Insulated Wire is used to power all your machines without the need for batteries, being able to connect them to power sources. By insulating wires, you get rid of the risk of being electrically shocked, and cut the resistance (which is measured in Ohms) the wire gives to electric current (which is measured in Amperes, or Coulombs per second). You can make a wire mill to create wires for you which is a more ore effective way of creating wires. There are five different conductive metals that can be used when making wires.
They are listed below:
| Insulated Wire Type | Ohms/Block | Max Amps |
|---|---|---|
| Copper | 0.05 | 350 |
| Tin | 0.04 | 60 |
| Silver | 0.02 | 600 |
| HV | 0.1 | 20 |
| Superconductor | 0 | - |
Calculating Line Loss[]
Line loss depends on the amps going down the wire along with the resistance. Voltage drops as the cable progresses.
Loss = Amperage ^ 2 * Resistance Per Block * Wire Length
Amperage can be calculated as follows: Amps = Watts/Volts
For example:
Knowing that an Adv Solar Generator is rated at 9 kW @ 120V, we can deduce that it outputs at 75A (9000/120=75)
Lets run that over 20 blocks of insulated silver wire, which has 0.02 ohms / block resistance.
Loss = (75A)^2 * (0.02ohms/block) * (20blocks) = 2250 (A^2ohms) = 2250W
So over 20 blocks of wire, from the original 9000W we lose 2250W, leaving 6750W or 75%.
Copper Wire[]
The Copper Wire has average conductive ability, with a max current of 350 Amps and a resistance of .05.
