Gravity Batteries - guide

A short explanation of Gravity Batteries in Timberborn (Experimental branch - July 21st 2022 update)

What are gravity batteries?

Gravity batteries are a newest Power tool available in Timberborn.

They consists of a 2x1 solid BASE, which can (and should) be placed on something really high, such as platforms, and a drop-weight that is also 2x1 but is positioned next to the base, so, together, the whole thing has a 2x2 footprint.


Gravity batteries accumulate excess power from the power network they are connected to (connect your network to the BASE of the battery via power shafts or direct adjacency). They do this by raising the drop-weight, storing 2000 units of excess energy per unit of height.

If the power network cannot meet the demand of connected industries, the drop-weight is lowered at just the right speed to cover the extra power demand.

Notice that only 'usable' height is counted -- if there is any sort of obstacle or required clearance beneath the drop-weight, it reduces the maximum depth to which it can descend, and thus reduces the storage capacity accordingly:

Hints: Place the battery over cliffs or large water reservoirs, where you are unlikely to ever build, plant, or grow crops. For increased benefit, place some platforms (as high as you can) first to maximize the drop height:

[Alcator]

@plong999: Either from below (so, via a roof of a building on which they stand), or to any point of the base.

You may be making the mistake of attaching them to the 'balcony' section of a lodge, which does not transfer power.

[plong999]

I am not sure how they must be connected to the grid. I have built them in a grid and they are full of energy but my buildings don't receive it ? Maybe it is a bug ? A connection schematic would be a nice add-on to your guide. Thanks for the guide.

[Wyld_Byrd]

I found a neat trick when you don't necessarily have a tall tower/cliff side to place one...use dynamite to blow out the area under the battery bank. Each block blown up adds to the capacity.

[Alcator]

@rkdals3618 -- the battery will automatically recharge from SURPLUS power in your connected network. So, let's say you have 2 water wheels that provide 500 power during normal season, and you have industries that need 600 power to operate. During day, the battery will be providing the 100 missing power, but during the night, when workers stop working, those 500 power wheels will be recharging the battery at a rate of 500 hp per hour. If your beavers have 8 hours of rest and 16 hours workdays, then the battery will recharge 8x500 = 4000 hph (horse power hours) per night. If you have 20 hour workdays, it will only recharge 4x500 = 2000 hph.

You could also connect the network to a series of windmills, which will be recharging the battery whenever they operate, as long as the network is consuming less than it is generating.

[mdeha004]

From a functional standpoint you are correct but from a rarely ever use it standpoint it can make things look buggy even if they're not. Just assuming that things always function correctly isn't always a good idea. It's better to test something than to assume it is true when in doubt. But for the sake of your point, I agree with you entirely.

[Alcator]

@mdeha004: I didn't forget to mention it. It is completely irrelevant/unimportant, because the only thing that matters is the total capacity.

[mdeha004]

This is a very good guide but you forgot to mention the part about them sharing power distribution at an equal drain rate when bussed together. I personally had to test out this idea before I realized that it wasn't a bug, that when you connect any set of batteries together ingame that they do this even if the bigger storable battery has more charge than the less stored one.

[Alcator]

@JustQuackers: No. All that matters is the cummulative capacity of the batteries in the network.

[JustQuackers]

Is there a difference when running multi batteries and setting them up in serial vs parallel like with real batteries?

[EzFrenchToast]

Thanks