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Power consumed to fire thrusters is equal to the number of thrusters (N) * 0.03 per second.
Thrust generated is (N*5.5)^0.87.
Thanks to that exponential of less than 1 on the thrust calculation, the law of diminishing returns is in effect. The more thrusters you add, the less thrust per block you get.
Power consumption for defensive push modules is a steady 40 e/sec, but I don't know how much "thrust" you get from each block, so I'm just going to assume a 1:1 ratio where each module provides 1 effective thrust.
So for 1,000 thrusters you get 1795 thrust or 1.795 thrust per block.
For 10k thrusters, its 1.3308 thrust per block.
And so on.
So the question becomes, when does it become more efficient to use Push modules than Thrusters when it comes to power?
Well, if we convert the numbers into Thrust per e/sec, we get:
1k thrusters are providing 60 thrust per e/sec.
10k thrusters provide 44 thrust per...
1 million thrusters provide 24 thrust...
100m thrusters provide 13 thrust...
We have to go all the way to 10,000,000,000,000,000 (thats 10 quadrillion) thrusters before they break even with push modules on a pure energy to thrust ratio break even point. Clearly that is a long round about way of saying "Push modules are never going to be as energy efficient as actual thrusters".
But what about for plain old block count?
Well, it works out to only roughly 100,000 thrusters being the break even point. At a little under 100k thrusters and each individual thruster block starts giving only 1 thrust and keeps going down from there.
So, if you have unlimited space but limited energy, stack plain old thrusters forever.
If you have limited space and unlimited energy, start switching over to push modules after 100k thruster blocks.
Was this actually useful to anyone? I dunno, I was bored.
Thrust generated is (N*5.5)^0.87.
Thanks to that exponential of less than 1 on the thrust calculation, the law of diminishing returns is in effect. The more thrusters you add, the less thrust per block you get.
Power consumption for defensive push modules is a steady 40 e/sec, but I don't know how much "thrust" you get from each block, so I'm just going to assume a 1:1 ratio where each module provides 1 effective thrust.
So for 1,000 thrusters you get 1795 thrust or 1.795 thrust per block.
For 10k thrusters, its 1.3308 thrust per block.
And so on.
So the question becomes, when does it become more efficient to use Push modules than Thrusters when it comes to power?
Well, if we convert the numbers into Thrust per e/sec, we get:
1k thrusters are providing 60 thrust per e/sec.
10k thrusters provide 44 thrust per...
1 million thrusters provide 24 thrust...
100m thrusters provide 13 thrust...
We have to go all the way to 10,000,000,000,000,000 (thats 10 quadrillion) thrusters before they break even with push modules on a pure energy to thrust ratio break even point. Clearly that is a long round about way of saying "Push modules are never going to be as energy efficient as actual thrusters".
But what about for plain old block count?
Well, it works out to only roughly 100,000 thrusters being the break even point. At a little under 100k thrusters and each individual thruster block starts giving only 1 thrust and keeps going down from there.
So, if you have unlimited space but limited energy, stack plain old thrusters forever.
If you have limited space and unlimited energy, start switching over to push modules after 100k thruster blocks.
Was this actually useful to anyone? I dunno, I was bored.
