Why is my power efficiency so bad? Or is it really not??

[Hassink]

Okay so I calculate all my factories through Satisfactory Calculator, and all my machines are clocked as precisely as possible. I don't think any of them are running below 99% efficency

And yet my "Max Power Consumption" is 4570.9 MW, while my actual Power Consumption fluctuates a bit at around 3700 MW. Of course those small fluctuations are to be expected, can't run every machine at 100%.

But where is the rest of that 800 MW difference? I feel like with machines running 99% of the time, my actual Power Consumption should also be like 99%. Sure it's going to be a bit lower, I got some small manual-fed factories for biofuel, packaged liquid biofuel, power shards, and DNA capsules. But that amounts to 100 MW of inactive machines at best.

Am I missing something in the Max Concumption calculation? I triple checked my factories. Nothings stalling. Production is 100%.

[Wolfgang]

Max consumption is when everything you have connected to your grid is currently running. Which means there is stuff connected to your grid that isn't currently running.

[Kage Goomba]

Look for yellow lights.

Yellow lights == bad Green == Good.

All lights must be green - then you will have a nice flat line.

Keep in mind that's not as easy as it sounds.
Your math must be perfect on all production systems.
Also you have devices that will power down automatically when not in demand.
Miner Extractors - Water Extractors - Sinks - Fluid Pumps - just to name a few things.

I can assure you - its damn near impossible to get perfect power efficiency due to these challenges.

I said near impossible as I'm sure someone has done it - if not come close - without mods mind you.

[Ryzilynt]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Look for yellow lights.

Yellow lights == bad Green == Good.

All lights must be green - then you will have a nice flat line.

Keep in mind that's not as easy as it sounds.
Your math must be perfect on all production systems.
Also you have devices that will power down automatically when not in demand.
Miner Extractors - Water Extractors - Sinks - Fluid Pumps - just to name a few things.

I can assure you - its damn near impossible to get perfect power efficiency due to these challenges.

I said near impossible as I'm sure someone has done it - if not come close - without mods mind you.

Things like the particle accelerator and the tier 9 alien tech stuff make it absolutely impossible to keep a flat consumption line.

[Calico]

Even at 99% you may have large swaths of machines turning off at one time, even if shortly.
Without using multiplayer and stationing players in factories this can be difficult to keep up with and make perfect. I worry more about the blue line staying below the grey one.

NGL when something calls for a fraction I just round up.
22.5 means place 2 and use 45.
3.75 is just 4 spelled wrong.
Basically you can make machines run at 100% and the only thing shutting off would be miners and smelters.
Skimming off basic resource overflow with smart splitters and sinks can make smelters run more smoothly, however I don't consider it worth it since the material worth is low.
As for miners, the "efficiency" meter is something I view as a "capacity" meter instead.
A miner at 50% efficiency just means you can add a splitter and some resources from there.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Ryzilynt:

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Look for yellow lights.

Yellow lights == bad Green == Good.

All lights must be green - then you will have a nice flat line.

Keep in mind that's not as easy as it sounds.
Your math must be perfect on all production systems.
Also you have devices that will power down automatically when not in demand.
Miner Extractors - Water Extractors - Sinks - Fluid Pumps - just to name a few things.

I can assure you - its damn near impossible to get perfect power efficiency due to these challenges.

I said near impossible as I'm sure someone has done it - if not come close - without mods mind you.

Things like the particle accelerator and the tier 9 alien tech stuff make it absolutely impossible to keep a flat consumption line.

Yeah I remember hearing that too.
Some have OCD About yellow lights being evil. :)

[Hassink]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Look for yellow lights.

Yellow lights == bad Green == Good.

All lights must be green - then you will have a nice flat line.

Keep in mind that's not as easy as it sounds.
Your math must be perfect on all production systems.
Also you have devices that will power down automatically when not in demand.
Miner Extractors - Water Extractors - Sinks - Fluid Pumps - just to name a few things.

I can assure you - its damn near impossible to get perfect power efficiency due to these challenges.

I said near impossible as I'm sure someone has done it - if not come close - without mods mind you.

Well, keeping this in mind, considering my hand fed factories (they might be closer to 200 MW after all), and then I also read on the wiki about train stations always consuming only 0.1 MW? Ive got 5 right now, so if that's true that accounts for 250 MW as well. I guess my Max consumption really isnt that far off from my actual Consumption

[pugdogg55]

trains will consume power depending on if they're accelerating or not. Coasting and slowing down wont consume power so trains will always have power fluctuations. If the freight platforms are anything like truck stations, they only consume power when loading or unloading. Otherwise they consume 0.1 power.

I have a main power grid and what I call my bobble grid. The bobble grid runs anything that fluctuates in power consumption. My sinks, trains, particle accelerators, etc. Everything on my main grid is clocked perfectly to never turn off. Right now I'm consuming 20000MW pretty steady. I have 1 constructor that turns on and off that I'm looking for right now.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Hassink:

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Look for yellow lights.

Yellow lights == bad Green == Good.

All lights must be green - then you will have a nice flat line.

Keep in mind that's not as easy as it sounds.
Your math must be perfect on all production systems.
Also you have devices that will power down automatically when not in demand.
Miner Extractors - Water Extractors - Sinks - Fluid Pumps - just to name a few things.

I can assure you - its damn near impossible to get perfect power efficiency due to these challenges.

I said near impossible as I'm sure someone has done it - if not come close - without mods mind you.

Well, keeping this in mind, considering my hand fed factories (they might be closer to 200 MW after all), and then I also read on the wiki about train stations always consuming only 0.1 MW? Ive got 5 right now, so if that's true that accounts for 250 MW as well. I guess my Max consumption really isnt that far off from my actual Consumption

My mindset on this is to be more worried about having enough power for sudden power up of whatever project your working on and ensuring your factory is working as you wish it too.

Least of these concerns being power consumption efficiency. If that makes sense.