Oxygen Not Included - Tutorial Bites - Power Systems

This tutorial bite for Oxygen Not Included explains power systems and how to use them effectively.

0:00 - Intro
0:15 - Circuit basics
0:48 - Types of power interacting machines
2:06 - The first circuit
2:43 - Adding automated generators
3:32 - Wire capacity and overloading
4:44 - Splitting circuits
5:07 - Wire types - Conductive Wires
5:29 - Overloading with mixed wires
5:50 - Heavi-Watt Wires
6:36 -Heavi-Watt Joint Plates
6:54 - Transformers & Complete power systems
7:50 - Large Transformers
8:34 - A complete power system
8:59 - Heavi-Watt Spines & Practical power systems
9:55 - Outro

this is the single greatest tutorial on power systems i've ever seen. i wish i had this two years ago when i was puzzling over how to use transformers (and confused by the game's lack of a 2kw transformer).

[joeman]

FINALLY! a clear explanation of how everything works and not some fancy high tier design with some trick using the mechanics. You just nailed it. Here you provide all the information one needs to start tyring out setups to make it work for each individual case. Thank you

[michaelrichards]

This is going to be a gem for new players

[nathanhamers]

You have such nice tutorials man! I'm finally in at cycle 200 and have successfully avoided heat death for the first time (so far) thanks to your tutorials. Idk why but all other tutorials are an hour or even longer ): these sub 10 minute videos are so clear and to the point, I love it.

[IcoKirov]

A couple of years ago i read an explanation about the large tranformers that gave a very clever thing to do with them, but i totally forgot what it was and cant find it anymore.
Currently the only thing i know about them, is that they save space and heat. And there is an edge case where you need them:
When you want to have a battery bank - for storing large amount of power in jumbo batteries, like from solar or slugs. You wire them with heavy watt, then put a couple of large tranformers toward your regular power producers and power spine, and a smart battery to turn on/off the tranformers. This way you wont mix up jumbo and smart batteries, and you will still use the power stored in the battery bank before turning your power generators to save resources

[jackmushroom]

Been enjoying this tutorial series and am looking forward to more. It's easy to see how much effort and thought went into making the videos as concise and informative as possible.

[thedumbone]

Honestly, the fact that the large transformer is 4kw makes me so mad that i just use two normal ones out of protest

[VidimusWolf]

These tutorial bites are absolutely fantastic. Clear and informative, well edited, and to the point. Excellent work! Subbed!

[Morphinem]

I can't put links here without comment review. There is a Reddit thread explaining why 4K transformers are still a thing. It's about directionality, space economy etc... But not about protecting your system against overload. You're not supposed to rely on this protection after a while, you're supposed to design your electrical system to never been able to overload in the first place. Then 4KT can help you to move from heavy-watt wires to no-decor-penalty wires where it's needed. Also with automation there must be things to do as well...
EDIT : I tested it with automation, it's possible to run two 2k grid on a single Large generator without overloads ! You need 2power shutoff, 2 smartbatteries and 1 NOT gate. Simple : when one grid is demanding power from the generator, the other one is cut off. And viceversa. Working for consumers asking continuous 2k, and they don't get interrupted because the battery is charging faster than it discharges. Hard to explain without picture link.

[kaboomsihal]

You do have a wire going back. That's why even the simple smallest wire has 2 wires in the sprite. I find that makes it the easiest to keep in mind when dealing with wires because it makes it obvious why wires take damage when they're not even connected. Because it's still running in a circuit down the wire and back up, so it still has electricity running in it. Basically everything on the circuit is in a line running through all wires, to the thing, and back. Not really how things work in the real world either but makes it easier to wrap my head around.

[crimzinlane]

Thank you for the videos! I've seen other videos as well and you've made the the game A LOT easier.

[caleschley]

You covered most everything. I think it is worth mentioning that using automation, and power switches, you can create a flip-flop power injector. That is, you charge one battery while the other is connected to the main battery bank via transformers; then, when one battery depletes (or fills), the switches flip. This let's the other battery charge from the generators and the one that was charging can now inject to the battery bank. Using this setup, you can put all of your generators on normal 1kw wire, because there are never any consumers, because the flip-flop is isolating them.

And thus comes in the usefulness of the 4kW transformer. Transferring large amounts of power from the isolated battery to the battery bank would be awful with 2kW transformers. I would have to chain twice as many together to get the same throughput.

If you are having trouble keeping the conductive wire circuits from overloading, then feed them with two 1kW transformers instead of the 4kW transformer.

[joeblack]

Great guide. One thing though. It's useful to understand, and I hope I'm remembering right here... That buildings will always safely turn off when they exceed the wire capacity - IF the combined power sources are also less than or equal to the wire capacity. In the 5 pump example if you had one coal generator some pumps would simply not turn on I think. Consumers suck, and they will always suck as much power as they need. If the power is there to be sucked. Wire be damned.

A super duper useful use for them is also when you cascade transformers and get power draw prioritisation. A transformer on a line will only pass through any excess power available. Bit like the pipe bridge priority overflow really, but for electricity. That transformer could already be on a lower priority wire.

[derchesten]

Just got into the game 2 days ago and found your tutorials invaluable.
Tho this you got wrong, they kinda follow real life. There's no return wire because they are parallel life as shown by the A type plug in power equipment. Currents are represented by the wattage and the thing I found different to real life is that the whole wire overloads instead of the section that consumes most power. I struggled to find current isolation devices until I found the transformers, that act like those

[Somebody-bvcd]

I use a power shutoff and a wattage sensor set at 2K instead of 2 1K transformers. I'm still new so I don't actually know if this is a good or bad idea, but I don't have to build 2 transformers in this case.

[Alisasi]

Omg this is the first time I understood it

[fastfiddler]

I like to refer to systems in games like this as "pseudo realistic." They take part of the realistic, but simplify it or change it to make it a viable game. While transformers in real life change voltage, and not directly capacity, they are used the same way: to connect local networks to the main grid.

It is interesting how you can't have regular wires anywhere, even going nowhere, on a higher wire. You could otherwise put low draw lights at the end of a high draw industrial circuit. IE, lights using regular wire at the end of a conductive wire because the high draw items only load the wire up to that point... This could be a simulation limitation, or a choice because allowing you to "funnel down" your lines would get crazy complicated in an already complex game. Or it's following another real life idea: You'd never build a 20A circuit with 12 gauge wire, and then say, ok, the last outlet can just be 15A, and we'll just connect it to the penultimate outlet with a 14 gauge wire. The breaker limits the whole circuit to its rating. If you put in a 20A breaker, you HAVE to have all 20A capable wiring connected to it so that the protection is always the limiting factor. So I feel like the random burning up - oops I forgot one segment of unused regular wire - is them trying to gameify the above. Or not. I'm bored.

[illiakuznietsov]

I'd add about DLC rocket battery. You can place those, deconstruct rocket platform and here you have a little tower of best batteries in the game. They contain 100kWt in 6 tiles, which is 5 times of smart battery, while having same lost of power over time and not heating surroundings
Also dont add batteries on the low-power side of transformer, since it can cause a damage

[femalecrusader]

Like a video on use of autmation with power and the differences of metal wires? The best method so there is no wire overloading/break.

[zantar]

I still don't understand the power numbers in this game. I have like 3k hours in and never really understood the need for the 50-watt wire. 50, 20 for the heavys, 2 and 1 for the lows, and 4 and 1 for the transformers. Its like they need a 50 to 20 transformer and a 4-5 watt wire.