Batteries

[Krazzy K]

What's the point of batteries when half of the non threat events sucks the juice right out of them. I've spent a lot of material and time into making enough batteries if the power went out. But almost everything that can happen takes all your stored power... Fire, Solar Flare, Short, power burst. I got like 15 batteries that I'm lucky if I can fill w/o losing all power

[whatamidoing]

Inconsistent power generation (solar, wind) or use (seasonal heating/cooling, etc). When you're not using them you should detach filled batteries from power so they don't go kablooey and discharge everything when a short-circuit happens.

[Winterbloom [✚]]

oh they don't just discharge everything, the more stored power on the line, they go BOOM in bigger quality.

Solar flare doesnt take power btw, it just shorts out all devices connected, making them nonfunctional for a short time. There is a load of mods around power that are vanilla friendly in the RT series. Fuses, solar shielding.

Also, small note, The more batteries you have the less efficiently they get filled up, 15 batteries requires a lot of generation to get full in a timely manner.

Edit for clarity: Vanilla batteries have a 50% efficiency, to fill a battery, you need to provide 2 energy per 1 it gains. connecting an empty battery to a power grid with exactly 1205 W of available power will charge it to full in exactly 1 in-game day. If more power was available, charging would complete more quickly. 5 W of charging power would keep the battery at exactly the present charge level, merely nullifying the self-discharge.

[Astasia]

The only event that touches batteries are short circuits which drain the power on one circuit and cause a minor explosion (usually entirely absorbed by a stone wall with no real damage) in a wire based on the amount of power drained. This is a relatively uncommon misc event and the end result is generally less impactful than a solar flare (which has nothing to do with batteries). Assuming you have a functioning power grid after a short circuit you will be without power for at most ~8-12 hours, that's if it happens right before night and you rely on solar power, but if a short circuit happens early in the day it has no real effect on you in that situation. A solar flare on the other hand stops all electronics from working for up to 12 hours, period.

You can mostly avoid the effects of short circuits by using multiple circuits in your base, and running priority systems off more consistent power like geothermal or power cells. It's usually not worth bothering with, I tend to just clump everything on one circuit because I'm lazy, short circuits just don't really do enough to be concerned about.

If it bothers you enough you can disable the events you don't like in your scenario settings.

[Winterbloom [✚]]

The amount of stored power directly affects the size of the explosion, up to a maximum of 15 squares in diameter from a total of 90,000 Wd stored. The explosion can damage any nearby structures, items and colonists, as well as cause fires.

Ive had them blow a hole in a 2 wide marble wall before.

Best to have pockets of small groups of batteries connected to no conduits. A single power conduit connected to a battery, regardless of what its powering (not counting flicked power connectors) can cause an explosion.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Krazzy K:

What's the point of batteries when half of the non threat events sucks the juice right out of them. I've spent a lot of material and time into making enough batteries if the power went out. But almost everything that can happen takes all your stored power... Fire, Solar Flare, Short, power burst. I got like 15 batteries that I'm lucky if I can fill w/o losing all power

First, I'll restate what others have said:

The only Event that can directly drain your Batteries is the "Zzzzt" event. If they haven't changed it recently, a Zzzzt event's frequency is determined by a random chance rolled against each individual Conduit tile. The more Conduits you have, the more likely the base chance is that you'll have a Zzzzt event.

ALL Zzzzt events drain all of the power from Batteries connected to that grid of Conduits. The more batteries full of power, the bigger the explosion.

But, there's a way to protect yourself from catastrophic power-generation/loss events...

Build a "Battery Backup."

Basically, you have all your grids that actually feed power to benches, coolers, and the like connected on a grid, right? OK, you make a small building/hole in the wall and chuck a handful of batteries in there. You connect them together with one line of conduits leading to your normal grid and connected to it using a "Switch." When the switch is switched closed (On) it will charge that newly constructed bank of batteries. When the switch is switched open (OFF) then those freshly charged batteries will no longer be connected to your main grid. They are now in reserve, ready to feed desperately needed power to your base and largely invulnerable to power-draining Zzzzt events. It's a good idea to have enough Battery Backup for two days or so. (Depens) Remember - You can turn off some workbenches and high power consumers to save power during this time, so ... do that. :)

Batteries that are not connected to anything will slowly loose their charge over time. It's a simple thing to switch them back on, charge them up, and switch them off once done.

