Downsizing your power plant: Any downsides?

You should check your facts. It looks like you refer to the 80 Plus certificate, but misunderstood it. It doesn't mean most efficiency at/above 80% usage, but 80% efficency in general, leading to 20% energy lost to heat. Every PSU performs best at 50% load. Check the table at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus


this person is totally correct in what he is saying. I had a nice power supply, forgot to add up power usage and it ran at 85%. it lasted 2 months and went to the power supply heaven with a big bang. The bigger it is the better
 
Nope.

A rated powerplants are cooler than B.
Has nothing to do with their power output or the gap between power usage.

An A1 powerplant is exactly as good as an A2 which is also exactly the same as an A3.

A1 is better than a B3. B3 makes much more power.

I didn't say that the Heat Efficiency rating wasn't important. Heat efficiency ratings being equal, your ship will run cooler with the power plant that provides the most power.

I've tested this a lot.
 
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But it does. C to B plant reduces heat. They are exactly the same besides power output.

I didn't say that the Heat Efficiency rating wasn't important. Heat efficiency ratings being equal, your ship will run cooler with the power plant that provides the most power.

I've seen no evidence for that, I've lowered the power usage of my ship (because I presumed that was how it would work) and it does nothing.
No components other than weapons and powerplants make any difference, and the amount of power produced looked meaningless.
 
Don't forget when updating gear to ALWAYS see if the Power Plant can handle it. Many times a player has activated hard points only to see systems shut down!
 
I've seen no evidence for that, I've lowered the power usage of my ship (because I presumed that was how it would work) and it does nothing.
No components other than weapons and powerplants make any difference, and the amount of power produced looked meaningless.

Let's say your power plan produces 10, and you have a bunch of stuff installed on your ship that consumes 10. It'll be running quite hot.
Turn off a shield that consumes 3, and two lasers that consume 1 each. Your total power commit is now 5. Your ship will be running much cooler.

That's the same as buying a similar efficiency power plant, but with more total capacity

Try turning off a bunch of modules, and get back to me :D

As an example, I always over-spec my powerplant by about 2 or 3 mw. It helps that I operate MultiCannon builds almost exclusively.
 
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Try turning off a bunch of modules, and get back to me :D

Done it. Its here on this forum.
All thrusters make the same amount of heat.

Heres a pic
2uooy9h.jpg
 
Let's say your power plan produces 10, and you have a bunch of stuff installed on your ship that consumes 10. It'll be running quite hot.
Turn off a shield that consumes 3, and two lasers that consume 1 each. Your total power commit is now 5. Your ship will be running much cooler.

That's the same as buying a similar efficiency power plant, but with more total capacity

Try turning off a bunch of modules, and get back to me :D

As an example, I always over-spec my powerplant by about 2 or 3 mw. It helps that I operate MultiCannon builds almost exclusively.

Yes because, by turning of those modules they don't operate and thus not generate heat...
"Turn off the stove and you'll see its cooler!" ;)
 
Let's say your power plan produces 10, and you have a bunch of stuff installed on your ship that consumes 10. It'll be running quite hot.
Turn off a shield that consumes 3, and two lasers that consume 1 each. Your total power commit is now 5. Your ship will be running much cooler.

That's the same as buying a similar efficiency power plant, but with more total capacity

Try turning off a bunch of modules, and get back to me :D

As an example, I always over-spec my powerplant by about 2 or 3 mw. It helps that I operate MultiCannon builds almost exclusively.

Looks like you edited this after my other quote of your post.
Yes, I agree turning off thruster, shields, etc makes the ship cooler, but I couldn't see any difference between the heat produced by different thrusters, sensors, life supports. The amount of power they needed made no difference.

When you are overspecing your powerplant you are using one with a better heat efficeincy, this is the only thing that matters for heat.
 
Done it. Its here on this forum.
All thrusters make the same amount of heat.

Heres a pic
2uooy9h.jpg

I think it would be best to compare the same rating ....

That aside though.

A smaller power plant reduces weight and max output. If your ship still runs everything then win win.

Bear in mind - if it's a pew pew ship then you will have less capacity - in other words less pew pew in one full charge

EDIT: Sorry meant rating
 
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I think it would be best to compare the same class....

That aside though.

A smaller power plant reduces weight and max output. If your ship still runs everything then win win.

Bear in mind - if it's a pew pew ship then you will have less capacity - in other words less pew pew in one full charge

same classes have the exact same heat efficiency (as I said in my first post :) )

My viper runs with the exact same heat using an A2 power plant as it does with an A3.
 
There's no way to automatically switch useless modules off during combat unless you are over 100% power usage.

But ... if youve got enough power then theres no point in things being disabled ? so what exactly is the advantage of not having enough power for everything ?.
 
If it isn't already it should be like that.
In real life that's why you should always run a PSU at max 50% of it's capacity. Everything above is generating too much heat and is therefore inefficent.
Yes, the same way you don't buy a car that drives 250 kmh to actually drive 250 kmh, but so it's still a very smooth ride at 180.

I think it would be best to compare the same rating ....
This thread is specifically about comparing different ratings...
 
same classes have the exact same heat efficiency (as I said in my first post :) )

My viper runs with the exact same heat using an A2 power plant as it does with an A3.

Just checked, all A class powerplants for me is B rated. So I wonder why yours shows C (Old outdated picture?). And in the case you show there is a slight difference too. As you see with C^ on with lower poweroutput. So they may cancel one another out.

The best compare seems to be C with B class of the same size.
 
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Those who are saying that having a power plant with a larger capacity than is needed reduces heat signature/temp (and has nothing to do with heat efficiency) are correct. I am using an A4 power plant in my Cobra and had about 10% extra power than I needed and my base temp was around 42. As I made money I upgraded all my power consuming modules and added other modules until I was at 101% power consumption, and my base temp now idles at 45-46. I not really sure why this is the case, but this is real empirical data and not theory. Note this is using the same power plant (i.e. the same heat efficiency).
 
Just checked, all A class powerplants for me is B rated. So I wonder why yours shows C (Old outdated picture?). And in the case you show there is a slight difference too. As you see with C^ on with lower poweroutput. So they may cancel one another out.

The best compare seems to be C with B class of the same size.

Might be an older pic, but the blue up arrow showed it was better.
 
I think it would be best to compare the same rating ....

That aside though.

A smaller power plant reduces weight and max output. If your ship still runs everything then win win.

Bear in mind - if it's a pew pew ship then you will have less capacity - in other words less pew pew in one full charge

EDIT: Sorry meant rating

The pewpew capacity is done by your capacitor, no? And completely independed of your powerplant (assuming you have the power to run the whole thing)
 
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