[MOD] (Alpha 5) BetterPower+ (V5.0.0): Updated 16/07/14

[StorymasterQ]

My eyes are tired. I read that as "I'm tired God made and assaulted my rod...it broke."

[Seth1483]

A tragic tale indeed of ever there was one.

[knoedel90]

how about a new Version of the solar panel mod? (the old version doesn't work on A4).
I thought it would be nice if you could build 1x1 solar panels people can walk on and not reducing the power of wind turbines even if build in front of them.

i am just trying the coal mnining. but i saw that a coal burner only gives 3000 power while a geothermal Generator gives 3600.
this has to be balanced because coal mining and burning cost energy, more space and more metal.

[Architect]

how about a new Version of the solar panel mod? (the old version doesn't work on A4).
I thought it would be nice if you could build 1x1 solar panels people can walk on and not reducing the power of wind turbines even if build in front of them.

i am just trying the coal mnining. but i saw that a coal burner only gives 3000 power while a geothermal Generator gives 3600.
this has to be balanced because coal mining and burning cost energy, more space and more metal.

I have plans in the future for a bit of work with solar panels, and more realistic power generation for a bunch of ship wreck survivors, but it's going to be a while before they get realised. Besides, I have a policy on not making anything in my mod that another mod already does unless I had already thought of the idea. For instance conveyor belts were on my to do list long before I saw that Caller13er was also going to be doing conveyor belts. I can't in good faith remake the solo solar panel mod in its current state, because I personally don't think that is fair.

As for balancing the coal plant, it is balance. One geyser means one coal mine can produce enough coal to keep two plants supplied with coal, or it can be used to allow on geothermal generator to produce just over half that power, but directly. Whilst the finer points may need tinkering, the theory is sound. I could only suggest that either there is a bug, or you aren't using them correctly I'm afraid

[Architect]

OK, next release is now up and available for download. As usual, if there are any concerns with balance, textures, bug, general issues, etc, etc, let me know in as much detail as possible as quickly as possible. Enjoy!

Oh, and I'll probably be taking a weeks break from adding new features to go play all the new games I've got in the Steam Summer Sale, so whilst I will be here to help with any bugs and put out fixes for the latest version, a version with completely new features won't be hear for a week or so

[TankaaKumawani]

I had an idea about splitting up the subsystems a bit for the thermal power plants, making each into a three-module assembly.  (Or more, if sufficient power is available on the output end or if you want to build massive solar collectors.)

Thermal Energy Source/Burner->Heat Engine->Generator

This would give us some flexibility in sizing and capability.  We could start off with a wood-burning furnace or small set of solar thermal concentrators powering a Stirling or Rankine cycle engine, which would turn a crude dynamo with mechanical commutator.  "We wound the coils by hand, and it sparks dreadfully...but we can charge the batteries with it."

Fuels:
Wood, Coal, Biomass, the local star, Geothermal Heat, Uranium

Burner/Thermal Energy Source:
Solid Fuel Burner, Gasification/Digester, Solar Concentrator, Geothermal Borehole, Nuclear Fission Reactor

Heat Engine:
Stirling (hot air engine), Otto/Diesel/Atkinson (internal combustion reciprocating engine), Rankine (steam engine, either turbine or reciprocating), Brayton (combustion turbine)

Generator:
Commutator Dynamo, Low-Speed Alternator, High-Speed Alternator.

[Morrigi]

I had an idea about splitting up the subsystems a bit for the thermal power plants, making each into a three-module assembly.  (Or more, if sufficient power is available on the output end or if you want to build massive solar collectors.)

Thermal Energy Source/Burner->Heat Engine->Generator

This would give us some flexibility in sizing and capability.  We could start off with a wood-burning furnace or small set of solar thermal concentrators powering a Stirling or Rankine cycle engine, which would turn a crude dynamo with mechanical commutator.  "We wound the coils by hand, and it sparks dreadfully...but we can charge the batteries with it."

Fuels:
Wood, Coal, Biomass, the local star, Geothermal Heat, Uranium

Burner/Thermal Energy Source:
Solid Fuel Burner, Gasification/Digester, Solar Concentrator, Geothermal Borehole, Nuclear Fission Reactor

Heat Engine:
Stirling (hot air engine), Otto/Diesel/Atkinson (internal combustion reciprocating engine), Rankine (steam engine, either turbine or reciprocating), Brayton (combustion turbine)

Generator:
Commutator Dynamo, Low-Speed Alternator, High-Speed Alternator.

If things go that far, it'd be entirely wrong to leave out Wankel rotary engines, especially since they have very few parts compared to piston engines, have a much higher power:weight ratio, can use a wider range of octane ratings (and thus low-quality fuels are less likely to cause engine knock), and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine

[Seth1483]

I had an idea about splitting up the subsystems a bit for the thermal power plants, making each into a three-module assembly.  (Or more, if sufficient power is available on the output end or if you want to build massive solar collectors.)

