Energy

Evospace includes 4 sources of energy.


 * Heat
 * Steam
 * Power (Kinetic)
 * Electricity

Many machines consist of multiple parts - often including an energy provider and a mechanical/chemical function. While some do not - like the robotic arm and conveyor - these are fairly rare and useful only for logistic purposes - not proper production. Production machines, a Macerator for instance, require an energy source.

Energy always begins as fuel and in the form of heat. Heat can be applied directly by furnaces (as is the case with smelter s), or it can be transformed into steam via a boiler and a fluid network.

Steam can power some machines directly - like an automatic hammer. But most require at least one more step of conversion.

A steam engine or steam turbine can convert steam into kinetic Power. These engines can drive the mechanisms of ore washer s, macerator s, separator s, press es, and other machinery.

Finally, the mechanical energy from a turbine (or engine, if you're patient) can be converted into electricity via a generator to power the likes of a fermenter, electrolyzer , or arc smelter.

There are times when speed is more important than efficiency - or even a few where efficiency can be gained by converting electricity back into kinetic power. Or it may just be easier to do. For these events, electric motor s may be preferable to steam engines despite steam engines operating at 90% efficiency, while the turbine likely powering your generator functions at 75%, the generator itself at 90%, and your motor at 80%.

There may be events where conversion from electricity to heat is reasonable as well. The steel electric furnace is a slow, 100% efficient system to achieve this.