Smart Battery

Smart Battery
Stores Power from generators, then provides that Power to buildings. Sends a Green Signal or Red Signal based on the configuration of the Logic Activation Parameters.
Very slightly loses charge over time. Smart batteries send a Green Signal when they require charging.
Research	Sound Amplifiers
Dimensions	2×2 tiles
Category	Power
Heat	+500 DTU/s
Overheat at	75 °C
Decor	-15 (Radius: 3 tiles)
Requires	Power generators
Effects	Power capacity: 20 kJ Power runoff: 0.4 kJ/cycle
Auto Out	Green: under low charge threshold Red: over high charge threshold
Other Properties	Susceptible to flooding
Materials
Refined Metal	200 kg

Smart Battery stores excess power from generators, but loses charge over time. Unlike other batteries it can be used for automation purposes.

Usage

The battery has two parameters:

• High Threshold: the battery sends out a Red Signal when its charge is increased to this threshold.
• Low Threshold: the battery sends out a Green Signal when its charge is reduced to this threshold.

The battery will activate an automation signal when its charge falls BELOW the 'Low Threshold' setting. It will not switch the signal off until the charge is greater than the 'High Threshold' value.

A typical sample is to use Smart Battery to control Coal Generators. Connect the Coal Generator and Smart Battery with power wires and automation wires. Set the Smart Battery High Threshold to 90% and Low Threshold to 50%. When the Smart Battery charge falls below 50%, it will send out a Green Signal to enable the Coal Generator. Once it is charged to 90%, it will send out a Red Signal to disable the Coal Generator. This is an effective way to avoid wasting the fuel and works with other continuous generators too.

Tips

• The power loss of 15 Smart batteries is as small as the drain of one Ceiling Light. But, each battery produces the same amount of heat as the lamp.
• The logic output is dependent on the percentage of charge stored. If the Smart Battery is sharing a circuit with other batteries this will effectively monitor their cumulative charge.
  • This does not work with Jumbo Battery, as they have double capacity and will not charge fully on the circuit regulated by a smart battery.
• Batteries on a grid are drained out evenly by consumers. This means that if smart batteries are evened out after they are built (for example charged to full), then they can be used to control priorities of power sources usage - so, for example, you only start using coal generators when your hydrogen storage is depleted. See a this guide on Klei forums.
• Because of their hysteretic behaviour, automation using a Smart Battery as a power level indicator can be tricky to setup. It is recommended to set parameters like 50-49 to overcome their hysteresis.
• Smart Batteries send a green signal when power is low, which can be used to activate power generators. However, if connected to a NOT Gate, smart batteries will instead send a green signal when power is high, which can then be used to activate power consumers.

See also

• Power
• Battery
• Jumbo Battery

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