energy usage and efficiency question

if I have 20 workers assisting a factory and I don't have enough metal to supply that many workers, does the amount of energy used go down or stay the same?

it is consumed at the rate listed at the top middle of your screen in percentage.

the full ammount of energy is consumed regardless of how much metal is actually spent.

*It doesn't charge you 50% energy if you use 50% metal. It will charge you 100% energy no matter what.

Unless you don't have enough energy.

well.. uh, you mean, unless you have too much energy
if you don't have enough, it'll still use 100% of your energy

How can you use more energy than you have?

you don't, you use only as much as you have - 100% of your income
if you have less energy than you need, you're using 100% of what you've got, if you've got more than what you need, you're using anything less than 100%

Right, but the fabbers aren't using 100% of what they normally use. Which is what I meant.

Afaik, energy is more important to keep positive because it effects all fabbers if it goes negative and is non transferable.

Metal is transferable because if you are negative or empty on metal, you can still use all of the metal being produced if you have the build power, but afaik energy does not work like this. When low on energy all fabbers will be reduced in speed by the same amount.

I could be wrong but it's what I keep in mind, I never really checked numbers to make sure.

it's bad to stall energy because your fabbers can't use all your mass

I think that only happens when metal is blue, which is why I'm so annoyed when people float.

even if you have 100% mass efficiency, stalling energy means that all your fabbers are using that mass less efficiently - I've never tried it, but mass use should go down if your energy stalls. If you stall mass, your entire income is still being used.