Hello everyone, today I will be addressing a common misunderstanding among certain friends which is basic Rust electricity. I fear if something were to ever happen to me, they would be left with cold and dark bases lacking any personality. Therefore, I will leave a guide for even the simplest player to understand.
Firstly, you will require a power source. There are currently 3 in the game: solar panels, windmills, and generators. Generators output the smallest amount and require fuel (low-grade) to run, next highest power source is solar panels, with the most efficient and expensive option being the windmill. For this explanation, we will stick with the more complicated of the three which will leave you with an understanding of the other two as well. The solar panel. For optimal placement, the solar panel(s) must all face north. If you are playing a monthly wipe, 2 weeks in these must be adjusted for the sun cycle to NE or NW. The solar panels can be hooked directly to your intended usage, such as lights, but once the sun sets, you will lose power. To counteract this, we will need a battery. The medium battery is what I have found to be best unless you are setting up auto turrets, then you will need large.
The medium battery holds 9,000 rWm (Rust Watt Minutes) and outputs a maximum of 50 rWm (Large 24,000 rWm with an output of 100 rWm, small 400 rWm with an output of 15 rWm). What does this mean? Well simply, it means the medium battery outputs 50 electricity and each item requires a certain amount of electricity. For example, the ceiling light requires 1 electricity to run, so this battery can output enough power for 50 ceiling lights. The medium battery has a 80% efficiency on charging, meaning all incoming power is 80% of the source, keep this in mind if balancing charging vs output.
Now that you understand power sources and batteries, how do we connect it all. For this we will use solar panels and a medium battery as explained. You will require 4 North facing solar panels on an open roof with no shadows casting over them. Next, acquire 3 root combiners and place them on your roof near the panels. Take your wiring tool and connect 2 solar panels to the 2 inputs on one combiner, then the other 2 solar panels connected to another combiner. Next, connect the outputs of both of these combiners to the 3rd combiner. Now all 4 solar panels are ran into a single wire. Run this cable NEATLY into the battery input. The battery should be placed near the core to protect from raiders.
Your battery is now charging. For our last step, we need to connect it to our utilities and decorations. Almost every item requiring electricity has an "input" and a "passthrough". If you take the wire directly from the output of the battery to your items, you will quickly drain your battery or encounter other various roadblocks. So before we get ahead of ourselves, lets get some root branches. These allow you to branch off only the necessary amount of power you need. Lets place 5 lights in the base for this. We are going to go to our battery room and place a branch, then interact with it and type "5" to branch off five power. Now from the output labeled 5, run the wire to the first light then click the passthrough ad run it to the second, third, etc. You can optionally place a switch between the branch and first light to have control of when they are on and mitigate battery drainage.
With this knowledge, you can continue on to power anything your heart desires. Just make sure you look at how much power the item requires (examples: auto turret: 10, neon sign: 15, water pump: 5) and branch off accordingly. If you have any questions or are interested in more advanced electricity, including but not limited to: automatic doors, turrets, farms, HBHF sensors, smart alarms, fog machines, dance floors, music/speakers, etc. please feel free to reach out, id love to help!
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