How many batteries do I really need on my ship?

[Foraven]

How do I know if I have enough or too many batteries on my design? I have a heavily modified Laborer Module where I have 16 batteries on it. Only have 6 tier one box Thrusters on it, most of the other stuff don't consume much (no mining laser and such). Did I go overboard with batteries?

 

[Paralen]

You don't need many batteries for a simple ship without any power-hungry equipment as long as your generators provide enough energy for a whole ship at full thrust. Just think of them as a buffer, when your generator is not generating enough energy (e.g. because you added a laser or two), you either have to add more generators, fuel chambers, cooling,... or you can add batteries so that you can mine for like 30 seconds and wait for a recharge after that (on the way to the next asteroid so it's not a big deal). When you already have enough energy, you don't need the buffer.

 

[Foraven]

I guess I will remove some batteries and change the yolol script I use for fuel economy so I'm not reliant so much on batteries.

 

[Aigrefine]

the batteries are used from the start. Indeed, when arriving at the station, the generator is cut to save fuel. when restarting the generator take a little while to recharge and it is there that the batteries are useful to have the maximum thrust immediately without drift of the vessel and the batteries must not be less than 10% when the generator reaches 100% ( I think 10% is sufficient for the additional maneuver)

 

[Womble]

"Too many batteries" is a very situational thing. If you've got them and they're not needed in another ship you want to build or spawn, they probably don't add enough mass to worry about. If you aren't going to use the volume they take in your frame, and the attachment opportunites, for other Parts, you might as well leave them in and have a nice, big buffer of energy for while your generators are spooling up or entirely turned off.

...when restarting the generator take a little while to recharge and it is there that the batteries are useful to have the maximum thrust immediately without drift of the vessel and the batteries must not be less than 10% when the generator reaches 100% ( I think 10% is sufficient for the additional maneuver)

The generator just has to be able to keep up with the engines' drain before the battery pool is too depleted to fire the maneuver thrusters. So unless you have a lot of engines, or an underspecced generator set you probably don't need to get to 100% generator output before the batteries are depleted. But you're right, there does need to be a small buffer just to keep you steady.

 

[William Wolfen]

Assuming you're using a YOLOL script for your generator that works well, I've found that 1 battery per box thruster on a somewhat modified laborer module is sufficient. It think I threw on one extra for good measure on my ship (9 batteries, 8 box thrusters). Provides plenty of buffer for full throttle from a fully depowered generator and I never run out of juice.