The ratings 1 - 5 as far as I can see is like the real world ratings A - F on appliances so not a number for how much electricity they use. As the pack is new I don't think anyone has yet tried to figure out how much electricity they consume at a certain rating. All I can say is that you need to produce more than you use. I recommend using roof windmills and roof solar panels as they don't break.
@jpkarlsen If the numbers don't actually relate to the amount of power an item uses, then the description 'Power Consumption 1' is confusing. That to me sounds like how much power an item uses.
My turbine can't break anymore as it's been upgraded. The solar panels do sometimes break but are quick to fix so that's not too much of an issue. My Sim has no electrical items on her lot currently and is making an electricity surplus, but the moment I add a fridge it tells me that she would use up all her power created each day and would actually go into negative. I'm just trying to work out how much power you have to create to actually run very low consumption items.
I don't want to have to fill my lot with a huge amount of solar panels just to get one fridge to work. Seems very excessive.
@jpkarlsen She currently has no electrical appliances, because even adding one fridge gives her negative power.
That's why I was trying to work out how the power consumption works, compared to the amounts of power it say's your panels and turbines are producing.
Yeah, I don’t understand this either. I honestly wonder if the power system is bugged. I have one fridge that I can’t use and no other electrical items. I don’t understand how my solar panel isn’t generating enough electricity to run one refrigerator.
I did a test. on the container lot. Added one roof solar panel Power Production 2 (PP) and one Fridge Power Rating 2 (PR). This worked fine. Did you try one of the more expensive fridges with far higher PR?
I then added a stove PR 5 and two roof wind turbines PP 3 each and now have a surplus I can store or sell.
PP and PR must be one to one or better.
I can’t really play right now due to the game constantly crashing, but I’ll check once PS4 gets some sort of update.
@jpkarlsen Well that's what I thought, but it's not.
As in my original post, my Sim has a power surplus of +14.64 per day. She has no electrical items at all, but I placed the cheapest fridge with a PC of 1. My power then went from +14.64 per day to minus 9.06. That means she's now running a minus amount of energy per day, so over time once the +33 she has saved up runs out that the 2 solar panels and the wind turbine will not be generating enough power to run one fridge. Because she's running a minus per day it means she's just using from the store, so no energy will be stored and because she's using more than what is generated the store will eventually run out and it won't generate enough to run one item.
That's why I was asking about the PC as it doesn't seem to add up. If the fridge uses 1 per day, I would expect my power consumption to go from +14.64 to +13.64. As long as she's not using more electricity then she's generating then I should always be running a surplus. But placing just that one item with a power consumption of 1 meant I immediately was running a power deficit, and I wasn't generating enough power.
With the water it's not as bad because you use those items as and when. She has plenty of water stored up so she can take a shower per day and use the taps and toilet here and there and that's fine.
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.
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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