super noob cant grow plants

[Harambe]

I wish they had some sort of walk through in game when doing the campaign. I love the game, but stopped playing cause I cant figure out how to keep power long enough to grow plants

[Skorpn]

so the issue is over night I presume?

[Harambe]

yeah! I cant figure out how to keep power running all night for my plants. :{

[Philtre]

Plants need a continuous supply of power and water, or else they'll die (you must supply enough power to run the building itself as well, to keep the heaters on - otherwise it will be below freezing, Mars is cold!). Your early-game power sources are strictly solar panels, which only generate power when the sun is shining. At night, and during sandstorms, you need a stored supply of power. So you do you store electricity?

Hint: Unlock batteries in the Electricity part of the tech tree. You will need several batteries to get through the night. And you'll need several solar panels per battery to charge them during the day, so you'll need to hook them up to transformers, which let you combine or split power sources.

[Skorpn]

You have roughly 9 hours of night. With 4 solar panels you get 20kw, over the course of daylight you may save up to 90kw in a battery, but the remaining storage is gone with 4.5hr (night starts at 930 and ends at 640) so by 2am you have no power.
So for example you need to store 20kw over 9 ours, 9x20=180kw. You need 180kw.
Now herein lies the issue, the planting using both at full power is 3.5 i think (top of my head). You need more solar panels (my starting setup is 8 solar panels, 1 battery (+ extentions if I can find it) or 2 batteries, 1 feeding it 100% and the 2nd battery only allowing night time consumption kws.

[Skorpn]

I know its a little confusing... but do this
build 9 solar panels, 1 battery+upgrade and 1 transformer+upgrade. (2 of each if you dont have upgrade) that should carry you close to the end of night cycle maybe a little shy, but it wont kill your plants.
main thing to remember, is everything you add, corridor, machine, etc to the base uses power, so always check the night time usage and adjust accordingly.
generally the go to for that is build more panels.

[Harambe]

Originally posted by Skorpn:

You have roughly 9 hours of night. With 4 solar panels you get 20kw, over the course of daylight you may save up to 90kw in a battery, but the remaining storage is gone with 4.5hr (night starts at 930 and ends at 640) so by 2am you have no power.
So for example you need to store 20kw over 9 ours, 9x20=180kw. You need 180kw.
Now herein lies the issue, the planting using both at full power is 3.5 i think (top of my head). You need more solar panels (my starting setup is 8 solar panels, 1 battery (+ extentions if I can find it) or 2 batteries, 1 feeding it 100% and the 2nd battery only allowing night time consumption kws.

extremely helpful! I couldnt understand the wattage distribution there. Makes sense now! thank youuuuu