Electrical Generators
- 62.5 cm: 0.125 t
- 1.25 m: 0.5 t
- 2.5 m: 2 t
- 3.75 m: 8 t
Generators convert the thermal power output by a reactor into electrical power and waste heat. They generate both Megajoules and stock Electric Charge according to whatever is needed at the time (ElectricCharge is generated first). Their efficiency determines what percentage of that thermal power is converted into electricity. The rest becomes waste heat. All sizes of generators function exactly the same, but suffer from a large penalty if they are attached to a wrong-sized reactor.
The effectiveness of an electric generator is primarily determined by its percentage of Carnot efficiency parameter. An ideal heat engine generates power at the theoretical Carnot efficiency. However, in practice most heat engines operate at a somewhat lesser efficiency. Your true efficiency is dependent on the temperature of your reactor and the temperature of your radiators. The hotter your reactor and the colder your radiators are, the closer your efficiency will be to the maximum.
Typical heat engines in space use closed cycle Brayton gas turbines. These give a maximum theoretical efficiency of 31%. Upgrading the electric generators changes them from Brayton Cycle Turbines to a solid state heat engine with no moving parts - this ups the theoretical efficiency to 60%!
If you use a Fusion reactor, you can tweak the generator to a Direct Conversion generator instead. Direct conversion generators are vastly superior to regular generators and offer a theoretical efficiency of 85%. However, these generators only operate on charged particles, which are only produced by fusion reactors.
For reactors that output a portion of energy as Charged Particles along with Thermal Power. You can place two generators on each side of the reactor for higher total MJ output. This is done by setting one generator to Direct Conversion mode, to utilize the Charged Particles, and the other set to KTEC mode, to utilize the Thermal Power. This however precludes the use of parts that utilize Thermal Power such as Thermal Rockets or Thermal Turbojets, which must be connect directly to the reactor to function. This setup requires that the reactor produces both Charged particles and Thermal Power, and that you have unlocked the KTEC generator upgrade that comes from researching the Experimental Electronics node on the science tree.
There are several types of reactor/modes that output both Charged Particles and Thermal Power.
- Deuterium/Tritium mode Fusion
- Deuterium/Helium-3 mode Fusion
- "Sethlans"/"Akula" Fission
Note: After unlocking Experimental Electronics, Direct Drive becomes the default mode for fusion generators. Be sure to check before launch that any generators that should be set to KTEC mode have not reverted to Direct Drive, as it sometimes does.
This part must be connected directly to a reactor in order to function and can only utilize the output of one reactor at a time
Below are stats for upgraded Reactor/Generator combos. Output ratings are at 55%. Results may very based on atmosphere thickness and number of radiators used.
