Power Generator vs Reactor, are they even different?

I've gotten enough dwellers now to build a Reactor. But the cost is much higher than a Power Generator. Is there any benefit of the Reactor that would justify the cost or should I just save my caps and keep building Power Generators?

Solution 1:

From the Room Efficiency Data Thread on Reddit, your best bet is a 2 wide Nuclear Reactor. Surprisingly the 2 room wide power rooms (both Powerplant and Nuclear) are more efficient than an equivelant 3 room. That is, it's better to have three 2-wide Powerplants, than two 3-wide Powerplants.

That said it's much better to have a fully upgraded Nuclear than a fully upgraded Powerplant: Powerplant (Size 2, Level 3): Output 33; Storage 200 Nuclear (Size 2, Level 3): Output 39; Storage 800

However the benefit is more in the vastly increased storage than in Output... More storage means if you play for a bit you can bank a lot of energy against Raider/Molerat attacks ...

Solution 2:

The other factor to consider is that room types get more expensive as you build them. So at the moment the Reactor is available, it might not be worth it, but by the time you have 200 dwellers, odds are Power Generators are going to be very expensive, and you'll be making enough caps to get a Reactor up and running. So then the amount of caps it cost will even itself out.

Solution 3:

It's supposed to be much more efficient, generating more power in the same or less time frame, but I didn't find them to be worth it. The amount of money it takes to upgrade them is crazy, and the un-upgraded versions of the reactor don't perform as well as the upgraded power stations, so I ended up staying with power stations. if they are more efficient at their highest upgrade level, it would have taken me weeks to get enough caps to actually do the upgrades.