Can someone explain off the grid power please

@SparklyB 

It is not quite a static number but depends on Sun (Solar panel) and wind (wind turbines) but on average it should even out.

I can tell you that in all of my houses, in order to "store" any power or water, I've had to blanket the roof in solar panels and add at least four water catchers.  One thing I would recommend, if you haven't done so, is to upgrade the refrigerator to "energy efficient device".  I have found that if I take the time to do that with all of the appliances that I can, and upgrade all the plumbing to "water recycler", then I can usually store up energy and water to use on blackout days, etc.  The energy efficient upgrade makes a difference on how much power the appliances use.

I believe the PR and PC are more of a scale. With 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Instead of looking at it like the solar panel produces 2 watts and the fridge uses 1 watt, you should view it as which is better at the doing the function that's required of it.

@SparklyB 

It's very confusing how it works. I definitely would not have used this method.

The way the numbers work, is When you look at Show bill info, the number you see is how much Power or Water will be drained in a given period if you were to keep draining and charging it at the current rate. (Which will NEVER happen)

Look at it like this, if you add the treadmill upgrade that generates power, and have a sim run on it, look at the bill info. It will say something like +150. But you'll never get +150 because no sim can run that long on it. You'll only get like +5.  If your sim ran for the entire day (which is impossible) you'd get +150.  It's not a very accurate reading, which is why I don't like it.

Various things add to or subtract from it.  Solar panels in full daylight and wind turbines on a windy day will add a lot. Solar panels on a cloudy day or wind turbines on a non-windy day will only add a little.  All electrical devices will subtract from it. Some more than others. I'm not sure what the "power rating of 1" refers to, I'm tending to think it's not an actual value, but a scale as others have said.

The values you see are extremely difficult to quantify. All you really need to do is make sure it stays positive most of the time.  If your sim is playing a game on the computer or watching TV, it'll go down a lot faster.

Basically, a good thing to do is look at the values at like 6am. Have your sim go about a normal day, and look at the values again at 6am the next day.  If the stored power value has dropped, then you need more solar panels or wind turbines.  But like I said, different days will change things. If you go through 3 or 4 days of clouds and rain, solar panels will be having a hard time building power. Best to have both solar and wind to compensate for each other.

Also, it's better to have ROOF solar and wind devices, you won't have to maintain them like the ground ones.

ThePsycho
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@SparklyBI know I'm almost a year late, but this is what I think. I think the power consumption/production rating is per hour. So, an item that has a consumption of 2 would need 24 per day. An item that produces 2 would produce 48 per day. This would create a surplus of 24 per day. So, you would need enough solar panels to cover each appliance, totaling in lights and any other items that consume power. (I always minimize the size of the solar panels to the smallest they can get to maximize roof space. I do the same with the dew collector too.) I hope that helps!

Hey @cdb2015 I'm going to lock this thread as it is quite old.

Please do not bump older threads such as this.

Darko