Making my EU work harder.

[wildc4rd]

Hi all, I'm cruising out of mid game now on our Ultimate server, and having trouble with my power use.

Generation is sorted out with 15 Ultimate hybrids (boring, I know, but it works and I don't wish to worry about power this time through).

I am running a number of the standard IC machines, a large AE storage/processing setup, as well as some gregtech, matterfab, 2 quarries and an assembly table via Power converters.

I have 4 Adjustable energy storage units as well as the whole host of other bits (cable, MFSU's, MFE's, transformers etc.)

My question is mainly regarding the best way to wire things, I am not short of storage or generation, but still find my electrolizers and macerators running out of juice as they are almost always running.

Advice welcome, or just a link to how the system works so I can set it out properly.

Thanks in advance.

 

[twisto51]

If you have overclockers in your macerators there might not be enough EU on their line to keep them going. You can either put transformer upgrades in them(and remove the upstream LV transformer(s)) or put more LV transformers in parallel upstream from them.

Put your matterfab/mass fab at the end of the main trunk or put it on its own EU storage that will stop feeding it when it runs dry so it only uses excess EU and not what you need for the rest of your production.

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

matter fab can take 16 ultimate solars, so with 15 running your whole system the matter fab will clear you out, especially as they only generate full power during the day.

 

[wildc4rd]

That is not entirely helpful, I was asking how to wire it so everything works. A link to a good guide would be fine.

 

[netmc]

The industrial electoliser needs a full 128 eu/tick. Same as the GT grinder and blast furnace. You can't share the line with any other machine. So what I've done for the Grinder and blast furnace (since I will eventually have 4 of them) is to place a MV transformer under the multiblock, fed by a 512eu line. Then, I use 4 different faces of the MV transformer to feed each machine. If you have the power to spare, you could also place and MFSU attached to the each of the transformers for 10 million uninterrupted EUs worth of machine use.

The industrial centrifuge only requires 5ue/tick to run, so you could in theory run 6 of them off one power line. The chemical reactor also requires the full 32eu/tick to run and doesn't like to share the line.

I my manual area, I ended up doing a dual line feed for the machines. two separate batboxes each feeding a line on the back and bottom of the machines. For my MV items, I did the same with MFEs. So I can theoretically run a machine that needs the full 128eu/tick and another lesser machine at the same time. When i finish out my automation, I will probably have multiple transformers/MFEs attached to the same line for my mid tier machines, and setup as in the first paragraph for the multiblocks.

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

You can't share the line with any other machine.

Not true my machines are all in a row and get powered fine: 4 mfsu's > 2 rotary macerators > 2 singularity compressors > centrifuge extractor > recycler > mv transformer > 4 induction furnaces >2 electrolyzers > lv transformer > 2 centrifuges > some other lv stuff and they don't run out of juice.

 

[TangentialThreat]

That is not entirely helpful, I was asking how to wire it so everything works. A link to a good guide would be fine.

The complex, robust solution is to force more than 128 eu/t through a MV line. The 128 limit is the size of the packet. There's no rule against having many, many 128 eu packets running through a line per tick. The main glass fibre cable coming out of your solar array is probably already at a couple of thousand EU/t during the day despite only being rated for 512 because it is receiving multiple packets per tick.

A transformer will output several packets per tick when downconverting from 512 to 128. An energy storage block such as an MFE or a MFSU will always output a single packet per tick. If you put one MFSU between your power and your mat fab it'll be throttled down to 512 eu/t. If you put a transformer and no storage block (or multiple storage blocks in parallel) between your main power cable (or a MFSU) and your devices that need 128, you should be good and your EU reader should show much more than 128 eu/t moving through your lines.

This shouldn't cause explosions. Everything explodes based on packet size. Be warned that transformers sometimes bug out and somehow output a large packet in the wrong direction when they are switched with redstone current, so basically never switch them with redstone. Play around with this in creative until nothing is going kapow anymore.

The simple alternative solution is to just give everything that needs MV its own MFE. This will run down if you're doing a lot of grinding though.

 

[netmc]

Not true my machines are all in a row and get powered fine: 4 mfsu's > 2 rotary macerators > 2 singularity compressors > centrifuge extractor > recycler > mv transformer > 4 induction furnaces >2 electrolyzers > lv transformer > 2 centrifuges > some other lv stuff and they don't run out of juice.

In that setup you have more than 128eu/tick running down the line. I was feeding only 128/eu tick since I was running from an MFE, and not through a transformer. The only machines you have that require 128eu/tick are the 2 industrial electrolysers. everything else can run with a lot less energy.

