68 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
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electrical power
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Most machines in technic are electrically powered. To operate them it is
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necessary to construct an electrical power network. The network links
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together power generators and power-consuming machines, connecting them
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using power cables.
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There are three tiers of electrical networking: low voltage (LV),
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medium voltage (MV), and high voltage (HV). Each network must operate
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at a single voltage, and most electrical items are specific to a single
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voltage. Generally, the machines of higher tiers are more powerful,
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but consume more energy and are more expensive to build, than machines
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of lower tiers. It is normal to build networks of all three tiers,
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in ascending order as one progresses through the game, but it is not
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strictly necessary to do this. Building HV equipment requires some parts
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that can only be manufactured using electrical machines, either LV or MV,
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so it is not possible to build an HV network first, but it is possible
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to skip either LV or MV on the way to HV.
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Each voltage has its own cable type, with distinctive insulation. Cable
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segments connect to each other and to compatible machines automatically.
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Incompatible electrical items don't connect. All non-cable electrical
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items must be connected via cable: they don't connect directly to each
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other. Most electrical items can connect to cables in any direction,
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but there are a couple of important exceptions noted below.
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To be useful, an electrical network must connect at least one power
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generator to at least one power-consuming machine. In addition to these
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items, the network must have a "switching station" in order to operate:
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no energy will flow without one. Unlike most electrical items, the
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switching station is not voltage-specific: the same item will manage
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a network of any tier. However, also unlike most electrical items,
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it is picky about the direction in which it is connected to the cable:
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the cable must be directly below the switching station.
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Hovering over a network's switching station will show the aggregate energy
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supply and demand, which is useful for troubleshooting. Electrical energy
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is measured in "EU", and power (energy flow) in EU per second (EU/s).
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Energy is shifted around a network instantaneously once per second.
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In a simple network with only generators and consumers, if total
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demand exceeds total supply then no energy will flow, the machines
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will do nothing, and the generators' output will be lost. To handle
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this situation, it is recommended to add a battery box to the network.
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A battery box will store generated energy, and when enough has been
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stored to run the consumers for one second it will deliver it to the
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consumers, letting them run part-time. It also stores spare energy
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when supply exceeds demand, to let consumers run full-time when their
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demand occasionally peaks above the supply. More battery boxes can
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be added to cope with larger periods of mismatched supply and demand,
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such as those resulting from using solar generators (which only produce
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energy in the daytime).
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When there are electrical networks of multiple tiers, it can be appealing
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to generate energy on one tier and transfer it to another. The most
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direct way to do this is with the "supply converter", which can be
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directly wired into two networks. It is another tier-independent item,
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and also particular about the direction of cable connections: it must
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have the cable of one network directly above, and the cable of another
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network directly below. The supply converter demands 10000 EU/s from
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the network above, and when this network gives it power it supplies 9000
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EU/s to the network below. Thus it is only 90% efficient, unlike most of
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the electrical system which is 100% efficient in moving energy around.
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To transfer more than 10000 EU/s between networks, connect multiple
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supply converters in parallel.
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