Am I the only one who cringes......

[Poppycocks]

Since reading that boiler efficiency thread, I've been trying to steer away from 'em. One, they're a sink of perfectly good iron/steel that could be used on other things, like GT machines (for steel) and, for iron, freaking combustion engines. Considering I only ever bother with liquid-fueled boilers, anyway, since BC fuel is absolutely god-like for making steam, seeing the time it takes for a boiler to reach, let alone surpass, the fuel efficiency of a regular old combustion engine...I'll just take the less resource-intensive route and build a bank of combustion engines fueling oil fabricators and a refinery or two. Or, like my last map where I fucked up some math, 16, lol.

One of the big reasons I even -want- a redwood PC tree farm is because I wanna see if I can avoid using hell power entirely. Just go charcoal, find an oil well, can some of that up, refine the initial fuel, and get the chain reaction started! Turn a few humble combustion engines into a factory-running, behemothic monstrosity capable of restarting the freaking sun.

You do realize that powerloops are a serious exploit that don't have a snowflake-in-hell chance of surviving an update or two, right?

I'm not here to judge your or anything, just saying that you'll have to re-build sooner or later.

 

[Mash]

Frankly, I have over 150 stacks of iron that I haven't even processed into dust, yet.

I would need a LOT of other projects for me to actually worry about what I sink my iron/steel into. The only point of contention I had with making boilers was the time sink that came from making the steel from iron. With that gone, there's literally nothing to stop me from doing it. I don't plan on using my boilers for less than a day or two, so they will pay for themselves many times over compared to combustion engines by the time I stop playing.

Not to mention how much less space I'd require.

 

[RavynousHunter]

You do realize that powerloops are a serious exploit that don't have a snowflake-in-hell chance of surviving an update or two, right?

I'm not here to judge your or anything, just saying that you'll have to re-build sooner or later.

Of course. That's when you find another one, lol. Besides, I usually roll up a new world when an update comes along, anyway. Even if they end the infinite fuel loop, there's always hell.

 

[Predatorkillol]

Coal is easily renewed, at least in any pack with Soul Shards. T5 Wither Skeleton dropper will create a lot of coal, as in enough coal to run multiple 36HP boilers off of the creosote from the gigantic array of coke ovens you can fill with that much coal.

Playing dw20 the only thing I've run across that is truly non-renewable is the ender dragon egg. Everything else can be had via soul shards, mystcraft, and extrabees.

Actually you can get a dragon egg with a tome of alakest (or however its spelt) by combining with some diamond blocks

 

[Greyed]

That evens out at 1.05.

Hm, I guess you're right. More time efficient as well.

Hmph, I was going to write on how that might not hold when looking at the Boiler -> Powered Furnace line. I was getting into how much heat makes how much MJ, yadda, yadda, but then I realized there's an easier way to figure it out.

1 Charcoal in the Powered Furnace costs 160MJ to produce 1.6k heat.
6 planks in the Sawmill costs 80Mj and produces 1.8k heat.

Planks win and thus I will be adjusting my power network to move to planks.

Do scaffold still burn? If so, sawmill -> scaffolds will be more efficient still.

 

[Hydra]

Since reading that boiler efficiency thread, I've been trying to steer away from 'em. One, they're a sink of perfectly good iron/steel that could be used on other things, like GT machines (for steel) and, for iron, freaking combustion engines. Considering I only ever bother with liquid-fueled boilers, anyway, since BC fuel is absolutely god-like for making steam, seeing the time it takes for a boiler to reach, let alone surpass, the fuel efficiency of a regular old combustion engine...

You mean 5.5. hours?

 

[Zjarek_S]

You mean 5.5. hours?

Boilers are fully efficient when you use all energy they produce and with engines you can run them as needed, which in practice makes engines a lot more efficient in many cases, like powering your base.

 

[PonyKuu]

Oh, please, don't start this shit again...

