Sorry for the newblet question. I read the wiki and it stated it maintains a 10 block deep area. But mine is only giving me one layer. Is that how it works or am I doing something wrong?
It produces 8000 EU at 8 EU/t when running on Biomass or 32,000 EU per bucket at 16 EU/t when running on Biofuel.
If you're going to make a generator to run off of biofuel i'd recommend the gregtech diesel generator instead of the forestry one. It accepts biofuel and generates the same amount of energy per bucket(although it only generates 8 eu/t instead of 16), but it can also use buildcraft fuel to generate 384k eu/bucket once you've moved on to that. Holds 10 buckets, so that's kind of like sticking 38.4m worth of eu into one engine.(though again it's limited to 8 eu/t output).
They're also pretty cheap. 1 generator, 5 refined iron, and 2 electronic circuits per diesel generator.
The last time I checked (granted, this was in FTB BETA A), the forestry version (the still) was more efficient than the refinery. The still produced 3 buckets of biofuel for 10 buckets of biomass. The refinery only produced 2.5 buckets per 10. The plus of the refinery was the speed though, since it was twice as fast (for twice the MJ/sec, meaning same total MJ cost per 10 buckets biomass).I strongly advice to use the build-craft refinery for the biomass to biofuel conversion however since that is way more efficient than using the forestry version for making biofuel.
The last time I checked (granted, this was in FTB BETA A), the forestry version (the still) was more efficient than the refinery. The still produced 3 buckets of biofuel for 10 buckets of biomass. The refinery only produced 2.5 buckets per 10. The plus of the refinery was the speed though, since it was twice as fast (for twice the MJ/sec, meaning same total MJ cost per 10 buckets biomass).
So: Still for efficiency (20% more biofuel per biomass), refinery for speed (twice the speed).
Let's use the numbers from http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/what-does-your-power-room-look-like.2129/page-9#post-51099.At the more favourable 10:3 ratio we consume 10*50=500K worth of biomass to make 3*200k=600K worth of biofuel. I suspect once you factor in the MJ's used up in the conversion, then it's probably a marginal gain or loss... So not really worth it either anymore. I guess the still is only for the convenience of using the less voluminous biofuel as a easier transportable liquid or as a higher output path to save on the number of biogenerators needed to power a given amount of machines.
Let's use the numbers from http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/what-does-your-power-room-look-like.2129/page-9#post-51099.
100k gain - ~26k usage = 74k gain from the conversion biomass->biofuel.
Also: Biomass uses a bit of lava on each restart of the engine, while biofuel always works. Biofuel is also usable in a RailCraft boiler.
Fastest/easiest to set up EU production is the peat bog actually. since you only need one farm, and that one can supply it's own peat fired engine with fuel as well as a huge surplus of peat you can burn in a generator for eu's. the drawback is that it consumes a LOT of sand.
The most efficient EU producer is a farm/treefarm combo. use wheat from the farm to make the fertilizer for the treefarm. excess saplings for biofuel, and excess logs for charcoal.
It's a LOT more work to set up, and it takes 2 farms. but it makes additional products for you, like wood/charcoal, and food. you will never be short on bread again. i promise
The treefarm also produces one block of sand per tree grown, so it effectively turns dirt into sand, you can revert this by adding a peat bog as well, but the bog will run at a low efficiency since there won't be enough sand made to run it full speed. (you might not want to run it full speed either... at full speed it makes tonnes of peat you might not need due to the productivity of the other setup)
the other way to get infinite dirt is to use excess wheat to make plantballs, and then macerate those into dirt. you get far too much wheat anyway, so this is actually a good way to just get rid of some of that excess.
I'm building this latter setup myself in my current mindcrack world, and it's a really good setup, albeit challenging to set up correctly due to not having logistics pipes as part of the pack... (lp pipes were expensive, but divine when it came to inventory management systems)
All you need is an igneous extruder (infinite cobble gen) and a pulverizer accepting that cobble (sand). Set it up with a peat fired engine running off your peat bog and you get free sand (more than you need for the bog actually), and you can set up an auto-crafting table with a dispenser under it with a bucket in it and infinite water supply in front of it, and it's SUPER easy to make an auto peat farm then since you can auto-make bog earth.
All you need is an igneous extruder (infinite cobble gen) and a pulverizer accepting that cobble (sand). Set it up with a peat fired engine running off your peat bog and you get free sand (more than you need for the bog actually), and you can set up an auto-crafting table with a dispenser under it with a bucket in it and infinite water supply in front of it, and it's SUPER easy to make an auto peat farm then since you can auto-make bog earth.
Trefarms already turn dirt into sand, and you are likely to want one anyway since you are going to want wood and charcoal at any rate.
Hmm, can't buckets not stack, meaning they're useless for Autocrafting Tables? Oh. Wait. Autocrafting tables can draw from adjacent inventories.
But then how do you get rid of the empty buckets so they don't clog up your space? And only the empty ones, you don't want to eject the full ones. RP2 ... whatever those things that eject different stuff depending on what colour Redstone signal they get?
A vanilla cobble gen with a block breaker from RP2 does the exact same thing as the extruder. and it's cheaper to boot.
A macerator can easily stand in for the pulverizer, and so can the railcraft rock crusher. altho the crusher is more expensive to build, and it has a slightly different processing path.
namely cobble to gravel(and flint) and then onto sand by putting it back into the grinder. (with a 1% chance to get diamonds as a byproduct).
All of these paths are equally valid if you want to be cheaty and use cobble gens.
Now consider this. why would you want to use a cobblegen on a normal map? you are going to be practically drowning in it anyhow. Trefarms already turn dirt into sand, and you are likely to want one anyway since you are going to want wood and charcoal at any rate. Peat was never meant to be a end all energy source.
I was meaning it in the pack I use (which includes Gregtech), so the macerator is more expensive and you'd have to have EU and MJ energy for the one system then, and pulverizers auto-output their blocks which is also nice.
And I don't consider a cobble gen to be cheaty since it's a game mechanic they purposely added to vanilla anyways. Yes the igneous extruder is easier, since it does it automatically, but isn't that what tech mods are about?