So I have a story I been wanting to play. I have three orphans. Two are brother and sister. The brother is a teen, Rory, and the sister is a child, Regean. She gets adopted by the Pancakes. The older brother runs away to stay close to his sister and he meets a girl and saves her from some trouble. His main focus is his little sister but the girl grows on him and reminds him of his little sister so he takes her with him to stay in his deceased grandparents old cottage. Its off the grid. Self sustainable. They pay the bills by selling oversized crops pretty much and they make ends meet that way. They have some chickens. A cricket farm which I've never used before. Blah blah. I really want to play this out and get more into the packs but this dang off the grid stuff is starting to bug.
First off im off the grid so why do i keep getting notifications about a surplus of power and then a minute later ive used said surplus? I have nothing on that uses power. However i do need power and having to keep buying windmills and such is expensive for a household with little means of income. So once I figured out the bio fuel from the crickets can be used to power a generator I buy a generator. I pour the bio fuel in and he automtically cuts it on. I have more than enough fuel right now yet the generator doesnt power the cottage. Its a generator. It should power it up no problem as long as I have fuel in it. Not to mention its super small. The stove and fridge are off because I turned the utitlity thing off when I had one of those "surplus" and all the lights are candles so I should be good to go but I'm not. Its driving me crazy.
Am I doing something wrong? I really really would like to stay off the grid but its hard when stuff its working how its supposed to. Push come to shove I just buy a bunch of windmills or I take the off the grid off. By the way this isnt my first off the grid house. I have three other off the grid saves that work fine although I never used the power generator for them. One of them is five member family with another on the way and I have no problems powering the 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house. Any suggestions? Am I not using the generator right?
Can someone test it out themselves? I am using the cottage pack stove and fridge. The utilities on it are off. I have a dryer in the house. A cheap tv and a radio. None of which comes on with the generator. I also was advicsed there might be a bug with certain fridges. That wasnt the case.
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Fridges run constantly so use power as soon as it's saved.
Buy a sales table instead and keep food fresh by storing it in the table inventory.
Yes I did. For some reason I have my power at -15. Im starting to think its a glitch cause i turned everything off one day my sims were literally walking around in the dark cause i wanted to see if it was maybe a candle but it was. My water is being stored as well. I have one water tank and its just enough for them to shower properly for school everyday. But yes I changed both to store. Although im confused on how that works with a power generator as its a generator and only works when fueled.
I do. I however posted this on technical issues and they pointed me to a post about a couple of fridges that are off the grid but use power anway. The fridge i have was not one of them but just in case it was a glitch with the fridges i tried taking the fridge out. Still nothing. and again its a generator. It shouldnt be storing energy or anything like that. If its supposed to work how a normal generator works it should power the house as long as i have fuel in it unless thats not how its supposed to be. Ive used three cans of bio fuel and nothing is being powered at all even when i took the fridge out. Although i have the utitilies off on it and the stove and im using ice for the fridge.
Yea i do too. Im not big into money cheats i like to do everything from scratch. if my sims need money they have to borrow it via a mod and pay it back with a tiny bit of interest. A child and a teen with no job i dont have enough to buy 4 or 5 windmills but the way things are looking im going to have to. My teen has anger issues and i need TV especially for him so his fun can go up faster. With him 🐸🐸🐸🐸 off all day i cant keep the farm going cause hes too miserable. And also id like to dry their clothes in the dryer and they wash by hand. But it looks like ill have to suish a clothesline on. Bleh.
The OTG fridges have an additional option on them called "Add Ice" - Until the ice melts, the fridge works like normal and shouldn't need power. Once the ice melts, the fridge become ambient storage (food decays as if left out) unless there is power to cool it.
People who had a power drain caused by items outside their lot, or even on a nearby lot:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-INPUT-Broken-off-lot-appliance-causes-bill-for-off-lot/m-p/9186403/highlight/true#M136357
Some lights that use power even though they're animated as candles and marked as OTG:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ROM-Off-Grid-Living-Lights-labeled-as-Off-grid-acting-as/m-p/9195002/highlight/true#M137879
The ongoing saga of broken OTG fridges:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Off-grid-fridges-drain-power-can-t-turn-off-utility/td-p/9179887/highlight/true/page/3
Generators not producing power:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Power-generation-objects-not-generating-power/m-p/9229759/highlight/true#M142036
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-ECO-Off-the-grid-Windmill-Solar-Panels-produce-no/td-p/10538791/highlight/true/page/2
Lot draining significant power even with every item on it deleted:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Power-Usage-in-Sims-4-Bill-Information-too-high/m-p/9232274/highlight/true#M142229
Large inherent power drain on empty lots in Mt Komorobi and also Henford-on-Bagley:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-SE-Large-Bills-on-Mt-Komorobi-lots-due-to-high-power-usage/td-p/9734428/highlight/true/page/2
...so the answer seems to be, it's still really buggy in lots of ways.
Correct. Thats what ive always used for my off the grid houses. I put ice in it once a day in the morning usually suffices. When the power is on the ice sits at 100%. I took it out though and the power was still draining from somewhere. I think its just buggy due to what grouchy beast posted.
Thats so unfortunate. I do really love my Off the Grid houses and was looking forward to combining that with sustainable living. Anyway thanks! This is helpful. At least i know its not me. Really sucks. They need to fix this asap.