A couple of questions regarding automation

[Servillo]

So I have some questions about automating item allocation with pipes, if I may.

1) What are the best pipes to use to minimize lag? I only know of buildcraft pipes and pneumatic tubes. Similar question for when I get a sorting system set up; should I just use diamond pipes to sort, or use Redpower devices?
2) If I want to connect a chest to a series of furnaces, what's the best way to get wood to a furnace whenever there's space, without losing any of the wood to popping out of pipes? I know I can use gates to only send a pulse when there's space, and pipe wires to communicate with a gate at a chest, but how effective is that?
3) Similar thing, if I have a diamond pipe next to a barrel and a chest, is the pipe smart enough to not send anything to the chest if it's full, shunting everything to the barrel instead?

I also have a couple of questions regarding using a steam boiler to power nearly everything I have in my base.

1) Is it better to use a liquid tesseract to send steam to engines, or an energy tesseract to send MJ to wherever I need it?
2) Is there any concern I should have about excess power generation (I don't care about efficiency) with a single 36HP boiler, i.e. should I be concerned about not having a place to continually dump power once my machines and energy cells are filled up?
3) Is it better to chain my Industrial Steam Engines together, or have each one feed my power line individually?

Thanks for any answers you can give me.

 

[Hydra]

1) Applied Energistics is very 'lagfriendly' because A) you're not drawing any sprites (= not client side FPS impact) and the server doesn't have to calculate paths (= no server side heavy CPU involvement like with RP).
2) Again, applied energistics is the 'best' solution, but it comes at a price. Your solution with pipes also works but it's a bit more complex. You can also use pneumatic tubes, these don't spill but backstuff instead. Make sure you have a 'way back' for the items though because otherwise you'll have a lot of items bouncing around.
3) Yes. This is how I separate stuff like cobble from the rest of my input:

The diamond pipe has gravel/dirt/cobble in the down (black) slot and if there's no space the item will move on towards the void pipe.

Re boilers:
1) Energy tesseracts lose 25% of the power they transfer. Liquid tesseracts don't lose anything. However once you have a big base with a lot of boilers you hardly notice the loss.
2) No, TE just 'voids' any excess power. I myself use excess power to generate lava (ign. extruder > cobble > magma crucible) to 'store' energy that way in a big 12x12x12 tank.
3) Chaining engines together is probably the only way you might get them to blow up (don't know if industrials can). There's no reason to chain them at all other than to save a few conduits.

 

[Servillo]

Aw crap, forgot to mention that I'm using Direwolf, so no AE for me.

And what do you define as a lot of boilers? I've only got one set up so far (can get more later, but I'm not in a huge rush, plus I'd have to set up a few more of my charcoal producing turtles), and I don't want to set up too many more. I guess if I'm not worried about efficiency, a loss of power isn't that big of a deal, even if it's 25%. I'd rather keep my engines in one place rather than have them spread out everywhere.

I guess I'll just stick with Buildcraft pipes for transport. I've heard somewhat nasty things about the possible lag of Redpower, especially on a server. Plus, I have absolutely no experience with Redpower, and have only just gotten an idea of how Buildcraft and Thermal Expansion can work well.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Hydra]

Direwolf has Applied Energistic

 

[Chocorate]

Probably the best, cheapest system is one that I just started using. You make sure everything in your base is vertical, with storage at the bottom and producers at the top. Then, instead of using a ton of pipes and stuff, you just drop stuff down into water, that dumps everything into obsidian pipes. So you dont have to spend materials on pipes that go downwards.

 

[Servillo]

Okay, so apparently I completely missed Applied Energistics. I cannot believe no one on my server has used this, either; it looks way more useful than Redpower. About the only problem I'm going to have is integrating it into my base. It's going to be...complicated, to say the least, considering how much effort I've already put into it. I may just go with some of the basics for item storage, and move up from there as needed.

I kind of need to rework my item storage at some point anyway, and I'm getting some ideas on how to do that now. This is going to be really involved, though, so I may work with Buildcraft pipes for the time being, and work my way up. Pretty sure I'm going to want a few more boilers though, so energy production can keep up.

Thanks for pointing me towards that!