Force Steam engine to charge Accumulators

[mictibo87]

I am at a state in my factory where enemmies are attacking and I can't generate enough energy from Solar panels to charge Accumulators enough to go through the night. This makes my laser turrets go down and ennemies have been invading for multiple days now... it is a mess

I am trying to connect more and more Coal power in the mean time, but the Coal does not do enough during the night either.
So I though the solution (short term) Would be to force the coal power during the day to be active and charge the accumulators.

I have not found a way to do so. Most people are asking how to prioritize accumulators, but I want to do the opposite.
I want to have steam engines always on until Accumulators are 100%

Any ideas ?

[Loewchen]

Steam engines have already higher usage priority than accumulators, so they would run at 100% before accumulators are used at all. If this is not the case for you then your steam setup is broken or you have a disconnected network. If you cannot find the issue yourself, post your save file.

[astroshak]

While this does not address your concern, you might want to invest in flamethrower turrets as your primary defense keeping the lasers as the secondary line (to kill whatever gets past the flamethrowers). Or mix in regular turrets as those only get red ammo and not power.

[aka13]

I am at a state in my factory where enemmies are attacking and I can't generate enough energy from Solar panels to charge Accumulators enough to go through the night. This makes my laser turrets go down and ennemies have been invading for multiple days now... it is a mess

I am trying to connect more and more Coal power in the mean time, but the Coal does not do enough during the night either.
So I though the solution (short term) Would be to force the coal power during the day to be active and charge the accumulators.

I have not found a way to do so. Most people are asking how to prioritize accumulators, but I want to do the opposite.
I want to have steam engines always on until Accumulators are 100%

Any ideas ?

They are on already. Accumulators are used last. Solar>steam>accu is the discharge priority.

[mictibo87]

I feel I might have expressed myself badly.

During the day, my solar panels are enough to feed my factory and they also slowly charge the accumulators. But not enough to last nights.
During the day again, the steam engines are NOT in function despite being powered.

What I am asking is:

Can I have the steam engine run during the day despite the solar panels being enough for my factory, so that the accumulators gets filled up faster with energy, so that I can last through the nights with both my accumulators` charge and steam engines.

[FuryoftheStars]

I feel I might have expressed myself badly.

During the day, my solar panels are enough to feed my factory and they also slowly charge the accumulators. But not enough to last nights.
During the day again, the steam engines are NOT in function despite being powered.

What I am asking is:

Can I have the steam engine run during the day despite the solar panels being enough for my factory, so that the accumulators gets filled up faster with energy, so that I can last through the nights with both my accumulators` charge and steam engines.

If your steam engines are connected to the primary power grid, and the accumulators are not at 100% (edit: and the accumulators are not already being charged at their max charge rate), then they will be used. There's nothing more you need to do.

The fact that they are not running for you even with the accumulators below 100% tells me that somewhere there's a disconnect in your power grid. You may want to start there. You can use the map view to check the power grid connections, and also click on the power poles near your steam engines and accumulators and make sure they are showing all of the proper power sources in both cases (if it can supply power, it will be listed in the right pane even if not currently providing power).

Edit: And actually, accumulators can only be charged (and discharged!) at a certain rate. If your solar grid is enough to supply full power to your base and charge all of your accumulators at max rate, then it won't use the steam because it's unnecessary. "Forcing" the accumulators to use the steam engines to charge will gain you nothing here. If this is the case (your accumulators are already charging at the max rate), then you simply need more accumulators and/or more steam engines for night time use.

Edit2: These might be good to look at, too:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Accumulator
Accumulator / Solar panel ratio (and also Bilka's post on page 9 of the same thread: viewtopic.php?p=566721#p566721)

[mictibo87]

Ok I tried in my sandbox game and I think I got my answer.

I believe it has to do with what you mentionned, the rate of chargin the accumulators to be not enough. I need more accumulators basically.

Thanks to everyone