-snip-
Eject at 10%? HAH! No, the only time I would eject at 10% is if the next thing it says is 20%. *Then* I have a problem.
I know. People just don't understand I'm actually competent. Except when I flood engineering with plasma. Or accidentally detonate the SM. Or shock myself.
Good guide. Does that really get you 1MW? 12 shots with all the collectors usually gets me ~700KW.
I also hate the bypasses. Because I am a highly safety conscious engineer, and isolation is a good thing!
Have you been on BS12 lately? They're working on a new thing: isolation breakers. When they're done, they'll let their engineers disconnect the grid into several separate sections, each with its own SMES. I'm really looking forward to it. It will give me so many ridiculous things to do when it comes to optimizing the grid
The SMES also have another significant benefit: Significant life extension of critical equipment during power loss. Which is probably only relevant on the long rounds I enjoy so much
I get a little obsessive over good engineering on my shift. Part of why my 'goodbye' to any engineer is 'Stay safe'
So here's a list of safety violations that will make CE Kriellya twitch
- Wiring the solars into the grid: Do you *want* to blow up the solars? Or expose their APC to a power sink? INSANITY!
- Wiring the engine equipment into the engine output: Those freezers are high voltage, but everything has a limit! And what if you lose engine power? That's a quick way to burial in space!
- Wiring Atmos into the grid: We need that to breathe. Why are you bypassing it's backup power SMES and exposing it to shorts? Because you don't want to have to *watch* it? ARE YOU AN ENGINEER OR A SCIENTIST?!?
- Trying to get a MW out of the engine: WHHYYYY? Why are you putting the station at extreme risk for something we don't need? This station takes 300KW to run, on a bad day. Why are you trying to generate 3 times as much power?
- High voltage grid: Are you trying to get someone killed? Are you trying to get *me* killed? I have to touch those wires! I'd rather they not be willing to kill me at the slightest provocation!
And now you know how to make me twitch. Have fun!
You'd hate working with me. I think I violate most of these .
1. The SMES are difficult to figure out appropriate values for - if you know any, praytell.
2. The high inputs needed to sustain the high outputs from the SMES to avoid bottlenecking, which takes power away from the rest of the grid. If the engine isn't able to power the freezers - which will be powered first - then you have a good half hour before it explodes. Plus, it allows for easier expansion for up to 5 freezers.
3. Same as above. Due to air SCIENCE and a project to cool the station (don't ask), we discovered that the pipes have hours of air in them. I don't like dealing with the bottleneck.
4. Thanks to Baymachines, at full consumption the station eats almost 400k. I have two smes at 150k (maxed) and 200k (~150k used). At 1MW, which is ac
5. Okay, that's dumb. Dear Honkmother, unless you have a powersink (they top out at 1.4MW), don't wire everything into the grid.
That said,sometimes I wish R&D would get their acts together. When engineering starts building, they better be prepared to pump out SMES and freezer parts and other machine components like no tomorrow. I want to build my power bank of 20 SMES dammit!
The engine room and station grid SMES are very easy to setup. The engine's equipment requires ~125KW at full bore (pumps to full, 3 freezers to full), so I usually give it an in/out of 150KW. Each freezers adds about 30KW, so bump it up about 30KW per freezer. If I'm not concered with charging the grid SMES, I'll usually max out the input on the engine, just so it tops off faster.
The grid SMES is also pretty simple. I find the station requires ~300KW to charge, and ~200KW to run. I'll usually start by setting everything to 50KW/50KW, then keep an eye on the output of the engine while I pump up the input on one of the SMES units (usually the bottom one) until I'm using most of the power coming out of the engine, then I'll pump the output until I've got about 150KW floating. At that point, I'll run over and configure the Atmos SMES to do 100KW in/80KW out, which is enough to keep the basic setup going. If I start doing something in Atmos, I'll usually increase it to 150KW in/125KW out, especially if I'm using the freezers.
The solars are... difficult to use the SMES with, I agree. I treat them as 'backup' power and generally just configure them to charge unless something goes wrong with the engine. 80 KW in, 0 out usually charges them in a couple rotations. Future experimentation can provide a more definite value, but I find that they on average produce ~40 KW during a full rotation. Some produce less than others, due to differing obstructions. If I want them to have *some* output, I'll usually set them to 25 KW, to ensure that their SMES stays charged.
If I actually *need* them (the engine is gone, or I want to experiment), I'll bite the bullet and wire them in. Without the theoretical 5th solar panel, they just don't produce enough to realistically power the station otherwise.
With regard to Atmos, yeah, it can basically run the pumps forever under normal circumstances. What it *doesn't* have is hours of air to re-pressurize with. It's basically impossible to repressurize anything if Atmos is out of power, including the engine room you might have to re-pressurize to bring it back online safely. Though usually you'd want to solve the power problem before you solved an Atmos problem anyway
Hmm... I suddenly had an interesting optimization idea. I'll have to test that later. Who wants to play with phoron?
I just tell the solars to send out 100-200K each, just enough power to get the station to survive...
That is way too high, at least on this server. It will just drain the SMES and shut off. The solars at max exposure generate 90KW, unless upgraded somehow. Or unless something has changed recently.
Yeah, I figured that, but the question was more about what the atmospheric thresholds were. I'm assuming that the reason the supermatter goes critical is that the heat increases the air pressure enough that it overwhelms the Plasma filtering system. So if I only have to put one Nitrogen canister in instead of the customary two, then it figures that I could get the supermatter producing more energy before needing to install the extra gas coolers.
The temperature is the main concern. The new atmos pumps are *really* good at pumping out the toxins, and there's actually a cooling loop on the waste to lower it's pressure. I've never seen the SM go boom just due to pressure, though I would be interested in trying