Power production/consumption display

[Roto2esdios]

Hi

I have a hard time knowing how much power I need and how much I consumpt? (too lazy to find it)

Would be too difficult to do something like the Red Alert 1 power bar? Example http://youtu.be/ihU3UNmWncw?t=1m24s. No need for a fancy like this... but something with a good display to get an idea of how much power is needed at the moment.

[Telarin]

Problem with that is you can have multiple "circuits" in Rimworld which are not connected to one another. I suppose the power bar could show total usage and production across all circuits, but I don't think it would be very useful like that.

[Monkfish]

Some form of power indicator might be handy, though I imagine it would flick about quite wildly as devices switch on or off. For example, you'd get fairly severe power draws and drops as your heaters and coolers switch on/off to heat/cool a room. Telarin's point about multiple circuits also raises issues of its own.

To manage your power consumption though, calculate what your maximum draw would be (to do this, multiply the number of a given item with its max power draw, repeating for all electrical items); this will give you your power consumption. Alternatively, use a switch to disconnect any wind/thermal generators and then check what your power consumption is during the night (or just disconnect all power generation); your power consumption would be expressed as a negative value (and will likely fluctuate) but should give you an indication of how much power you're using. You will need enough batteries to supply that amount of power whilst none is being generated. I typically aim for double my maximum power draw, so if all of my electrical shit requires 10,000W to run, I'll install 20 batteries (giving 20,000Wd Watt-Days)). This would run the base entirely on battery power for two full days (i.e. last you through an eclipse). For power generation, you need to produce at least what your maximum draw is, plus a decent amount of headroom to ensure your batteries gain charge as days progress.

Just to cover all bases and in case anyone does not understand how the power system works, electrical items have a required power demand, expressed in Watts (W), and batteries have a rated capacity, expressed in Watt-days (Wd). A single battery currently stores 1000Wd which means it would run electrical items drawing 1000W for one day, items drawing 500W for two days, and so on and so forth.

[Mathenaut]

Actually, it would be nice if power-generators could give an at-glance readout of average output vs consumption for every circuit they are connected to. Something like:

[Average output: 24 hours]
[Average output: 7 days]
[Total consumption of all presently connected devices]

It seems there is more than enough room to add those values below what is already displayed.

[Cracker21]

I like this idea but I think it should be something that you have to build, like a power meter you have on the side of a house. That way you can separate the circuits. It could show average power usage, day by day usage for "X" days, power stored, how long the circuit could run on battery if the power supply was cut, ect. Just my thoughts.

[Mathenaut]

You'll need seperate energy generation for seperate circuits, so displays on the power source would be restricted to the circuit they are connected to.

Should also bring up the wire map to see what the grid looks like, instead of having to select 'build wires' every time.

[Roto2esdios]

I like this idea but I think it should be something that you have to build, like a power meter you have on the side of a house. That way you can separate the circuits. It could show average power usage, day by day usage for "X" days, power stored, how long the circuit could run on battery if the power supply was cut, ect. Just my thoughts.

Interesting. Very banlanced cause you have to invest some materials and time to build it. I like it