The lights, window-cleaners and audio spreakers in the pods require power to operate. The power in the pods is provided by a solar powered, rechargable battery. In other words: It is charged by light. The battery will therefore only be charged during the pod Age day. It is not always clear however, when it is day or when it is night. Only in Payiferen it is very clear when it is day or night. In Negilahn, only the color of the sky is different but day and night look very similar otherwise. In Dereno it is always light and in Tetsonot it is always dark as that pod is broken.
All things you can turn on, use a certain amount of power. Uru calculates how much power is used and also how much power is recharged every 10 seconds. The batteries are not recharged during the night. If it were to stay night all day then the following figures would apply:
With only the internal lights turned on, the battery should last about 9 hours. If you also turn on all three of the outer spotlights, the battery will last only two hours. Turning on the speakers that produce some animal sounds, drains the battery even more.
In the Open Cave Shard (TOC) I observed the power in the Dereno pod for a few days. It started at 99% charge on the first day. I left the internal lights on and left the pod. When I returned the next day, the batteries were still at 99% charge. I looked at the log files to find that during my absence the batteries were charged with an equal amount of power that was used by the internal lights. I left the pod again and returned the next day. Again, the charge was at 99%, same as the day before. This suggests that the pod batteries are being recharged, even when the power is left on, but only for the amount needed to power the internal lights. (And less than that in the other pods, if I'm correct.)
If you do happen to run out of power (because you left several things turned on when you last visited the pod), it can happen that shortly after you switch the power on, it switches off by itself. In that case it is probably night in the pod Age. Wait until it is day and the batteries will be recharging again.
The pod Age daylength is about 15 hours and 43 minutes. That gives you less than 8 hours day(light) and less than 8 hours night.
The portals appear roughly two hours after dawn for each pod. So that gives you another way to determine whether it is day or night.