Thermal Energy Source/Burner->Heat Engine->Generator

This would give us some flexibility in sizing and capability.  We could start off with a wood-burning furnace or small set of solar thermal concentrators powering a Stirling or Rankine cycle engine, which would turn a crude dynamo with mechanical commutator.  "We wound the coils by hand, and it sparks dreadfully...but we can charge the batteries with it."

Fuels:
Wood, Coal, Biomass, the local star, Geothermal Heat, Uranium

Burner/Thermal Energy Source:
Solid Fuel Burner, Gasification/Digester, Solar Concentrator, Geothermal Borehole, Nuclear Fission Reactor

Heat Engine:
Stirling (hot air engine), Otto/Diesel/Atkinson (internal combustion reciprocating engine), Rankine (steam engine, either turbine or reciprocating), Brayton (combustion turbine)

Generator:
Commutator Dynamo, Low-Speed Alternator, High-Speed Alternator.

If things go that far, it'd be entirely wrong to leave out Wankel rotary engines, especially since they have very few parts compared to piston engines, have a much higher power:weight ratio, can use a wider range of octane ratings (and thus low-quality fuels are less likely to cause engine knock), and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine

Well the problem with rotary engines is the fact that they lose timing, burn up, slag up, and just flat break; so damn easily.  Not something you'd see in a colony of crash survivors and pirate converts.

[TankaaKumawani]

Wankel is just a variant of the Otto cycle when you get down to it.  There are a lot of engineering hurdles that make other options more effective (although it's not bad at being a compact constant-speed power generator) for a given manufacturing ability.

Solid Fuel would be fed into the combustion system from hoppers or conveyors.  Possibly piping or tanks for liquid and gaseous fuels could be an option, but I fear that it would add too much complexity.

Biomass - can be burned directly for Stirling/Rankine (wood), or gasified for internal combustion engines (wood), or methane (raw food) can be produced in a digester.

External combustion engines would be three-module (burner/engine/generator) devices, internal combustion engines would be two-module (engine/generator) devices.

Example System:  "Colony's First Steam Engine"
Crude Furnace (80% fuel-to-thermal efficiency)
Crude Steam Engine (20% thermal-to-mechanical efficiency)
Commutator Dynamo (80% mechanical-to-electrical efficiency)
12.8% overall efficiency

Example System #2:  "Squirrely Steamer"
Improved Furnace (90% fuel-to-thermal efficiency)
Steam Engine (Rankine) (30% thermal-to-mechanical efficiency)
Alternator (90% mechanical-to-electrical efficiency)
24.3% overall efficiency

Example System #3:  "Tom Turbine"
Advanced Furnace (97% fuel-to-thermal efficiency)
Steam Turbine (Rankine) (42% thermal-to-mechanical efficiency)
High-speed Alternator (95% mechanical-to-electrical efficiency)
38.7% overall efficiency

Example System #4:  "Rudolph's Rumbler"
Diesel Engine (35% efficiency)
Alternator (90% mechanical-to-electrical efficiency)
31.5% overall efficiency...but it takes power to produce diesel fuel, or a digester/gasifier for biomass.

Example System #5: "Stellar Stirling"
Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator (75% efficient)
Improved Stirling Engine (23% efficient)
Alternator (90% efficient)
15.25% overall efficiency...but it probably won't explode and the fuel is free as long as there's no eclipse.

If we really want to futz with thermodynamics and the game adds water to the maps, we have all sorts of fun options for dealing with the waste heat that would affect the overall efficiency of the system...

[Architect]

Some interesting ideas here, but I simply do not have the time to support major systems like this. It's taken me an incredibly long time just to get to the point where I consider the mod stable, much less content rich. I have school, my jobs, and what meager social life I have left contending with programming constantly. Today was the first day I have spent at home all day in well over a month, and even then I ended up volunteering to help run the village talent show I just don't have time for features that are so intricately woven and invested within each other.

That being said, I'll book mark this page on the thread, and if I get any time and have a complete feature block, I'll come back to these ideas.

[TankaaKumawani]

Sorry for overwhelming you there.  You probably could shrink most of the systems down into a single module (and hoppers) with quality dictated by research, aside from the solar concentrators.

[WolfgangPolska]

How can I get depleted nuclear waste?

[Architect]

Nuclear waste should slowly decay into depleted nuclear waste over time.

[Girlinhat]

Battery stations seem to be broken.

My setup is a solar array, run through large batteries, then connected to cell chargers.  Right across from the chargers, are cell drainers, which attach to the large batteries that feed my turrets, so there should be a one-way power flow.

The problem is, when colonists add or remove a battery from the turret grid, it instantly drains the turret grid's power by a seemingly random amount, usually dropping it down to 0.  This happens when they have an empty power cell on a cell draining station, and they remove the empty cell.

It's also possible that the cell chargers aren't actually paying attention to the grid, and are just grabbing power from every battery, ignoring how the cables are laid.

[Architect]

That's.... Alarming to say the least. Ill look into that as soon as i get home, but i thought i had fixed all the issues with it. Never the less, ill certainly be working on testing and fixing ASAP