generators

[twb1975]

Hi im new to the game but when you sleep for a month, How come you dont get a months pay from generators?
thanks

[PrincessJessi84]

the generators and honey production are an hourly thing. If you want/need more from your generators, adding more days per month would do it as you actually pass more hours in game.

[FarmCatJenkins]

the generators and honey production are an hourly thing. If you want/need more from your generators, adding more days per month would do it as you actually pass more hours in game.

Honey production isn't monthly like greenhouses are? Just asking, haven't messed with multiple day months yet.

[bossmanslim]

There are 5 passive income generators that are in the game. I have done rough testing on all 5 and all 5 are basically worthless for most players:

• Small solar - costs 46500, claims a hourly income of $18, actually produces about $220 per month, meaning it will take 18 years to payback
• Large solar - costs 93500, claims a hourly income of $33, actually produces about $340 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Small wind - costs 187500, claims a hourly income of $82, actually produces about $635 per month, meaning it will take 25 years to payback
• Medium wind - costs 375000 claims a hourly income of $162, actually produces about $1330 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Large wind - costs 750000, claims a hourly income of $325, actually produces about $2375 per month, meaning it will take 26 years to payback

The actual payout looks to be (hourly rate * (8 for wind, 10 for solar) * randomization variable) per month. Doing math on this yields a 24 year payback on average.

By comparison, a large greenhouse auto selling lettuce WITH the cost of the water trailer included pays back in 2 years.

Anything with longer than a 5 year payback (trees) is a waste of time.

Edit based on post below: The above is for 1 days months, unlike other parts of the game such as daily costs (gg Giants, bugged or working as intended?), these production facilities produce daily, not monthly. Due to the randomization, it may not be a straight multiplier by the number of days.

[twb1975]

Thanks everyone for your replys but I think it should be a option so you could get payed 8 hours a day for the month?

[bossmanslim]

Thanks everyone for your replys but I think it should be a option so you could get payed 8 hours a day for the month?

per hour rate should be changed to per month rate as everything in the game is (quantity) / (days per month), but then no one would build one as most people would do the math and figure out they're all junk.

[GrimHuffer]

There are 5 passive income generators that are in the game. I have done rough testing on all 5 and all 5 are basically worthless for most players:

• Small solar - costs 46500, claims a hourly income of $18, actually produces about $220 per month, meaning it will take 18 years to payback
• Large solar - costs 93500, claims a hourly income of $33, actually produces about $340 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Small wind - costs 187500, claims a hourly income of $82, actually produces about $635 per month, meaning it will take 25 years to payback
• Medium wind - costs 375000 claims a hourly income of $162, actually produces about $1330 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Large wind - costs 750000, claims a hourly income of $325, actually produces about $2375 per month, meaning it will take 26 years to payback

The actual payout looks to be (hourly rate * (8 for wind, 10 for solar) * randomization variable) per month. Doing math on this yields a 24 year payback on average.

By comparison, a large greenhouse auto selling lettuce WITH the cost of the water trailer included pays back in 2 years.

Anything with longer than a 5 year payback (trees) is a waste of time.

Without providing number of days per month, wind speed or weather data those number aren't indicative of much at all.

Clearly, the more days in a month the more income they will generate in that period, e.g. 28 days months will generate 2800% more income than 1 day months.

Wind will produce very little income if the wind speed in slow, I'm not sure what the figure in the build menu is referring to, perhaps average income over some time period, week, month, year? From testing, at a wind speed of 1, the second wind turbine (named "Small Wind Turbine", for sale on hard difficulty for £375,000) generates only 15 to 16 per hour despite a stated income of 162 (difficulty settings will change these numbers somewhat). However, at wind speed of 3, income jumps to 63 to 64 per hour, approximately 400% more but still far short of the stated 162 on the build menu. You would need a very strong wind to reach the stated 162 income per hour.

Whilst wind will produce income at night and during the rain, solar will not. However, from the little testing I did solar is far more reliable. The smallest solar panel (named "Small Solar Collector") generated an income of 16 per hour (same as build menu stated (again difficulty will change these numbers a little)), every hour the sun was shining. The solar panels will stop generating at night (seems to stop when the sun is still visible but is almost at the horizon, i.e. sunset, and will begin again after sunrise). Even if the sky is cloudy they will still generate electricity but they will stop during the rain.

To calculate how much each 'generator' actually makes over a certain time period you need details on number of days in a month, wind speed, weather (for rain, not sure what happens in the snow didn't test that). Solar is a little easier to work out as the income is more relaible but you'd need to know at what time income stops during the day/night cycle and how this changes as the day length changes as the seasons do. As a very rough calculation however, if you assume income generation of solar to be at 50%, and 28 days in a month it would take roughly 8.5 to 9 months to pay for itself. Play on 3 day months however and and that jumps up to somewhere closer to 6.5-7 years!

