Fuel Generator : buld more or overclock existing ones ?

[Akatosh]

Hello !

I just unlocked the Fuel generator and I have an unused pure node (so 240m³) and I was wondering what was the best usage I could do with it to get the max amount of electricity.

Is it better to build a lot of Generators running at 100%, or less but overclocked ?
(I don't have the Pipeline Mk.2 yet, but it will come soon, damned frames...)

Thanks.

[Suzaku]

Build more is ideal. Overclocking generators gives the same increase in power generation as resource consumption, meaning it's just as efficient as normal; you'll just need less space for the fewer gens.

In short, you either save space, or save power shards. Power generation and resource consumption remain unchanged in the end.

[Maehlice]

Either is fine. You don't lose or gain any power efficiency by under/overclocking power generators, so it's purely a personal choice of what you'd rather see in your world.

I like to overclock them, but most people are probably going to tell you about how you should only be overclocking extractors and miners and the like.

[Casey Ryback]

You are in the early stages of your game progress, so overclocking "temporarily" is fine, but soon enough you will need to build many many fuel generators (like 80+, then eventually 150+) and you will not have enough Power Shards, so it's pointless sitting on 50 Fuel Generators and only over clock 10 of them.

Early stages = definitely overclock as you see fit, but just remember to recover them.

[LazerRay]

I had to overclock a bunch of fuel generators since they were on the same pipe line that feed overclocked refineries needed to ramp up plastic, rubber, and fabric production (I didn't have the room to build more machines or generators).

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

Either is fine. You don't lose or gain any power efficiency by under/overclocking power generators, so it's purely a personal choice of what you'd rather see in your world.

I like to overclock them, but most people are probably going to tell you about how you should only be overclocking extractors and miners and the like.

Oh nooo, I might run out of the 1401 guaranteed power shards (not even counting that lizard doggos can theoretically give you infinite).

I like to OC my power generators, gives me a good use for the dozens and dozens that I just have sitting around, and simplifies the setup.

To anyone reading this though, keep in mind, power generators don't correctly scale with their clock speed. The easiest way to do it is clock your generators to EXACTLY 246.2288%, which will basically make them run at double efficiency, makes the input math really easy

[nfgman]

Almost all of my fuel generators are max overclocked. Hundreds of them and still have more shards than I can use.

[Rezznor7]

Eh, I prefer not to. As I have a spreadsheet with everything listed out showing what goes where, I find it is easier to keep track of fuel production and consumption. As Maehlice said above, some prefer only extractors and miners. I am of that kind.

[grissom]

i would say yes, i overclock whatever i want, there is a lot of shards, lot of doggos and some pretty good balanced mods which allow you to make them, i really don't understand this mentality against overclocking, but i don't need too, imho it's absolutely ok to do whatever you want in-game.

[Akatosh]

Thanks everyone.

I'm really low on computers and heavy frames, so I'll overclock my powergen, for now.
I'll build more Power Gen when I'll get more components.

[Veeshan]

I thought the understanding was that overclocking power production machinery was generally inadvisable? Something about it not scaling the same way as material production machinery?

[Akatosh]

Yeah, as Tenebris said above, I had to put the Power gen at 246.2288% to produce 300MW instead of 150MW.

But it require exactly the double of fuel to produce the double of electricity, so there is no waste, it just need 3 shards instead of 2; but I have around 50 of them so it's better to use them than letting them sleep in a box at the HUB.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Veeshan:

I thought the understanding was that overclocking power production machinery was generally inadvisable? Something about it not scaling the same way as material production machinery?

Originally posted by Akatosh:

Yeah, as Tenebris said above, I had to put the Power gen at 246.2288% to produce 300MW instead of 150MW.

But it require exactly the double of fuel to produce the double of electricity, so there is no waste, it just need 3 shards instead of 2; but I have around 50 of them so it's better to use them than letting them sleep in a box at the HUB.

Yeah, this is the reasoning, clocking them to 250% would actually clock them to about 202%, which makes for some really wack, and uneven math. But a lot of people don't know the exact % to clock to so they dismiss the idea entirely.

My advice is: don't listen to what other people say is "inadvisable". Play the game how you want.

You want absolute spaghetti, no foundations, sub 100% efficiency? Go for it!
You wanna overclock non-miners? Knock yourself out.

Don't let purists determine how you play this game, letting other people dictate how you play such a sandbox-y game such as this is the worst thing you can do to yourself.

[DrNewcenstein]

Plenty of room for fuel generators once you pave the lake in the blue crater. With the proper alt recipe (the one that turns crude into fuel and resin, bypassing the purple goop), each 100% refinery (40m3 output) can feed 3 100% generators (12m3 consumed), and you'll have 4 m3 extra to siphon off or leave as a buffer. A single pure oil node can feed 10 refineries running at 100%. That will give you 30 fuel generators.
The 4m3 excess each refinery produces adds up to another 40m3, which is 3 more generators and 4m3 extra fuel.

If you use all the pure oil for 33 fuel generators, you'll have enough power, along with the coal generators you should already have going at that point. You can add more.
You don't have to tear down your coal generators and replace them with fuel.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by Akatosh:

Hello !

I was wondering what was the best usage I could do with it to get the max amount of electricity.

If you want to maximize electricity, generating the electricity shouldn't require too much power either. Meaning you have to underclock and multiply all of your oilrefineries. I always practice this part on coal plants by underclocking water extractors to something between 10 and 20% clock speed because there is always plenty of water.
And for power generators 246,2289 is the magic number of clock speed

[Bobucles]

Everyone covered it. Overclocking is convenient and acceptable. Do note that ordinary machines suffer an energy penalty when overclocking, they'll burn more energy than normal for the same amount of work. Power plants suffer no inherent penalty or benefit from overclocking so it just straight up shrinks your factory. It's all good and no bad, and there's plenty of power shards to go around.

Overclock your mines, then your preference, then energy, and finally the rest.