Battery

Battery
Function:	A battery stores power and is able to distribute a high output of e...
DLC?	Vanilla
Fits small grid
Mass:	1040.4 kg
Hitpoints:	3652
Power:	-4 MW
PCU:	15
Size:	3x2x3
Time to Build:	20 sec
Fits large grid
Mass:	3845.0 kg
Hitpoints:	12925
Power:	-12 MW
PCU:	15
Size:	1x1x1
Time to Build:	40 sec
Data Controls:	[purge] (?))

The Battery is a functional block which stores power from Reactors, Solar Panels, Hydrogen Engines, and Wind Turbines for later use. For related smaller block, see Small Battery.

The Warfare Battery style variant has the same functionality and recipe as described here; you need to purchase the Warfare 2 Pack DLC to build it.

Usage

You expected a battery to provide power, but your ship dropped like a rock? You expected the batteries to recharge after docking, but they didn't? Check your settings in the Control Panel Screen.

Tip: Add the battery block's Recharge On/Off and Discharge On/Off actions to your Cockpit toolbar. The icon will display their status: Auto, Charge, or Drain.

How to charge/discharge batteries

Open the Control Panel Screen to change the block's Charge Mode.

• Automatic: The battery charges itself if there is excess power on the ship, and discharges (provides power) if a block needs it.
  • This is the recommended default.
  • Choose Automatic if your ship has several batteries to charge from Wind/Solar/Reactor or from a base.
• Recharge: The battery actively draws power from other power sources including other batteries. The battery stops providing power.
  • Use Recharge to drain another battery before dismantling it. Transfer of power between batteries is lossy!
  • While recharging, make sure you're safely docked, because batteries on Recharge will not provide energy to thrusters.
  • Enable Recharge to build up charge from Solar/Wind/Reactors in a backup battery.
• Discharge: The battery provides power to other blocks and stops trying to recharge itself.
  • Use this to drain a battery that you want to leave behind or dismantle.
  • If there are several batteries on one ship, toggle Discharge to Auto to prevent them from drawing power from each other (which is lossy).

Battery Status Indicators

The battery will display its current mode and charge level.

Automatic Mode

Indicator	Charge Level	Mode	Description
	NA	Off	Red indicators: The Battery is turned off or damaged.
	0-24%	Auto	Grey indicator: 0 green lights - The Battery is providing power and is charged between 0% to 24%.
	25-49%	Auto	Green indicator: 1 green light - The Battery is providing power and is charged between 25% to 49%.
	50-74%	Auto	Green indicator: 2 green lights - The Battery is providing power and is charged between 50% to 74%.
	75-99%	Auto	Green indicator: 3 green lights - The Battery is providing power and is charged between 75% to 99%.
	100%	Auto	Green indicator: 4 green lights - The Battery is providing power and is charged to 100%.

Recharge Mode

Indicator	Charge Level	Mode	Description
	NA	Off	Red indicators: The Battery is turned off or damaged.
	0-24%	Recharge	Grey indicator: 0 yellow lights - The Battery is charged between 0% to 24%.
	25-49%	Recharge	Yellow indicator: 1 yellow light - The Battery is charged between 25% to 49%.
	50-74%	Recharge	Yellow indicator: 2 yellow lights - The Battery is charged between 50% to 74%.
	75-99%	Recharge	Yellow indicator: 3 yellow lights - The Battery is charged between 75% to 99%.
	100%	Recharge	Yellow indicator: 4 yellow lights - The Battery is fully charged.

Discharge Mode

Indicator	Charge Level	Mode	Description
	NA	Off	Red indicators: The Battery is turned off or damaged.
	0-24%	Discharge	Grey indicator: 0 blue lights - The Battery is discharging and has a charge between 0% to 24%.
	0-24%	Discharge	Blue indicator: 1 blue light - The Battery is discharging and has a charge between 0% to 24%.
	50-74%	Discharge	Blue indicator: 2 blue lights - The Battery is discharging and has a charge between 50% to 74%.
	75-99%	Discharge	Blue indicator: 3 blue lights - The Battery is discharging and has a charge between 75% to 99%.
	100%	Discharge	Blue indicator: 4 blue lights - The Battery is discharging and has a full charged.

Power

When providing power, batteries are given medium priority. Grids draw power first from  Solar Panels and  Wind Turbines, then second from batteries. Reactors are only used if the output of the higher priority options is not sufficient, in order to conserve their uranium fuel.

