# So... how plausible is building electrical stuff?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [February 3, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954 "2014-02-03T01:16:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Orthum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/5e9695/32.png) [@Orthum](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Orthum)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/1 "2014-02-03T01:16:38Z")

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I do ask this, simply because I want to set up and build up a small base. I just simply find it so… hard to do it… Would there be a way to set up generators that hook into a house and allow it to be lit up? I mean zombie’s will be able to see the lights and think, dinner… But if I’m away from town and at a cabin I don’t see too much harm in it… especially with turrets outside… Anyhow is there a way even to maybe set it so that I can run wire from a vehicle outside (A frame with Solar Panels and storage batteries) to inside, to a light source? This is just my thought (mostly since I just managed to keep alive and survive to late game with a super high int character who is learning many skills I’ve never learned before)

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**Author:** ![Inadequate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Inadequate](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Inadequate)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/2 "2014-02-03T01:21:25Z")

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There’s no way to set up wires, but you can set up a frame that goes through a window with lights on the inside and a solar panel on the outside. Also, this isn’t really the right place to ask, you’d get a better response asking this in the newbie questions thread.

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**Author:** ![Orthum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/5e9695/32.png) [@Orthum](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Orthum)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/3 "2014-02-03T01:57:47Z")

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I meant to have it implemented into the game.

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**Author:** ![i2amroy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/i2amroy/32/909_2.png) [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/4 "2014-02-03T02:22:52Z")

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Challenging, to say the least. By which I mean it’s possible, but it would take a fair bit of work to implement well.

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**Author:** ![Chase](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/chase/32/6463_2.png) [@Chase](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Chase)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/5 "2014-02-03T05:45:08Z")

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It would be neat to be able to install car parts in bases, this would mean less duplicated parts, and we can use a car engine + alternator + gas tanks as a makeshift generator to power all our spotlights and such.

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**Author:** ![ChristopherWalken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@ChristopherWalken](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ChristopherWalken)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/6 "2014-02-03T08:33:40Z")

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Electric motors, solar panels and plenty of storage batteries.

I’m expecting solar power to be nerfed hard in the near future but it should still be more than viable for a base.

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**Author:** ![Soyweiser](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/soyweiser/32/37_2.png) [@Soyweiser](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Soyweiser)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 11:57am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/7 "2014-02-03T11:57:27Z")

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Solar power is going to be reduced by 1/10 of its former power. [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/5944](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/5944) See here.

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**Author:** ![ChristopherWalken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@ChristopherWalken](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ChristopherWalken)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:22pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/8 "2014-02-03T12:22:06Z")

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1/10 seems really really harsh.  
It means I would need ~20 solar panels on my APC which admittedly I do have the room for so maybe it’s not THAT bad.

Maybe buff the armoured version a bit so it gets damaged less often? I dread to think of the time I’d have to spend to fix that many panels after every bump.

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**Author:** ![FunsizeNinja123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/funsizeninja123/32/118_2.png) [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/9 "2014-02-03T20:24:56Z")

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> [@Chase](#):
>
> It would be neat to be able to install car parts in bases, this would mean less duplicated parts, and we can use a car engine + alternator + gas tanks as a makeshift generator to power all our spotlights and such.

You can.

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**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/10 "2014-02-03T21:38:28Z")

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> [@Orthum](#):
>
> I do ask this, simply because I want to set up and build up a small base. I just simply find it so… hard to do it… Would there be a way to set up generators that hook into a house and allow it to be lit up? I mean zombie’s will be able to see the lights and think, dinner… But if I’m away from town and at a cabin I don’t see too much harm in it… especially with turrets outside… Anyhow is there a way even to maybe set it so that I can run wire from a vehicle outside (A frame with Solar Panels and storage batteries) to inside, to a light source? This is just my thought (mostly since I just managed to keep alive and survive to late game with a super high int character who is learning many skills I’ve never learned before)

You can easily make a light “generator” simply by attaching a motor to a mini vehicle and then attaching a floodlight to it. The motor will also power anything else you care to link up.

The problem is that instead of wire you need to link things via vehicle frames. But you can climb over them anyway so it only slows you down a bit.

You could power things on the other side of the room if you got creative with frame positions. Or just put frames all the way around the outside of a room to effectively have an electrical ring circuit.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChristopherWalken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@ChristopherWalken](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ChristopherWalken)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/11 "2014-02-03T21:45:01Z")

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You can mount aisles on the frames to move on them quickly.

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**Author:** ![Gatleos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gatleos/32/1008_2.png) [@Gatleos](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Gatleos)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/so-how-plausible-is-building-electrical-stuff/4954/12 "2014-02-04T05:50:59Z")

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And now I’m imagining the vehicle editor slowly expanding to become a general machine editor. A huge uranium reactor in your basement powering a bunch of floodlights, turrets, traps and radio equipment in your base.