BP or screenshot of this rover so we can have a look.

The tanks: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2428546775
(they delpeat FAST!)

The engines: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2428547063
We doubled them up and went for tier 2 as they just dont seem to output much energy

The side view: https://steamcommunity.com/id/DavidEastwick/screenshots/?appid=244850

We are planning to transport two attack drones we made over to an enemy base (npc...we dont pvp) then remote control the drones and attack. I built a resuply drone (with a big tank that takes slot one and refuels, love making drones...may not be good at it yet) during transport the drones have their engines shut off so it shouldnt be that.

If Hydrogen engines are the most powerful I dread to think how bad atomic reactors must be (not found any uranium to make one yet but that seems a good thing)

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff:

Do not rely on the production of O2/H2 generators for supply to hydrogen thrusters! If you do, you may not be getting a full supply to each thruster, depending on how many thrusters you have. Use one or more hydrogen tanks for two reasons: 1) you get full supply to your thrusters, and 2) you can see how much fuel remains at any given time. O2/H2 generators, however, are necessary on your ship for refueling; stop by a handy asteroid or ice lake and load up to refill your hydrogen tank(s),

Not using o2/h2 generators on the rover (and no thrusters on it yet...goes fast enough on just wheels)

[frag2k4]

Ah those tanks are really small, best to use the larger one as you need 22 of the smaller ones to equal the bigger versions capacity.

The engine uses 50 litres a second with the small tank only holding 7000L so you likely only have about 5 minutes on that with 2 of them running, better to have a battery where able to power rovers.

Engine stats are as follows:

Power output 500kW
Consumption 50L/s
Weight 1005kg

Battery
Power: 4.32MW
Capacity: 1.08MW/h
Weight: 1048kg

Only slightly heavier than an engine with 8 times the output.

Also while the engines are off what about the drones batteries? They will charge up from the power supply so will further tap the engines, maybe setting the batteries on the drones off too until they are needed might help

Edit: Also I made the mistake of thinking you were on about thrusters not engine, hydrogen is virtually the worst power generator due to the amount of hydrogen it goes through, solar are only worse in regards to the day/night cycle limiting them at certain points, nuclear is naturally far superior.

[NorfolkDave]

Originally posted by frag2k4:

Ah those tanks are really small, best to use the larger one as you need 22 of the smaller ones to equal the bigger versions capacity.

The engine uses 50 litres a second with the small tank only holding 7000L so you likely only have about 5 minutes on that with 2 of them running, better to have a battery where able to power rovers.

Engine stats are as follows:

Power output 500kW
Consumption 50L/s
Weight 1005kg

Battery
Power: 4.32MW
Capacity: 1.08MW/h
Weight: 1048kg

Only slightly heavier than an engine with 8 times the output.

Also while the engines are off what about the drones batteries? They will charge up from the power supply so will further tap the engines, maybe setting the batteries on the drones off too until they are needed might help

Edit: Also I made the mistake of thinking you were on about thrusters not engine, hydrogen is virtually the worst power generator due to the amount of hydrogen it goes through, solar are only worse in regards to the day/night cycle limiting them at certain points, nuclear is naturally far superior.

The system we are using is to run the rover of batteries and use the hydrogen to refill them (well ok to slowly come close to putting a tiny bit of power into them lol)
didnt even know you could bypass the batteries and do straight hydrogen lol

[Spaceman Spiff]

Sorry...my dumb...not thrusters. Sorry.

Yeah, their electrical output is pretty low considering how much hydrogen they burn.

[TheVipersFang]

Have you tried using a few batteries with the H2 engines for recharging them?

[Kaii-Killer]

I think it's more beneficial to have a solar array to charge a bunch of batteries, then you have power source to charge from for smaller craft.

[frag2k4]

Originally posted by TheVipersFang:

Have you tried using a few batteries with the H2 engines for recharging them?

That's what he is using buts its charging so many batteries its draining the hydrogen too fast.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, David

I don't use the Hydro Engine on ship because of the testing I have done on those, it uses too much blocks just to have 30 minutes of flying time and the best time I was able to do using Hydro Engines =

5 Hydro Engines for 45 minutes of flying time :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2020604681
While 6 Large Batteries give 2 hours of flying time at Max thrust and 4 hours hovering on the same ship :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2024932868

But keep trying and sharing your testings if you find a good solution cause it seems a good SE challenge to use hydrogen to recharge your batteries.

[Namdoolb]

I'd break down the power sources as follows

Wind turbine:
+decent power generation
+no fuel concerns (renewable energy)
-Only works on static grids in an atmosphere

Solar:
+no fuel concerns (renewable energy)
-low power output
-can have significant downtime (day/night cycle)

Batteries:
+decent power output
-not a power source (requires charging in order to function)

Hydrogen engine:
+easy to build
+allows for mobile, sustainable power (given a source of ice)
-moderate infrastructure requirements (hydrogen tank(s), o2/h2 generators)
-inefficient (consumes ice at a fairly rapid rate relative to power output)

Reactors:
+High power output
+Large fuel storage
+Mobile, sustainable power
-Uranium is hard to find
-Requires a full refinery to process ore into useable fuel
-High construction cost

That's just the cliff notes. But yeah, hydrogen engines are best suited to rovers - it's quite difficult to keep a ship in the air for an extended period of time on hydrogen power.
The way I see them is a stepping stone to nuclear power.

Going full on batteries should serve you better (as long as you have plenty of turbines or solar panels at your base to charge them up).

[Spaceman Spiff]

Great summary, @Namdoolb.

When playing survival, I make it a point early in my game (well, as early as feasible) to build one of my go-to small ships and head to the stars for uranium and platinum. I usually set up an off-world refinery station with parts I carry to space, expand it to a dozen or more refineries, and get them all chugging away refining those ores. Then I carry the ingots back to my planetary base.

[Dan2D3D]

Hydro systems/concepts just uses too much blocks for nothing, imo ;)

But it's a cool challenge.


__
- Uranium and Platinum not on planets but -
I now enable Armageddon mode to have all ores on planets.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427767527

[Husker_85]

I don't know what Keen were thinking when they decided to make hydrogen engines consume 50L/s and produce 500kw of power. I don't think that deal would be worth it even if they produced 5mw. Hydrogen engines are worse than useless because it's way too easy to accidently flip one on and a couple minutes later be completely out of fuel.
I think that in order to make the hydrogen engine a viable fuel source it's efficiency would have to increase 100 fold (from 500kw to 50mw).

[SpeedDaemon]

So here are a few numbers for the small grid stuff:
Battery holds 1 MWh
H2 engine at 0.5MW generates that in two hours
Two hour run-time at 50 L/s is 360kL
360kL H2 takes 18,000kg of ice (if making H2 without O2, 2x that if you're making O2 at the same time)

Now, you'd be most likely using the engine to charge a battery instead of using it directly, so the H2 and ice requirements go up to 450kL and 22,500kg due to the 20% charge penalty, but that amount of ice isn't hard to get, if you have an ice lake or ice deposit.

Connecting to a wind/solar-powered base to charge is still the preferred option, but if your situation prevents that, an ice-powered rover isn't that bad. In my current game, I've been using wheeled small grid rovers extensively, and, 100 hours in, some of them haven't even gone through a single full battery's worth of power yet.