28 day month:
(24 hours in a day, 50% is 12 hours, so 12 times income per hour of 16 gives 192 a day, 28 days in a month so 192 times 28 giving 5,376 per month. Cost of small solar collector is 46,500, and divided by monthly income of 5,376 gives 8.65)

3 day month:
(24 hours in a day, 50% is 12 hours, so 12 times income per hour of 16 gives 192 a day, 3 days in a month so 192 times 3 giving 576 per month. Cost of small solar collector is 46,500, and divided by monthly income of 576 gives 80.73 (months, divided by 12 and that's 6.7 years)

These numbers are very rough and speculative and will change depending on the variability of the weather (which, in my opinion, is a great addition Giants added, was FS19 not a flat rate?) and are clearly highly tied in with month length. I personally play on 28 day months and the passive income from the one small solar panel I have far outperforms that from my two greenhouses.

[SimpleFarmer]

So I saw that a medium wind generator supposedly would pay itself off in 11 months; I chuckled nervously, went all in and dropped the 155,000. It is summer and its only paying me about 1/4 what was stated, so now we see we made a poor investment.
We are aware it's summer and perhaps the wind will pick up in the colder weather, but for now, we are worried.
I spent the children's college fund on this. If it doesn't pay off, we're ruined.

[dan1109]

So I saw that a medium wind generator supposedly would pay itself off in 11 months; I chuckled nervously, went all in and dropped the 155,000. It is summer and its only paying me about 1/4 what was stated, so now we see we made a poor investment.
We are aware it's summer and perhaps the wind will pick up in the colder weather, but for now, we are worried.
I spent the children's college fund on this. If it doesn't pay off, we're ruined.

they may have made an error with generators during the 1.2.0.0 patch when they formally changed everything in the display to indicate proper monthly production outputs...or there is no bug and they haven't updated the game documentation for a placeable that would appear to be the best investment in the game requiring little land and zero work...they don't even need water or a pallet fork!

[StoneTheCrows]

the generators and honey production are an hourly thing. If you want/need more from your generators, adding more days per month would do it as you actually pass more hours in game.

Honey production isn't monthly like greenhouses are? Just asking, haven't messed with multiple day months yet.

I'm pretty sure honey is /month.

[Rasping rabbit]

the generators and honey production are an hourly thing. If you want/need more from your generators, adding more days per month would do it as you actually pass more hours in game.

Honey production isn't monthly like greenhouses are? Just asking, haven't messed with multiple day months yet.

I'm pretty sure honey is /month.

I’m pretty sure all production is monthly since they updated it. Even the subsidy signs are listed at generating something like 8mill per month where it was $375k p/h. I know greenhouses and animals produce monthly and productions from watching YouTubers play at the same.

It makes a sort of sense. People on 1 day months aren’t playing one day of the month, they are playing one month in a day. If production facilities provided more product for people that played more days per month then people would start playing on 28 day months at x360 instead.

[humbe]

Haven't tested what's what, but if game values aren't adjusted for days per month, it sounds like a bug.. Setting days per month should be about how long you want a year to be, and how much playtime you want to fit in that year, not about how much something can produce in a year. If they don't normalize these values, they need to multiply crop sell prices with the number of days per month, so what you make of crops is still comparable to other incomes. And that just sounds insane

[humbe]

There are 5 passive income generators that are in the game. I have done rough testing on all 5 and all 5 are basically worthless for most players:

• Small solar - costs 46500, claims a hourly income of $18, actually produces about $220 per month, meaning it will take 18 years to payback
• Large solar - costs 93500, claims a hourly income of $33, actually produces about $340 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Small wind - costs 187500, claims a hourly income of $82, actually produces about $635 per month, meaning it will take 25 years to payback
• Medium wind - costs 375000 claims a hourly income of $162, actually produces about $1330 per month, meaning it will take 23 years to payback
• Large wind - costs 750000, claims a hourly income of $325, actually produces about $2375 per month, meaning it will take 26 years to payback

...

According to numbers above, the small wind gives you 4.064% interest per year, which is more than the interest you need to pay bank for their loans.

Thus the large wind option is the only option the bank wouldn't prefer to invest in instead of you, as the investment seems to be no work and no risk ..

Small solar, which is best at 5.7% interest, you can loan to credit limit and finance everything and just sit back and enjoy the income, but it'll take a while to get rich.

Personally I don't see the point of incomes that is no risk no work.. If the best way to earn money in game would be to max loan, invest in as many as you can and press sleep, then playing to get rich would be a useless goal. Would be more interesting if you could for instance use these generators to decrease property maintenance, and that maybe gave a bit higher earnings, but whatever spare you had to sell of to the marked was taxed, so it wasn't profitable to make them just to sell electricity..

[bossmanslim]

These numbers were changed in the recent patch. I think most generators payback in about 2-3 years

[redglasses]

The obvious problem is to introduce taxes and subsidies, then placing a wind farm would pay it self off instantly because you'll get wicked subsidies and then get to skip taxes. This is the way...

gg Giants, bugged or working as intended?

The thing with giants is it's always working as intended, just like the great plains planter back in fs19.