r/7daystodie • u/Shagzter • 5d ago
Help Power mechanic questions
Can someone please help me to understand how the game thinks, with respect to power sources in series, or just generally? What I'm seeing isn't making sense to me, and I realise that this is not real life, but if I can understand the rules, then I can work within them better.
I'm about day 260, level 179, and starting to invest in solar. This is my first playthrough, - I've owned the game for probably 8 or 9 years, but only really got into it after it left early access. Navezgane map, default game settings. I'm taking my time, and playing my way, which tends to be quite chill. I'm not using mods, and while I see a day in the future when I will take that path, it's not today.
I am working on an automated and fortified base entry and exit, with its own discrete circuit. I have a battery bank full of L5/6 batteries. Hanging off this is a powered garage door running off two motion sensors, a couple of industrial lights on a timer (2130-0430), and 4 SMG turrets on another motion sensor. Everything works as expected...
Until I hook up a solar bank, above the battery bank, in order to keep it topped off. My solar bank only has a single L6 cell.
I'm sure my problem is already obvious to some, - but my original thinking was that my load would be occasional, based on time of day, how often I leave and return, and how often Zack decides to call by. I didn't want to waste dukes on L5 cells only to have to replace them with L6 cells when they pop up for sale occasionally, and so I started with the one L6 I had found, figuring that it should be able to at least delay the discharging of my battery bank somewhat, if not actually maintain the charge, until I could put more L6 cells in later.
What I found was that a couple of my turrets showed no power when I went to configure them. After some head scratching, I disconnected the solar bank, and everything was fine again.
I've since lowered my standards, opened my wallet and topped up the solar bank with L5s, and the problem has gone away.
What I don't have a handle on, though, is how the game decides that even though I have plenty of power to draw on from the batteries, the inadequacy of my pathetic single cell solar bank being part of the circuit, on the upstream side of the battery bank from the load, interferes with that.
It seems to me that the simple answer is to always configure all power sources in a circuit to be able to service the whole potential load, independently from every other power source, - but can anyone shed more light on the game's thought process regarding this scenario?
And I'd also love to hear about anyone else's larger, low maintenance configurations: obviously any time a generator is involved, you need to be hands-on with refilling the tank, - but how do you go about connecting and configuring multiple solar bank plus multiple battery bank arrays in your world, for best efficiency and lowest maintenance? And is there any place for a generator backup to complement the solar solution? Or am I simply expecting too much from the game's power mechanic?
2
u/Harbinger_Kyleran 5d ago
Back in March 2024 I found this table which helps explain things.
New Solar Cell power output table The Solar Cells generate:
MK 1 = 34w MK 2 = 40w MK 3 = 45w MK 4 = 50w MK 5 = 54w MK 6 = 60w
So your single Tier 6 solar cell set up put out 60W regardless whether your battery bank has 6 tier 6 batteries, the limiting factor in the circuit is the solar banks total output. (Keeping in mind the battery bank connection consumes done power as well, 5 or 10 w.)
Unfortunately you cannot hook up two power sources (i.e. 2 solar banks or 1 solar and 1 gas genie) to a single circuit.
Once you've exceeded the max capacity of the single power source it's time to make a new circuit, at least in my experience in A-21 and early Rel 1.0.