When to run the generator

[Mad Hatter]

I'm new to Frostpunk, and I wanted to learn the game through trial and error, so I avoided guides as best I could. After a couple failed cities, I decided to read some guides, and I noticed several people mention conservative use of the central generator.

I assumed the generator had to be running 24/7 to provide energy to everything. Is that not the case? Should I only be turning it on when I need the heat?

What temperature do you try to maintain? Before I knew about the impending storm, I figured the game would just be a constant struggle to keep the generator and hubs running, but apparently I've been creating my own shortages?

[Bobywan]

You can save a little coal at the beginning of the game when you don't have steam hubs yet and turn on the generator only when people are in their home (which are usually placed around the generator).
Once you get steam hubs, they need the generator to be on to work.

You have to find the right balance between amount of sick people and coal used.

Don't forget to use the Heat overlay by pressing O to see the temperature of the area:
Confortable means nobody will get sick (assuming they don't eat sawdust and both the workplace and home are confortable)
Liveable means around 3% of people will get sick
Chilly is the acceptable limit where you will start to get more sick (try to use the overdrive from time to time)
Cold, very cold or freezing are the temperature you don't want or you will get a lot of sick, with very cold meaning you can get severely sick people or amputees without being regular sick first and freezing meaning people can die without warning.

[Mad Hatter]

I get the temperatures, I'm just wondering what you've found the sweet spot to be. At first I designed the city and heat output to keep everything at livable (easy to do, but coal-heavy), but as resource management got more difficult (I expanded my city faster than I had the resources to maintain it), I started keeping everything at chilly. By that point, about 1/3rd was sick anyways, and I'm not sure how much of an increase in sickness I noticed.

I also signed children over to be medical apprentices, figuring that'd help offset my reluctance to fill my city with a stupid amount of med centers. Now I'm thinking they'd be better off as engineering apprentices so I can power through the research tree quicker.

[Sverr]

Minimizing your coal usage is good at the hard+ difficulty.

Saving coal is good during the day when your people are at work. Once they get back home for the night (but they will be building structures instead, muahaha), turn on the generator. Keep it running from 22:00 to 6:00.

Generally you should try and keep yellow temperature in your houses and workplaces but that's hard in the first few days (or even impossible) so it's okay if you keep your people working in chilly conditions for the first few days, but not lower. Once you've started your thumpers or mines, keep your generator constantly running and temperature yellow or red (if you can afford it).

[Anderson]

Don't forget about Overdrive. It's a big heat boost at no additional coal cost. Use it when there are spikes of cold, to conserve coal.

I would more focus on strengthening your economy. Research more effective resources, such as +10% more coal, or 10% less coal usage in the generator. Upgrades to your hunters' are great, since they let you feed more people with far fewer hands.
Sign laws every change you get. Put your Steam Cores to use - you can always dismantle whatever is using them to get cores back.
The Foreman ability from the path of Order is amazing - for a small amount of food, you can massively increase your output.

[Hat8]

People are most vulnerable to the cold at night in their houses so using overdrive at night is always recommended. You should always have it ticking down or running since it costs no coal.

[Mad Hatter]

Originally posted by Hat8:

People are most vulnerable to the cold at night in their houses so using overdrive at night is always recommended. You should always have it ticking down or running since it costs no coal.

I appreciate the help but I've already beaten 3 scenarios by this point.