A question about energy storage/ mekanism

[Jakeb]

Powering an elite factory with a TE steam engine is begging for inefficiency.

 

[Daemonblue]

Thing is all of the furnace replacements smelt less than 8 items when powered by one. On the flip side, if you use a TE steam engine yo power an energy cube and then use the cube to power a powered furnace it smelts 19 items.

 

[Jakeb]

Being able to smelt 7 items at once in a single block, and being able to make it even faster with speed upgrades is (for me at least) worth sacrificing a bit of efficiency.

 

[KirinDave]

The issue was the factories as I mentioned above with how much power draw they had. I liked the idea of smelting 7 items at once, just not when it would take more fuel to smelt them than a vanilla furnace. This might be different if using a UE coal generator for power over a TE steam engine though, but if the coal gen produces more power then it

It doesn't draw more power per operation. It just draws 3/5/7x as much if it is actually doing all that work. The coal generator has been removed btw.

Part of my distaste for it might come from a few other things though, but I am mulling over re-installing it into my 152wgt pack with AS and some other mods.

It has changed a lot. And it has adorable (albeit a bit useless) helper robots.[DOUBLEPOST=1373343158][/DOUBLEPOST]

Thing is all of the furnace replacements smelt less than 8 items when powered by one. On the flip side, if you use a TE steam engine yo power an energy cube and then use the cube to power a powered furnace it smelts 19 items.

This should be fixed by new defaults in 1.5.2. Basically the power conversion stuff was way off before. And the old coal generator for UE has been removed. It was always meant to be insanely inefficient, but that never registered with most folks because its actual wattage looked good.

 

[Daemonblue]

Well right now I'm in the process of getting the configs to work with 152wgt since atomic science had a few clashes, but everything else seems good.

Edit: Derp, forgot to actually download mekanism, but I should have the configs sorted out now.

 

[Daemonblue]

Hmm, any tips on how I should start out working with UE? I plan on doing the usual TC start I do to get a smelter running and a hammer.

 

[KirinDave]

Hmm, any tips on how I should start out working with UE? I plan on doing the usual TC start I do to get a smelter running and a hammer.

Oh, if you're using TiC then here's your first UE goals:

1. Gather enough Osmium to make a full set of armor. It's a really great starter set, but lousy enchantability.
2. Make sure to keep osmium on hand. And redstone.
3. Make a heat generator. Note that it can burn solid fuels for extra power output.
4. Make a metallurgic infuser. Charcoal and enriched iron make steel.
5. Make the best TiC tools for early game from steel.

Note that the very best way to use the hydrogen power system is to use it as a "power amplifier." Run 5-lava-adjacent heat generators into hydrogen splitters. Once you get the hang of how the system works, you can loop back hydrogens onto themselves to make a standalone power system, but you need to understand how they work first.

 

[Daemonblue]

Well I already have my enrichment chamber since I got 11 steel from a village I spawned at, so I'm at a decent start there. I also somehow managed to have diamonds and redstone right at the bottom of my mining well, so I won't have to search for that either :X Because of my spawn though I have to be a bit careful cause of jungle spiders, so getting more osmium for armor will definitely help. I plan on holding back on making a steel tool until I can make a green slime farm though so I can make the green slime rods.

Also, while I'm not watching it currently (due to newly implemented bandwidth caps...yay) I did watch the episodes of RR where you mucked around with power generation. I just wasn't sure about where to start off.

 

[Jakeb]

Probably the best way to start off with Mekanism power is 3-4 heat generators. Make sure they have all five sides surrounded by lava (doesn't have to be source blocks) and you've got a decent, cheap power setup. The energy boost from putting a lava bucket in the heat generator doesn't last very long. Also note that despite what NEI says, you can use coal to make steel.
I don't know what Dave is talking about with his hydrogen splitters, maybe he could explain it more?
I setup an electrical pump, electrolytic separator, and hydrogen generator and now I've got excess power even when running my purification chamber + 3 basic factories, all with 8 speed upgrades. At this rate I'll need to upgrade that elite energy cube into an ultimate one soon.

 

[gattsuru]

I don't know what Dave is talking about with his hydrogen splitters, maybe he could explain it more?

Running a set of Heat Generators into any number of Electrolytic Separators (set to dump the Oxygen), then the output of the Electrolytic Separators into an equal number of Hydrogen Generators*, can significantly increase the amount of power on hand. With the most recent Mekanism release, I /think/ it output about six times the energy it takes in -- note this ignores the cost of the water pump, if you're not using a ThermalExpansion Aqueous Accumulator. Four Heat Generators and two hydrogen stacks is usually more than enough power for ore processing and an AE network, and even early AtomicScience uranium refining.

* I'd recommend putting them side-by-side; piping doesn't seem reliable.

Once you've got more infrastructure, or at least a few Energy Tablets, you can bypass the Heat Generators entirely and just jumpstart a pair of Separators into an infinite fuel loop, but this is can have somewhat tricky results due to the voltages (if you don't just use Universal Cable).

