Project Zomboid
Generator Fuel Usage
A generator decides whether your base has power, and letting it run dry overnight is the classic way to lose a freezer full of food.
Generator Fuel Usage
Count tiles, not objects: a two-tile freezer counts as two.
Fuel per Hour
Includes 0.002 L/h the generator burns with nothing on
Runtime on this fuel
About 38.6 in-game days
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How the numbers are worked out
A generator burns a tiny 0.002 litres an hour with nothing switched on, and every powered device within its 20-tile radius adds a fixed load on top, counted per tile the device covers. Tell the calculator what is running and how much fuel is in the tank, up to the 10 litres a full generator holds, and it shows the demand per hour and how many in-game hours and days that fuel lasts.
The formula
- demand (L/h) = 0.002 + Σ (device tiles × device load)
- runtime (in-game hours) = fuel in litres ÷ demand · full generator = 10 L
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Common mistakes
Condition does not change fuel use; it changes reliability. Below 20% a generator can break, and at 0% it can catch fire or explode, killing anyone nearby. Keep it repaired with scrap electronics and keep a spare, and treat a long runtime figure as permission to forget about refuelling, not about maintenance.
A worked example
The wiki's own example: a two-tile popsicle freezer (0.016 L/h), a television (0.003) and six lights (0.0012), plus the generator's base 0.002, come to 0.0222 litres an hour. A full 10-litre generator runs that for about 450 in-game hours, nearly 19 days. Add a stove and a washer and the same tank lasts about 250 hours.
Count tiles, not furniture
The load is per tile a device occupies, so a two-tile freezer costs twice what a one-tile fridge does, and a fridge with a freezer compartment has its own rate. Lights barely register, which makes them the last thing to cut; a second freezer or a stove left on is what shortens a tank.
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