Solar pannels won't power a very small base

[❆🎄Douglas 🎁 🎂]

I have 5 big solar pannels and 6 small pannels on a desert planet. Sun is hitting on all of them. I get 100 Kw which is not enough for my base. I have 1 constructor, 1 fridge, 1 cocktop, 1 o2 box. Thats it. Constructor, Coocktop and Ventilator is OFF.

My pannels show 1 green light one side and 1 yellow light on the other. What those light means?

Its sunny day outside. I don't understand.

[Pantherr]

I'v been trying to get mine to work also but it is pointless. What little charge the "battery" gets always goes thru the night. Have tried repositioning them twice to no avail. Unless there is a secret I am unaware of the whole idea of solar power is pointless :(

[Siklus]

You need 15 large ones to power the basics you have described. They will also then store enough for the evening and to turn that constructor on every now and then.....
Add another cap if you want to store enough for a furnace.
Also note that the weather during the day also influences the charge.

[Princess Goddammit]

I had to put out the full 15 to have any effect. Large ones at that. Even then, they were not really doing all that much. They might have saved me a teeny bit of promethium, but not a whole lot.

[Sinsling]

Wait...
100kw in
5 out
5 out
5 out
5 out
5 out(core)
75 net gain.
Unless something is actively working you should be gaining power?

Making the constructor or food processor work will drain more power.

[stubert]

Originally posted by Douglas:

I have 5 big solar pannels and 6 small pannels on a desert planet. Sun is hitting on all of them. I get 100 Kw which is not enough for my base. I have 1 constructor, 1 fridge, 1 cocktop, 1 o2 box. Thats it. Constructor, Coocktop and Ventilator is OFF.

My pannels show 1 green light one side and 1 yellow light on the other. What those light means?

Its sunny day outside. I don't understand.

Hi the lights mean how much power you are getting out of the solar panel the green shows how much maximum you can get the yellow shows how much you are getting at that moment. 1 light is not good if it was 4 I think you would have heaps of power. Placement of the panels mean a lot and where your base is. Like if you are north of the equator the flat panels might work better if south of it angled ones might . You have them pointing toward the sun at midday? Hope some of this helps good luck.

[MozoTyce]

Assuming you have at least one capacitor there are some things you can check:

On the solar panels, the green lights tell you if your alignment is correct. Now i know this sounds obvious but it's not the alignment you think is correct, it's the alignment the game thinks is correct, you should have four green lights on each panel.

On the solar panels, the yellow lights indicate what the quality of the sunlight is (as far as solar is concerned this could be sun strength). you need a minimum of three yellow lights to be useful.

Check the map and determine where your base is in relation to the polar and equatorial regions.
If you are near'ish to the equator you would assume the panels need to be facing straight up however.... some planets can have an axial tilt. Check where the sun is at approximately midday.
If you are near'ish a polar region you might get longer days but the sun strength is much less and the same applies with the axial tilt. 24 hours of sunshine at 10% strength is not much good.

Lastly on the statistics P page check your average output against your 'power saving' consumption. If the average output is less then obviously the batteries can never charge. Switching on items to use them should draw the battery down but if the battery can't charge to start with then this won't come into it.

Note also that the battery will still charge even if the base itself is switched off. If you're not using the equipment try switching the base off next time you go raiding/gathering and see what the batteries are like on your return.

One last tip: fitting a small generator with a small fuel tank can help in certain circumstances, if the batteries/solar is sufficient it will never use the fuel but if you do need the extra power and unknowingly empty the batteries the generator will kick in saving you all sorts of losses (farm/fridge/o2/etc).

[margalus]

First off you want all 15 panels you can have. Scrap the small ones, they are worthless, only use large.

Make sure you aren't using more power than you are producing or the capacitor will never charge.

You can have more than one capacitor which means your power lasts longer when it's not being produced as fast as you use it.

I find it most convenient to lay the panels flat on my roof.

[Sinsling]

If only there was a way to withdraw batteries and plug them into other capacitors...

[rphillips1986]

Play around with the angle of the pannel. The different angled pannels aren't just for looks, depending on where you are on the planet changes the angle of the sun. The more directly the sun hits a panel the more efficient it is. If you have all flat pannels laying horizontal and are only getting one bar efficiency, then the sun is hitting them at too much of an angle. Try placing a couple verticle, then place some slanted pannels in different positions. See what generates the most power. Also, get them up high. I built a single block tower 23 blocks high and placed a 4 large pannels on it, with 1 black space between each pannel. This is perched on a high point and I cleared all the trees from in front of it for a good distance. These pannels produce far more power than the ones on the roof of my base.