I always build a Battery Backup of no less than three Batteries. Always. ALWAYS. :)

All the rest of what you described does nothing in terms of draining power and you're probably misinterpreting them. They are pretty much specifically targeted, absolute, hazards you have to deal with. So, all electronics may go on the fritz - That's fine as you don't need power at that time, anyway, and couldn't use it if you had it. It's a test of "How well is your base constructed, really, and do you have the resources you need to get through this period" kind of test.

The most stable base you can build gets its power from all possible sources. ALL of them.

That means that once you get past the "Advanced Component" hurdle in the early game, you're fast on your way to encountering power issues and the need to expand your power generation past wind/solar to Steam. Introduced later in development, Watermill Generators can be used on Streams/Rivers, bringing a fourth way to produce power. In late game, you can get a Ship Power Core (?) (Mission reward/rare) that can produce power as well.

Other means to produce power are Wood and Fuel fired generators. These are early game solutions for long Eclipse events. Build one when you can. (Wood in wood-plentiful zones, Fuel if you have Boomalopes/biofuel or are lucky enough to get an Infinite Chemreactor from a quest. An Infinite Chemreactor is one of only a handful of items that might convince me to go on a caravan for...)

I always have either a Wood or Fuel fired generator on hand. It may not always be running, but it is something I will build as soon as it's convenient. And, they've saved my colony more than once. Preventing an entire crop from freezing or meals from spoiling is worth the small dedication of resources it takes to build one of these and keep it running.

PS: Don't build batteries in the rain... It's ungood. (Give them a small room or a roof, at least.)

On running conduits - Because conduits are checked per-tile where one exists, a Zzzt and the accompanying discharge can happen anywhere there's a conduit... Do not place conduits underneath your pawn's pillow. Do not place them right next to where your dedicated cook is going to be spending all their time. Do not place them down the middle of your cramped Crafting area. Do not place them, no matter how temping, running parallel to your most traveled cobblestone paths unless you are trying to launch pawns off-planet without having to construct a Space Ship...

[Jaggid Edje]

In my current game I rely on Wind Power for about 50% of my power generation, simply because I am drawing a ton of power and it is a very efficient power source. . . there's no steam vents remotely close that I have not tapped and I'd prefer not to constantly be draining chemfuel (and my ideology prevents tree cutting for wood).

Wind is also EXTREMELY variable. You can't really rely on wind power unless you combine it with batteries. The Same is true for solar.

Mine get used, constantly, as the wind ebbs and then fill up when the wind picks up again. With Solar it would be the same, except on a day/night cycle.

And that, I'm fairly sure, is the point of batteries.

Edit to add: I also use a switching system like mentioned above, so that they aren't all connected to the grid at the same time, to minimize the Zzzt damage when it happens and because I have at least twice as many batteries as I generally need.
I'm just prepared for the worst (especially because half my steam generation is off-site, meaning raiders could take them out...though so far that has only occurred once.

[budisourdog]

Honestly once you have Geothermals you don't need batteries unless your colony gets really large and you're trying to run 5 research benches at the same time or 50+ coolers / heaters. Geothermals provide 3600 energy every few ticks or about 1200 per tick on the average, they can power your coolers and heaters + a couple solar panels during the day for any machinery your colonists are trying to run.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Winterbloom:

The amount of stored power directly affects the size of the explosion, up to a maximum of 15 squares in diameter from a total of 90,000 Wd stored. The explosion can damage any nearby structures, items and colonists, as well as cause fires.

Ive had them blow a hole in a 2 wide marble wall before.

Best to have pockets of small groups of batteries connected to no conduits. A single power conduit connected to a battery, regardless of what its powering (not counting flicked power connectors) can cause an explosion.

90000wd is 150 batteries. I don't think that's accurate, the difference between 10 and 100 batteries is negligible if anything, in both cases it will destroy 3 stone walls and start some fires if you have flammable things nearby, but the explosion doesn't really cause damage further away. If you have like a wood stool directly next to the wall that might be destroyed, that's about it. People are more likely to be using like 3-6 batteries which causes no real damage to a stone wall.

[Darzai]

Or just disable the short circuit event. I never play with it anymore.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Darzai:

Or just disable the short circuit event. I never play with it anymore.

I just installed a circuit breaker mod yesterday, so it costs extra research time and then some resources to disable the event....your way seems way more efficient. LOL

[Darzai]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by Darzai:

Or just disable the short circuit event. I never play with it anymore.

I just installed a circuit breaker mod yesterday, so it costs extra research time and then some resources to disable the event....you're way seems way more efficient. LOL

I actually prefer your way though, because originally I wished there was research to counter that. I am going to use that mod too.