	Max Output	Max Input	Max Stored Power
Small Grid Battery	4 MW	4 MW	1 MWh
Large Grid Battery	12 MW	12 MW	3 MWh

Note: In Creative Mode, a battery has infinite stored charge, but still limited throughput (input/output)! If a grid exceeds its maximum power usage, you still need to add several batteries, even in Creative Mode.

Comparisons

Weight Comparison

When providing power, batteries are more efficient in terms of mass than Small Reactors on small ships, but they're only 80% as efficient as reactors in terms of power generated per volume in comparison.

However, in contrast to reactors and hydrogen engines, batteries have the advantage of not requiring a conveyor system to feed them fuel, and as such, they can be fitted in spaces not connected to conveyor systems, or be used for short trips, possibly equaling or even surpassing the power density of a conveyored reactor when used in large banks.

A fully discharged battery is just dead weight until it can be recharged using another power source. This means that large banks of batteries are suboptimal for long distance travel. If the battery is only needed to power a drone or shuttle for 15 minutes or less, the battery's life (and power per weight ratio) is sufficient and you can disregard the dead weight issue.

On small grid, seven Small Batteries weigh as much as 1 standard Battery, while offering only one third of the throughput. If you have enough space, replace these seven by a standard Battery.

Efficiency Comparison

Renewable power-producing blocks (solar panels, wind turbines) are the most efficient for recharging batteries. Given that each kilogram of Uranium ingots generates 1 MWh of power in a reactor, one full charge on a small battery is roughly equal to 0.36 ingots and on a large battery, about 1 ingot. However, recharging batteries with reactors only has a 80% efficiency, meaning you'll need somewhat more uranium to recharge batteries than to fuel a reactor.

Transferring power from one Battery to another is possible, but inefficient (lossy), so only do it in emergencies. For example, it makes sense to transfer the power out of a wreck that you are about to grind down, because it's better to lose 20% than to not salvage the power at all. But don't set up Timer blocks to discharge and recharge batteries in docked ships on the regular.

On small grid, you'd need 20 Small Batteries to get the same throughput as one standard Battery, but they'd have three times the mass and 2 SG blocks larger volume.

Trivia

Batteries are the densest block in game, they have very high mass for their small volume, even before being welded up.

• You cannot give a mobile grid "infinite power" by simply building a wall of batteries, because the increased mass will make it too sluggish. Lower the power needs by building specialised mobile grids instead of a heavy "jack of all trades".
• When a rover has flipped in Survival Mode, there are different approaches to turn it right-side-up again: One is to shift the Center of Mass by building a long temporary stalk of (unwelded!) blocks until the vehicle topples back to the other side, and then grind the stalk off. Unwelded Batteries are the block of choice for this solution.

Construction

If progression is enabled, build a  Basic Assembler first to unlock it.

Batteries exist for small grids in 3x3x2 small blocks size, which makes them quite unwieldy. On large grids, Batteries take up 1x1x1 large blocks of space. For a tiny variant, see Small Battery.

Batteries can attach to other blocks on any of the six sides. Immediately after construction, the battery is already charged up to 30% of its capacity, ready to be used by other blocks. No "cables" or ports are needed for this block to provide power to the grid!

Some faces of the block display a charge indicator, so when placing it, consider whether you want to rotate the block for these coloured lights to be visible or not. The large-grid battery has a built-in Control Panels on the four sides with indicators, the small-grid variant doesn't.

When grinding down a battery, the  Power Cell components become  Scrap Metal; this means you cannot gain infinite power by grinding and rewelding batteries repeatedly -- you "pay" for the free partial charge in  Power Cell.

Recipe

The Warfare Battery has the same recipe.