 

[Jakeb]

Running a set of Heat Generators into any number of Electrolytic Separators (set to dump the Oxygen), then the output of the Electrolytic Separators into an equal number of Hydrogen Generators*, can significantly increase the amount of power on hand. With the most recent Mekanism release, I /think/ it output about six times the energy it takes in -- note this ignores the cost of the water pump, if you're not using a ThermalExpansion Aqueous Accumulator. Four Heat Generators and two hydrogen stacks is usually more than enough power for ore processing and an AE network, and even early AtomicScience uranium refining.

* I'd recommend putting them side-by-side; piping doesn't seem reliable.

Once you've got more infrastructure, or at least a few Energy Tablets, you can bypass the Heat Generators entirely and just jumpstart a pair of Separators into an infinite fuel loop, but this is can have somewhat tricky results due to the voltages (if you don't just use Universal Cable).

So, basically, it's just a normal hydrogen generator setup, but the electrolytic separators are powered by heat generators?

 

[Daemonblue]

He was saying start off with heat generators, move onto to hydrogen gens that are jump started by heat generators, and then once everything is all good loop the hydrogen gens so they power themselves.

 

[Jakeb]

Well that does sound like a good idea, so I'm probably going to use it once a get a few more resources. One hydrogen gen outputting into an ultimate energy cube, which powers my ore processing and electrolytic separator is more than enough for now though.

 

[KirinDave]

He was saying start off with heat generators, move onto to hydrogen gens that are jump started by heat generators, and then once everything is all good loop the hydrogen gens so they power themselves.

THe looping back is showing off. It's pretty reasonable just to use the heat gens if you have the space.

 

[Daemonblue]

Well, it seems it should be noted that if you have Gt installed that you should smelt the steel dust you get from the infuser in a TC smeltery rather than a furnace. If you pop it in a furnace it turns it into GT steel dust that requires a a blast furnace -_-

 

[KirinDave]

Well, it seems it should be noted that if you have Gt installed that you should smelt the steel dust you get from the infuser in a TC smeltery rather than a furnace. If you pop it in a furnace it turns it into GT steel dust that requires a a blast furnace -_-

Disable that crap in the GT config. It's a setting you CANNOT enable if you want to have UE and GT play together.

 

[Daemonblue]

Well that's just how it was set, but it's not that bad since you can still make steel using the TC smeltery which can be semi-automated via using seared glass, liquiducts, and vanilla hoppers. If anything the added challenge of automating steel production while bypassing furnaces makes it kinda interesting.

For my starter power I ended up going with a hobbyists steam engine. It can produce power a good deal quicker than the heat generators and since both are temporary I decided to go with the easier to set up solution. Just made some of the universal cables so I can hook up my TE machines to the energy cube I have right now until I can get some conduits since BCs conductive pipes suck the life right out of the cubes. Once I find some gold I'll also be able to upgrade my other energy cube into an advanced one so that will also help a bit.

 

[KirinDave]

Well that's just how it was set, but it's not that bad since you can still make steel using the TC smeltery which can be semi-automated via using seared glass, liquiducts, and vanilla hoppers. If anything the added challenge of automating steel production while bypassing furnaces makes it kinda interesting.

For my starter power I ended up going with a hobbyists steam engine. It can produce power a good deal quicker than the heat generators and since both are temporary I decided to go with the easier to set up solution. Just made some of the universal cables so I can hook up my TE machines to the energy cube I have right now until I can get some conduits since BCs conductive pipes suck the life right out of the cubes. Once I find some gold I'll also be able to upgrade my other energy cube into an advanced one so that will also help a bit.

Those universal cables are something else, aren't they?

 

[Daemonblue]

At the very least they don't draw 32 mj/t worth of power from the energy cube when all the machines are idle

Also, already having to deal with radiation in my mines under my house cause of all the ore. I decided not to take any chances and stash the uranium by itself in a chest away from my main pathways. Since I finished building my main base I'm also working on setting up a quick drop off station for my mines. The idea is to have a single BC pipe leading from my mines into a sorting area and rather than using chests with redstone engines and whatnot on every floor I'm setting up obsidian pipes so I can just throw stacks of items at it and let it go up and sort itself out. The only problem is needing iron pipes and a wrench to turn them, so my next step is to get some cyan dye and make an Omniwrench so I won't have to worry about it.

 

[KirinDave]

At the very least they don't draw 32 mj/t worth of power from the energy cube when all the machines are idle

Also, already having to deal with radiation in my mines under my house cause of all the ore. I decided not to take any chances and stash the uranium by itself in a chest away from my main pathways. Since I finished building my main base I'm also working on setting up a quick drop off station for my mines. The idea is to have a single BC pipe leading from my mines into a sorting area and rather than using chests with redstone engines and whatnot on every floor I'm setting up obsidian pipes so I can just throw stacks of items at it and let it go up and sort itself out. The only problem is needing iron pipes and a wrench to turn them, so my next step is to get some cyan dye and make an Omniwrench so I won't have to worry about it.

It's kinda fun having to deal with those issues, isn't it? The radiation makes nuclear feel very differentiated and weird and even scary.