(But combustion engines are boring and constant power production is a more insteresting concept)

 

[Greyed]

(But combustion engines are boring and constant power production is a more insteresting concept)

Even more interesting when you grok the concept that steam is technically a liquid. Nothing says you have to use the steam right now. >.>

 

[PonyKuu]

Even more interesting when you grok the concept that steam is technically a liquid. Nothing says you have to use the steam right now. >.>

I don't do that. Actually, I'd be OK if steam turbines won't shut down if they can't send power anywhere. For me boiler setup is "build it - get tons of power constantly"

 

[OmegaJasam]

Aye the draw of a boiler for most people is that large power output from an infinite fuel generation. The complexity of producing all the power you need all the time is oft a lot simpler then the 'efficient' on demand models.

Same reason I still use charcoal rather then planks for the boiler. Efficency is nice, but currently uneeded. And frankly, it would be easyer to scale up my liquid fuel boiler. It's mostly still there because I have no better use for the 5 or 6 golems which run the place.

 

[Greyed]

I have a different reason for my solid fuel boiler. No forestry, no renewable source of liquid fuel. :/

EDIT: Actually, I was wrong, Creosote is technically renewable. Being viable, on the other hand, is debatable.

 

[PonyKuu]

Aye the draw of a boiler for most people is that large power output from an infinite fuel generation. The complexity of producing all the power you need all the time is oft a lot simpler then the 'efficient' on demand models.

Same reason I still use charcoal rather then planks for the boiler. Efficency is nice, but currently uneeded. And frankly, it would be easyer to scale up my liquid fuel boiler. It's mostly still there because I have no better use for the 5 or 6 golems which run the place.

The other reason why I use planks is also... free charcoal! 8 sawdust = 1 charcoal. It is used to power my Steve's carts and for other minor uses. I also used it to start my second/third boilers because I had tons of it.

 

[Affex]

ME storage monitor.

Oh, Thanks. Totally forgot about them

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Generally I try out a new power source, and perfect the balance after 2 or 3 runs, my last was a single 36HP boiler with each engine directly connected to its own energy cell- giving me a net draw of 1800MJ/t when fully charged.

IC power came from magma crucibles and thermal generators.​

​

Now the server maps being reset (nooo!!!! my distillation tower!!), I'm going to exploit the insane amount of nikolite in the world. Blultric engines and solar panels. Yum Yum!!
(the amount of that stuff thats left in the ground- such a waste of free power)

 

[KirinDave]

Generally I try out a new power source, and perfect the balance after 2 or 3 runs, my last was a single 36HP boiler with each engine directly connected to its own energy cell- giving me a net draw of 1800MJ/t when fully charged.

IC power came from magma crucibles and thermal generators.​

​

Now the server maps being reset (nooo!!!! my distillation tower!!), I'm going to exploit the insane amount of nikolite in the world. Blultric engines and solar panels. Yum Yum!!
(the amount of that stuff thats left in the ground- such a waste of free power)

You're map resetting and not going to 1.5.1? Seems like throwing work into the void.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

You're map resetting and not going to 1.5.1? Seems like throwing work into the void.

I'm not server admin, but that was the original plan before the 1.5 pack was announced. Its a little wasteful, but hopefully it'll fix some of the bugs- and there's a few other tweaks which should make it better in the long run. Generally everyone's happy with it- the newer people will be equal and the old boys such as myself were so tech'd out we're getting bored. (also no more quarry holes and floating trees- those things are UGLY)

 

[twisto51]

I have a different reason for my solid fuel boiler. No forestry, no renewable source of liquid fuel. :/

EDIT: Actually, I was wrong, Creosote is technically renewable. Being viable, on the other hand, is debatable.

Viable, not really debatable. Worth more coke ovens than you can shake a stick at? Maybe not. Somebody on our server runs 4 36HP boilers off of creosote from coke ovens. He has a LOT of coke ovens. All the coal comes from just one T5 Wither Skeleton Soul Shard.

 

[Mash]

Viable, not really debatable. Worth more coke ovens than you can shake a stick at? Maybe not. Somebody on our server runs 4 36HP boilers off of creosote from coke ovens. He has a LOT of coke ovens. All the coal comes from just one T5 Wither Skeleton Soul Shard.

What does he use all that coal coke for?

 

[twisto51]

What does he use all that coal coke for?

A field of generators, LOL. We give him crap for having the dirtiest power production on the server. The generators came first, the steam boilers only came after I kept bothering him to try them and even gave him my old 8LP test boiler.