Battery
Component	Large Ship/Station Required	Large Ship/Station Optional	Small Ship Required	Small Ship Optional
Steel Plate	20	60	5	20
Power Cell	80	—	20	—
Construction Comp.	10	20	2	3
Computer	25	—	2	—

Functional Blocks

Utility Power:  Colorable Solar Panel,  Twin-Blade Wind Turbine,  Battery,  Large Reactor,  Small Reactor,  Hydrogen Engine,  Wind Turbine,  Solar Panel,  Prototech Battery,  Large Warfare Reactor,  Small Warfare Reactor,  Warfare Battery,  Small Battery,  Prototech Fusion Reactor Utility:  Medical Room,  Corner Medical Room,  Survival Kit,  Cryo Chamber,  Inset Cryo Room,  Oxygen Farm,  Interior Light,  Offset Light,  Spotlight,  Offset Spotlight,  Inset Light,  Light Panel,  Corner Light,  Corner Light - Double Production:  Basic Refinery,  Refinery,  Basic Assembler,  Assembler,  Yield Module,  Power Efficiency Module,  Speed Module,  Prototech Refinery,  Prototech Assembler,  Oxygen Farm,  Industrial Refinery,  Industrial Assembler,  O2/H2 Generator Tools:  Drill,  Grinder Block,  Welder Block Command and Control Control:  Remote Control,  Bridge Helm,  Cockpit,  Fighter Cockpit,  Control Station,  Flight Seat,  Helm,  Saddle Cockpit,  Saddle Cockpit Compact,  Cab Cockpit,  Buggy Cockpit,  Rover Cockpit,  Industrial Cockpit,  Passenger Seat Automation:  Projector,  Sensor,  Automaton Sensor,  Sound Block,  Timer Block,  Programmable Block,  Control Panel,  Control Panel Pedestal,  Button Panel,  Vertical Button Panel,  Sci-Fi One-Button Terminal,  Sci-Fi Four-Button Panel,  Sci-Fi Control Panel,  Inset Button Panel,  Button Panel Pedestal,  Bridge Button Panel,  Custom Turret Controller,  Action Relay,  AI Basic,  AI Recorder,  AI Flight,  AI Defensive,  AI Offensive,  Event Controller Communications  Antenna,  Laser Antenna,  Compact Antenna,  Beacon,  Round Beacon,  Ore Detector,  Camera,  Top Mounted Camera,  Sound Block,  Broadcast Controller  Text Panel,  LCD Panel,  Corner LCD,  Wide LCD Panel,  Transparent LCD,  Sci-Fi LCD Panel,  Holo LCD,  Inset LCD Panel,  Sloped LCD Panel,  Curved LCD Panel Defense and Offense  Gatling Gun,  Reloadable Rocket Launcher,  Rocket Launcher,  Artillery,  Autocannon,  Assault Cannon,  Railgun,  Warhead,  Explosive Barrel  Gatling Turret,  Rocket Turret,  Artillery Turret,  Autocannon Turret,  Assault Cannon Turret,  Decoy,  Interior Turret,  Safe Zone, Propulsion  Atmospheric Thruster,  Large Atmospheric Thruster,  Flat Atmospheric Thruster,  Ion Thruster,  Large Ion Thruster,  Hydrogen Thruster,  Large Hydrogen Thruster,  Prototech Thruster  Jump Drive,  Prototech Jump Drive,  Gyroscope,  Prototech Gyroscope,  Parachute Hatch,  (Short)  Wheel Suspension 1x1,  (Short)  Wheel Suspension 2x2,  (Short)  Wheel Suspension 3x3,  (Short)  Wheel Suspension 5x5,  Offroad Wheels Logistics  Large Cargo Container,  Medium Cargo Container,  Small Cargo Container,  Modular Cargo Container,  Store,  Contracts Block  Connector/Ejector,  Small Connector/Ejector,  Collector,  Conveyor Sorter,  Small Conveyor Sorter,  Conveyor Frame,  Conveyor Converter,  Oxygen Tank,  Hydrogen Tank,  Small Hydrogen Tank,  Air Vent,  Air Vent Full,  Air Vent Fan,  Air Vent Fan Full  Conveyor Junction,  Conveyor Tube  (Reinforced),  Curved Conveyor Tube  (Reinforced),  Conveyor Tube T Junction  (Reinforced);  Small Conveyor,  Small Conveyor Tube  (Reinforced),  Small Curved Conveyor Tube  (Reinforced),  Small Conveyor Tube T Junction  (Reinforced),  Industrial Conveyor Pipes  Armory Lockers,  Armory,  Barrel,  Freights,  Cargo Crate, Modular Kitchen Mechanics, Magnetism, Gravity Mechanical:  Advanced Rotor,  Rotor,  Piston,  Hinge  Landing Gear,  Magnetic Plate,  Merge Block,  Artificial Mass,  Gravity Generator,  Spherical Gravity Generator