Underclocking generator clockspeed is useless?

Question

Hand-tuning the clock speed on production buildings is useful for limiting the max power they can draw.

I assumed a similar situation applied to biomass generators: I expected that if I reduced the clock on the generator such that the production capacity perfectly met the peak requirements, it should burn fuel more efficiently and last longer.

A quick test proved this is not the case - under utilized generators slow down fuel consumption automatically. Therefore it seems the clock slider on a generator only stands to make it more likely to trip, and provides no benefit I can think of.

Test setup/results

Comments

Hmm, underclocking does seem to have some effect when *multiple* generators are connected to the same grid. I'll need to experiment more.

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A useful purpose of under/over clocking IMO is to build a remote power station meant for upgrade as needed by using the clock speed to burn the amount of coal that certain level belts provide. This way, as your tech research unlocks faster belts, you can move the clock speed up, burning the added capacity available.

For example: Starting with a 30/minute belt, you could underclock a group of 8, 10 or 12 generators so they never could burn more than the belt can give. Naturally, no one needs 10 coal generators if the best belt they have is 30/minute, but if the station were already built, all a person needs to do is upgrade the supply belt and crank up the clock speed as needed.
This way, when your power breaker pops, instead of having to drop what you were doing to build more generators, all you need to do is run to the station and tweek the clock speed. ( maybe upgrade a belt at the same time)

Answer 1

It appears that with multiple generators connected to the same circuit, underclocking does adjust the relative fuel expenditure between them. So you could, say, have some conveniently located primary biofuel burners do most of the work, but some add-on biomass-fueled burners on a slow burn to cover peaks.

Put another way - the absolute value of the underclock percentage only effects the total output capacity. The *relative* clock value between generators on the same circuit determines which takes more of the demand.

Answer 2

Underclocking may not be useful, but I think overclocking produces more power and uses more fuel.

Comments

Good point. Updated the title.

Answer 3

As you already found out, overclocking changes the speed of the burning-process, giving your more/less power. I'd say it's useful when you need more power and don't want to build a new generator (giving that you only need a mediocre amount of energy). I personally didn't underclock to safe bio-fuel. I just went to coal asap and now only overclock because I don't care if my unlimited supply of coal gets used effectively.

Comments

Yep, my concern here was largely that underclocking seemed entirely useless on generators. No argument about overlocking! :)