User:Wondering host
greetings, I'm host, a person you can find in the game or in the discord as marsk cranger/marsk_host. over here I am just updating a few things.
Introduction
The Thermo-Electric Generator (TEG) is an atmospherics-based generator that operates on the simple principle of cold air loop plus hot air loop equals power. As long as the set-up is appropriate, the TEG's output will scale up and can make anywhere between almost no power to enough power to satisfy the energy draw of 1000 space stations.
How to Set Up the TEG
- Screwdriver and wrench the circulators from the ground.
- Move the circulators to the squares beside the generator. Wrench down once in place make sure to orientate them with the notches beside the generator before wrenching (alt-click to turn).
- Now in place we need to multi tool the circulators. Changing the mode, once done then screwdriver shut (1 tap = cold 2 taps = hot).
- Wrench down the center to complete the engine.
- Turn on pumps and max them, open valves, press buttons if need be (Follow the orange and cyan pipes.).
- Wrench down some of the CO2 canisters to the connectors and turn on pumps to add gas to the loops.
- Go to the incinerator and check if the blast doors are close. if not, then press the buttons on the table.
- Open up the air alarm and enter the scrubber menu, find the scrubber in the incinerator chamber and set range: Expanded.
- Prepare burn mix, (different ratios alter heat output and gas production), then turn on mixer to max pressure. Then turn on igniter. burn mix is tested to last nearly 50 minutes if you empty both tanks.
TEG Fundamentals
The Thermo-Electric Generator is a simple engine. This engine uses hot and cold gas (hot and cold sides of circulators) to generate energy. To make more power, you will need to scale the hot and cold gasses and maintain the temperature difference between them. The limiting factor being how the engine is set up and having too great of a difference in gas temperature. An unmodified engine will usually lead you into the biggest problem: clogs.
Clogging happens when gasses in the hot loop gets too hot for pumps to handle. Pumps (and valves) are limiters to this engine, pressure pumps clog the easiest because they pass little, precise amounts of fuel. Volume pumps fare better but will also eventually clog. Though there does exist a limitless pump, the documentation for it can be found here.
NOTE: You can't have straight pipes all the way around because gas would not flow and would just stay still.
If you plan to leave the engine unmodified, you will want to have a small amount of gas flowing in the hot loop. As due to physics, gas pressure will increase as temperature increases and it will decrease as temperature decreases.
TEMP DIFFERENCE (TOO COLD)!!
Self-explanatory. the gas in the cold loop is too cold compared to the hot loop, this can be caused by a number of things. however easily remedied by two things
- release some gas or filter it back to the storage tanks.
- increase heat to the hot loop by adding more gas to it.
TEMP DIFFERENCE (TOO HOT)!!
Like above but for too hot
- Release some gas.
- Increase coolness to the cold loop by adding more gas.
NOTE: if these don't work then it might be needed to replace the pressure pumps with volume pumps
Maintaining the SMESs
In general, the SMESs don't need maintenance. However, there are a few times when they do need to be handled specially, namely during the following instances.
- The SMESs are fully charged. They might as well be ramped up to full output. But it doesn't hurt to keep them at lower levels.
- The Backup SMESs are charging. In this case, the SMESs will need to be ramped up to full output so that the Backups can charge faster.
- The AI is rogue. Cut all power. The AI's greatest ally is electricity. Take it away. Note that the APCs' batteries will still power the station for a bit.
- There is a power sink on the ship. Ensure output levels are lower than input levels, but not completely off. This keeps the power sink from draining the SMESs. You can use some clever electrician tricks to find the power sink through the power lines as long as there is still output from the SMESs.
Should they ever remember to, an RnD Scientist might want to upgrade the SMESs. Make sure they upgrade the SMESs one at a time, as upgrading them will result in all of the stored power being lost.
Troubleshooting
Answer: Keep calm, follow step one, make sure the TEG parts are rotated so the marked indent is facing the core
Answer: Look to see what's lighting up on the TEG, the TEG will tell you what's working and what's not, if the cold loop isn't working it will be dark, if it is working it will be a radiant blue. The same is true for the hot, but the color will be red.
Answer: Check each pipe section with an analyzer, see that each pipe section has gas inside of it, follow the pipes around with the pumps, one will be off or there is a break in the pipe. if the space loop has gas on one end but not on the other, go into space and check for damage to the heat pipes.
Answer: Check all the pumps are on maximum pressure, this indicates there's a flow but its not an effective flow, so there is likely a pump not pushing at all its capacity.
Answer: Check the pipes for gas, check that the pipes are not over 4500kpa. Check that all the pumps are on, check that the burn chamber is cycling hot gas.
Answer: This indicates something is throttling the heat, check that the burn chamber gas cycle is functioning, check that the hot loop pumps are all at maximum pressure.
Answer: It is possible that you set the TEG's cold and hot loops on the wrong side, if true there should have been a short time of a loop indicating some flow before completely stopping, check inside the TEG's display that the cold loop is indeed cold and not hot. If the loops are the wrong way around, un-wrench the TEG apart, open both circulators with a screwdriver, and multitool both circulators, screwdriver both circulators closed then wrench it back together.
Sabotaging The TEG
Unfortunately for filthy traitors, the TEG is a safe engine, however that doesn't mean you cannot stop it from producing power.
- Your greatest tool for sabotaging this engine is how daunting the pipe works look, something as simple as turning off the injector from the computer console or turning off the filter will cause the TEG to clog inside the loop and will reduce the power output until the hot loop is non-functional.
- Making a break in the cold loop in space will also stop the engine from producing power or by engaging the valves to the waste pipe you can clear all the pipes of gas so that there is nothing to gain energy from.
- It's also possible to intentionally clog the hot loop and stop the engine from producing power.
- Another more complicated method is to reattach the pipes so that the only thing left inside is very hot gas but no way to send it to waste, so that when someone does come to fix the issue they instead release a large quantity of harmful hot gasses.