Electricity

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Revision as of 13:59, 12 April 2014 by Space Opera (talk | contribs) (I checked the in game power consumption of the Refinery and Assembler, their stated max power input is 560 KW, and their Standby Power consumption is 1 KW.Updated their power consumptions to be displayed in MW, to keep in line with the rest of the article)
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Electricity is a system and resource in Space Engineers that is used to power most devices. It is created with large and small Reactor. Any device that has a direct block connection to a reactor will be powered by a reactor. That is to say, if a reactor is on a ship, all devices attached to that ship should receive power, granted there is enough power to receive. However at this point a motor block does not conduct electricity nor does it connect any pieces to the terminal except itself.

Reactors are powered by uranium ingots. 1L uranium ingots produces 68.76 MWs or 0.0191 MWh of energy.
At the current stage of the game, uranium is not required to power a ship, and will not deplete while using power.

The maximum amount a reactor can power:

Reactor Small Ship Large Ship
Small Reactor 4 MW 56 MW
Large Reactor 108 MW 1512 MW
Solar Panel 1.5* kW 6* kW

( *Solar Panels have a maximum output depending on their angle to the sun and the amount of actually lit surface. Given values are the max achievable output with perfect conditions.)

Thrusts being used by the ship's inertia dampening will use 1.5x the maximum power.
Thrust power usage:

Ship Thrust Minimum Power Maximum Power Automatic Stabilizing
Small Small 0.0001 MW 1.68 MW 2.52 MW
Small Large 0.0001 MW 20 MW 30 MW
Large Small 0.0001 MW 28 MW 42 MW
Large Large 0.0001 MW 336 MW 504 MW

Refinery and assembler power usage (Individual Usage):

Mode Power Usage
Standby 0.001 MW
Operational 0.560 MW

Other component power usages:

Component Small Ship Large Ship
Gravity Generator N/A 0.0112 MW
Interior Light N/A 0.0004 MW
Medical Room N/A  ? MW
Door N/A  ? MW
Gyroscope 0.00003 MW 0.0015 MW
Reflector Light 0.012 MW 0.0112 MW
Beacon 0.1 MW 0.1008 MW
Antenna  ? MW 0.1008 MW
Ore Detector  ? MW  ? MW
Conveyor  ? MW  ? MW
Drill .01 MW N/A
Gatling/Missile Turret N/A 0.1008 MW
Interior Turret N/A 0.1008 MW

(Ver: 01.013.008)

Notes:
Anything labeled "? MW" did not have power usage listed in the CubeBlocks.sbc file.
Noticed that lights, beacons, and antenna have power usage costs. However, have not thoroughly tested them.
Doors and reflector lights are off by default. All reflector lights are simultaneously turned on or off when using the toggle lights key.
Not sure if the drill requires power while in standby.

  • novice test, drill uses 2.5% of 4 MW with a small reactor, whenever equipped, regardless of if it is active or not. Hence the value of .01 MW.