Coal Generator

Coal Generator
Converts Coal into electrical Power. Produces Carbon Dioxide
Burning coal produces more energy than manual power, but emits heat and exhaust.
Research	Internal Combustion
Dimensions	3×3 tiles
Category	Power
Power	+600 W
Heat	+9 kDTU/s
Overheat at	75 °C
Decor	-15 (Radius: 3 tiles)
Requires	Coal: 1000 g/s
Storage Capacity	Coal: 600 kg
Effects	Carbon Dioxide: +20 g/s @ 110+ °C
Auto In	Green: Enable Red: Disable
Other Properties	Susceptible to flooding
Materials
Metal Ore	800 kg

Coal Generator produces power when supplied with Coal. It will operate until it runs out of fuel. It can be configured to be active only when the stored energy level in connected batteries drops below a set percentage. The generator can hold 600 kg of coal and can therefore generate 360 kJ of energy before being refilled, enough to charge 9 Jumbo Batteries.

Coal Generators are the third least heat-efficient among continuous generators, producing 1.5 kDTU and 3.(3) g of carbon dioxide per 100 Watt.

Usage

Coal Generator is a good way to speed up colony development as they output more Power than a Manual Generator and free Duplicant time they would have spent running. However, they require a bit of setup, as you need to be able to deal with the high amount of carbon dioxide and heat they produce. Sealing the room or making sure the carbon dioxide falls into a space prepared to deal with it is mandatory so as to not flood your colony with heat and unbreathable air.

Heat economy

It may not look like it, but technically Coal Generators delete heat starting at the coal's temperature of 21.81 K

Minimal Heat output of Carbon Dioxide and Coal Generator itself:

0.846 (DTU/g)/℃ * 20 g/s * 383.15 K = 6,482.898 DTU/s

6,482.898 DTU/s + 9,000 DTU/s = 15,482.898 DTU/s

Heat input of Coal at 21.81 K:

0.710 (DTU/g)/℃ * 1000 g/s * 21.81 K = 15,485.1 DTU/s

However, it is only a passive heat, that was trapped in a solid, and only relevant if coal gained it from environment on its way to generator.

Tips

• Keep the Coal Generator (and hot machines in general) in cool spaces such as the Frozen Biome so the temperature does not rise out of control. Natural tiles can safely absorb heat for many cycles.
• Place Coal Generators in lower areas of the base to assist with carbon dioxide collection. Carbon dioxide is heavier than most gases and will fall to the bottom right.
• The Coal Generator will stay active and waste fuel even after batteries are full. Connect Automation Wire to a Smart Battery with 90 % standby to shut down the generator and save fuel.
• Duplicants will not refill a Coal Generator (and will even abandon a refueling in process) if an automation signal has it disabled.
• Coal Generators can be serviced with Auto-Sweepers and nearby coal storage, greatly reducing the need for duplicant labor. Lock access to the room so that duplicants will not interfere.
  • Coal Generator's Cell of Interest is the bottom middle tile, so make sure that your Auto-Sweepers can reach that so it can deliver coal.
• Preserve coal supplies by raising Hatches to transmute less useful resources into coal.
  • On average, one generator requires 8.5 Hatches, or >4 sage Hatches, to run constantly, slightly more than fit in one max size stable. But if it's connected to a Smart Battery and the average consumption is lower than the maximum production, it won't be running all the time and therefore will require less.

Cell of Interest

Trivia

• Even though it is a coal generator it does not require Oxygen to burn coal.
• The coal generator emits carbon dioxide from its top-right tile.

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