 

[Mash]

As others have said, the Electrolyzer requires a large amount of energy. It requires a constant flow of 128 eu/t, otherwise it simply won't run. My suggestion is to build an MFE, connect it to your power source, and then dedicate that MFE to your Electrolyzer. That way, it will always run so long as your AESU's have power in them. Since you already have AESU's, the materials for an MFE should be pretty trivial.

You should also consider doing this for stuff like the Industrial Grinder and Blast Furnace.

 

[Ughzug]

You should work to be running your power outputs in parallel, and stepping them down from your ultimates like this... for every ult solar you go mfsu, mv transformer, 2 lv transformers, to machines.

As an example I've attached a picture of what my EU setup looks like, its a 5x5 grid for solars, i have a lightning rod system at bedrock that goes right through the center of the grid so its 24 ult solars 24 mfsus, 24 mv transformers and 48 lv transformers, the line traveling below powers all of my EU machines. the setup scales up to 12,500 EU/t if i should have enough machines to draw that but at most I'm running 6k eu/t draw, and never run out of power day or night.

edit also pro tip if you're running your mass fab (easy gregtech) without scrap slap an autarchic gate on it to emit a redstone signal when it doesn't have amp (scrap) to maximize your energy use.

edit edit if you plan on build this make sure you go bottom first to top and plan out how many solars you ultimately want (pun) to save yourself some accidents.

 

[Adonis0]

matter fab can take 16 ultimate solars, so with 15 running your whole system the matter fab will clear you out, especially as they only generate full power during the day.

I'm feeding mine 25 ultimate solars, plus about 100 advanced solars, it's quite happily eating the 12000 Eu/t without filling up the internal storage..

I think the 8000 Eu/t is the packet size limit, not the consumption limit

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

I'm feeding mine 25 ultimate solars, plus about 100 advanced solars, it's quite happily eating the 12000 Eu/t without filling up the internal storage..

I think the 8000 Eu/t is the packet size limit, not the consumption limit

I should have clarified when I posted, I'm on 1.0.2 of ultimate, that has the 2.9.0h version of gregtech. In that and newer versions the matter fab is restricted to 8k eu/t

 

[Adonis0]

I should have clarified when I posted, I'm on 1.0.2 of ultimate, that has the 2.9.0h version of gregtech. In that and newer versions the matter fab is restricted to 8k eu/t

Ahh, that makes sense Thanks

I was wondering why all around the forums I was seeing the 8k eu/t limit, and scratching my head at where the 12k eu/t was going.

 

[khorozm]

a transformer can output up to the upper packek size that it can handle, not the lower
so an MV transformer can output 512 EU/t in four 128 EU packets, which can supports 4 industrial grinders

What i usually do with EU power:
Generation -> MFSUs or ADSUs in Parallel -> HV powerline and them split them to specific groups of machines. so there is only limitation of the bandwith is from the number of MFSUs or ADSUs

 

[budge]

My standard practice is to hook up all of my storage units in parallel. In my current base, my 16 AESU's can transfer 32,768 eu/t along the glass fiber main line. I don't step down any energy along this line and don't interrupt it with any machines or transformers, and instead branch it off into transformers right next to their machines. Now I don't ever have to worry about bottlenecks.

 

[Adonis0]

[Snip] Now I don't ever have to worry about bottlenecks.

Only lag.

 

[budge]

You mean from having that many packets flowing through the wires? Maybe I should upgrade everything to EV over superconductors...

 

[thestarlion]

What I've been experimenting with is a combo of Power Converters and TE Energy Conduits. All power starts off as EU, but gets converted to BC power for the conduits, which have (If memory serves) only 5% loss no matter how much energy or how far, and ensure that all destinations get at least their minimum amount of energy if it can supply it.
Then at the machines, just convert it back to EU at the required voltage, no need for any kind of storage since the Energy Bridge has a built-in buffer. Granted I could save space by using L/M/HV transformers or Transformer Upgrades on those machines that accept them, but space isn't usually isn't an issue.
It also has the benefit that I can then use Energy Tesseracts, allowing me to effectively teleport EU because it's temporarily MJ in the conduits, which is quicker, if not cheaper, than using GT-IDSU's.

 

[wildc4rd]

I do like the sound of that, is there an upper limit on the energy bridge? Even without the matter fab it will be hitting 300 or 400 MJ/tick peak use. I'll run a line after the PC setup to take spare EU into the fab.

 

[thestarlion]

http://feed-the-beast.wikia.com/wiki/Energy_Bridge
That page has the details on how much it can output. In my experience though the amount it can output is limited by both the power being input into the Bridge, and also the demand on the producer end - any excess will just be stored in the buffer until it's full.
In theory you should get the same amount of EU in as you do out (less the 5% loss on the Energy Conduits, of course), so if you're doing alright with cables right now you should be the same afterwards.