How to connect solar panels

[Inardesco]

to base. Can't see to do that?

[neko]

youll just have to find an open sapce on top or on top the hatch

[starwheeler]

you have to build a platform and set your solar panel on it

[Cougarific]

You can place Solar Panels anywhere you want as long as they're close enough to the base. If they're close enough you'll see a blue energy beam connecting the panel to the base after it's built. If you see no beam, deconstruct the panel and move it closer to the base.

But yeah they don't have to be on the base or on a platform, you can build them right on the ground if you want.

[Lethann]

Just keep in mind that the closer they are to the surface the more power they get. The deeper they are the less solar energy they will produce.

EDIT: This is why a lot of people build a small temp base in the shallows until they get either the bioreactor, thermal or nuke reactors. Trying to do solar while deep is.. painful?

[Inardesco]

It connected after the day started. I had build them in the night so I guess thats why they didn't connect to the base, they weren't generating power.

I have the bioreactor blueprint but am a bit unsure about how it works. Do I just put in seeds/food that I harvest from my plants or do I have to let the food go to waste before I can use it?

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

It connected after the day started. I had build them in the night so I guess thats why they didn't connect to the base, they weren't generating power.

I have the bioreactor blueprint but am a bit unsure about how it works. Do I just put in seeds/food that I harvest from my plants or do I have to let the food go to waste before I can use it?

The difference in what you shove into the bio reactor is not the speed it gains power (Which will always be super slot. like "able to fabricate one item per minute" slow).

The difference is how much energy it will take until the item you put in is destroyed. Also, fruits are terribly inneficient and you'll have to check if it's empty much more often (There is no indicator but you looking in it to check). You are better off shoving fish or fauna into the reactor for less total trips.

The main benefits of the bio reactor are that it still works at night (unlike solar panels), and it's 100 max capacity. So tossing in a jelly ray won't ever let it have higher than 100 max, but it would take 600 energy used up before the jelly ray ran out and was destroyed.

Essentially, treat them more like slowly charging backup batteries to give you a comfort zone so you don't accidentally kill the air in your base because you parked your seamoth or built your first water purifier. Particularly with the devs steadily increasing energy costs.

One thing of note for energy values from what you put in. The wiki may list the energy values, but they never list the SIZE of the items involved which is a big factor.

For example, a peeper is only worth 150 power each. a Rabbit ray is only worth 300, while a jellyray is a much more impressive 600 each... But, a peeper only takes up 1 tile of inventory space, a rabbit ray takes up 2x2 in the reactor, and a jelly ray takes up 3x3 in the reactor.

So you could only fit one jelly ray worth 600. But you could fit four rabbit rays, which ends up worth twice as much. Or, go hog wild shoving EZ peepers and reginalds into the thing. (For reference, fruit still takes up multiple tiles of space despite having worse energy value than a single fish)

[Inardesco]

So I'll have to start myself a peeper farm once I set up my bioreactor. Can I use the aquarium for that?

[Kachiri_Beleza]

The Solar Panels give more energy if placed on top the building.
Also, they don't actually have to be close to the base to give power if you use a Power Transmitter. This item (December 2016) looks like a thin crystal. You place it not too far away from Solar Panels and it increases the distance that the power will travel. I have used many Transmitters to extend the distance much more by placing them apart along the path from Solar Panel to base. They are supposed to extend the power source by a distance of 20.