Base power

[Thomas]

When you're near the surface, does adding more solar panels give extra power or do they not stack? I don't have enough power currently to charge the moonpool I just built. (This is my first playthrough)

[Demolition414]

I have 6 solar panels on my base which i located about 20 meters deep and im getting 450 power.

[ImHelping]

They totally stack, but each is still their own individual amount of power. Solar panels won't charge a nuclear reactor's power rating, for example.

Having at least one bio reactor make for a nice "backup battery" situation once you have multipurpose rooms to fit them in. They are convenient, but not as amazing as talked up either, because no matter what you put in them they have a slow as frozen molasses "roughly 25 energy per MINUTE" output, despite their max capacity of 500 power.

[Cougarific]

The power stacks but just in terms of how much power you're able to gather - you won't gather it faster, just more of it. So if there's not enough power coming in to charge your 'moth, just give it time, it will recharge slowly, but it will recharge.

[Vormina]

Solar goes good with thermal reactors, I usually place 6 solar and 4 thermal and it's enough to power 2 moonpools, 2 water filters, scanner room and chargers. For deep bases I just use 8 thermals, I've ran power transmitters as far as 800 meters to a distant base, AFAIK there's no limit to how far you can transmit power.

I've tried the bio and nuclear, but don't like all the refilling and maintenance with those.

[margalus]

Solar panels stack, and they store power. . I just put up a dozen or more solar panels and nothing else is needed, as long as you aren't too deep.

[Offswitch?]

Imo, having 6 solar panels round a moonpool and one in the centre of every multi purpose room and moon pool works good enough for me. I have about 15 solar panels producing too much energy + a bio reactior for back up as

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Having at least one bio reactor make for a nice "backup battery"

says is another good way to get energy. So i never drop bellow 1300 power which is good.

[KromeHWI]

this is a really usefull article about powering your base, it gives you a full list of power rates and total storage for everything.

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Energy

in general though, thermal is the best (in my opinion). slap 3-4 on smokers or by gysers and run power to your base and you can do pretty much anything you need.

in shallow water solar is great. but you will want something else for night time (or a LOT of panels to store up energy for night time use). and once you get down past a few hundred meters they are pretty much worthless because they dont get enough light.

it is easy to go infinite with a bioreactor. just plant a pot of marblemelons next to it and you are good to go. FOREVER!

another good trick early on is to build your moon pool as a separate structure from the rest of your base, a little ways away so as to put it on its own circuit. this way a few solar panels can go a long way. you can recharge your vehicles and power a moonpool on 1-2 panels this way. then slap 3-4 on your main base and you can power a scaning room and craft or whatnot while not worrying about your moonpool draining your reserves.

filtration machines on the other have a stupidly high power drain, requiring 2-3 thermal reactors to power it infinitely.

[Enheldor]

8 solar panels is plenty to run the water filtration and charge your stuff.

[kirkbross]

I had two on a room at 200m and they worked, but in Below Zero, I have two on a room at 300m and they don't produce any power. Do they have a depth limit?

[margalus]

Originally posted by kirkbross:

I had two on a room at 200m and they worked, but in Below Zero, I have two on a room at 300m and they don't produce any power. Do they have a depth limit?

A: Wrong forum.

B: BZ is a new alpha, lots of things won't work properly.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

First, necro.

Second, why don't you post this question in the right forum? Mechanic of the game for Below Zero could be way different than the mechanics in Subnautica.

[fenlander]

I have solar panels on my base with a bioreactor as a night time generator. My base is right next to a active thermal vent, but I am having problems finding the parts to unlock the thermal vent generator.
Can't even find the parts for the scanner room either, looked on the net and I have been to all the places listed or they are out of date.

[KromeHWI]

the wiki is generally kept pretty up to date actually, or at least it was constantly be updated all through EA and some post launch as well (i used it extensively in my post launch run, and it seemed accurate enough).

its possible that there was an error in loading the map cells i suppose... there are steps you can take to reset all of this, which respawns resources and stuff, and makes as though you are entering each section of the map for the first time again.

also, sometimes the fragments are tricky to spot amongst the rest of the flotsam? used to be all the fragments had the same easy to spot "white safe" like model, but now they all look like parts of what you are trying to get, which make them blend in with the rest of the junk a lot better. its harder to know what is a fragment and what is map dressing until you get right up on it with the scanner. and i think there are multiple fragment models for each type of fragment too.

or if you really cant find them even with the help of the internets, you could always use the console to spawn the parts you need...