Solar or wind?

[Megahurts]

Probably I'll want both but I can only afford one at the moment. Obviously I can tell when solar is going to produce power but I'm not sure what counts as windy enough for the turbine to make power, Any suggestions?

Edit...

Thanks to all who responded. Critical has made a nice video detailing power usage, give it look...

[00 Critical]

To start solar is the best as it is consistent power when he sun is up. I do not upgrade them but build extra ones ;-)

[terry]

I would go with solar first if i had to make a choice.
The power produced by the wind turbine depends on how windy it is. The harder the wind is blowing, the more power you get. It doesnt take much wind to get a little bit of power from it, but it really is just a little bit.

[PVTBambi]

I havent made a turbine yet. It does take more power, mass and sinew to make a turbine compared to the solar panel and it produces less power. With the amount of constant wind you hear I would think it should generate power all the time. Of course this way of thinking uses some logic... but wind was probably introduced to compensate for the loss of solar power generation during the "cloudy" times so players wouldn't take a leak and moan about it. Just another well thought out aspect of the game.

[Megahurts]

Allright, solar it is. Thanks folks :)

[Zuleica]

Solar with enough generation in excess of load in order to fill enough storage to last through the night is all you really need. Three panels and some storage keeps my fridge (with both energy efficiency upgrades) running. Honestly I don't see the need for the wind turbines, at least at the stage of all of my bases on all of my profiles.

[daytonfam]

Originally posted by Enzo:

Probably I'll want both but I can only afford one at the moment. Obviously I can tell when solar is going to produce power but I'm not sure what counts as windy enough for the turbine to make power, Any suggestions?

Neither are worth the expenditure in this game in my opinion. They both trickle in power so slowly that unless you don't hunt AT ALL and render the animal fat for a generator then it's a waste. I built 3 wind turbines and I think about 8 solar panels and always had to fire up my generators to craft. Upgrade your guns, build a few gennys and render fat because they have made solar and wind useless.

[Megahurts]

Hmmm...ya my first impression is the same. At 100% I'm getting .07 per second. Of course I haven't installed any upgrades yet...but even with both upgrades, it's only going to give like 1 PPS.

I guess a little passive power prodcution won't hurt but was hoping for more. Really starting to feel the grind :/

[Larsen]

unless you have more than ~30 solar cells (no need to upgrade them, just built another one which is more effective)
you'll need the generators, like daytonfam said. :)
if you run out of oil or don't want to hunt that much, just keep the oil in the Woodburner until it reaches 200. After it has done so, you can grab some oil from behind the Woodburner. ;)

Got currently ~50 solar cells and 2 turbines, while permanently running several lights, 5 mining drills and if the refinery runs on 3 lasers, iam still negative with power.
but thank god there are power storages. :D

[Original-Pauper]

Solar for day. Generator for night time and to catch up electric storage to craft something. Turbines are just an add on at present. On full sun days, there is no wind and the turbines do not produce. They will only produce at night if a storm is blowing through.

I like to play with 4,000 electric storage so I am never close to running out...ever!

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by daytonfam:

Originally posted by Enzo:

Probably I'll want both but I can only afford one at the moment. Obviously I can tell when solar is going to produce power but I'm not sure what counts as windy enough for the turbine to make power, Any suggestions?

Neither are worth the expenditure in this game in my opinion. They both trickle in power so slowly that unless you don't hunt AT ALL and render the animal fat for a generator then it's a waste. I built 3 wind turbines and I think about 8 solar panels and always had to fire up my generators to craft. Upgrade your guns, build a few gennys and render fat because they have made solar and wind useless.

They have their use cases, so to say neither are useful isn't true in all use cases.

I have multiple bases on each of multiple profiles. If I want a fridge at that base without having to go restock the generator with fuel on a regular basis the answer is in solar...or wind. Three solar panels and enough storage will keep a fridge with all upgrades going indefinitely, even with the new weather system.

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by Original-Pauper:

Solar for day. Generator for night time and to catch up electric storage to craft something. Turbines are just an add on at present. On full sun days, there is no wind and the turbines do not produce. They will only produce at night if a storm is blowing through.

I like to play with 4,000 electric storage so I am never close to running out...ever!

Yeah, I have at least that much on my larger bases and solar keeps them topped off. I'd have to do a LOT of crafting consistently day after day to run them down to where solar didn't pull it back up.

[daytonfam]

Originally posted by Zuleica:

Originally posted by Original-Pauper:

Solar for day. Generator for night time and to catch up electric storage to craft something. Turbines are just an add on at present. On full sun days, there is no wind and the turbines do not produce. They will only produce at night if a storm is blowing through.

I like to play with 4,000 electric storage so I am never close to running out...ever!

Yeah, I have at least that much on my larger bases and solar keeps them topped off. I'd have to do a LOT of crafting consistently day after day to run them down to where solar didn't pull it back up.

I like to keep power storage pretty high at a select few bases too but I tend to only use fridges solely for the aesthetic of having a fridge with food in it. I only store canned goods and bars in bases and thats really only on the off chance I die and spawn far from a main base. My rifle is fully upgraded so I always have more meat than I could possibly eat. While this means I do have meat spoil in my inventory there is such a ridiculous amount of animals to kill that preserving anything in a fridge seems pointless. A few genny's and a recycler for mass and I can basically craft anything I want whenever I want it even in bases with minimal storage.

[00 Critical]

Going to do a video on power and how to get your basic base a little better than balanced power wise.

[Megahurts]

Nice :) Please link and I'll add to first post. Cheers!

[00 Critical]

Zulica is right once you balance your power stuff just works better:

https://youtu.be/ww9s_8yURws