I've been trying to find a way to avoid losing too much EU after traveling down a few blocks. Transformers don't seem to help, and I wasn't sure if MFSUs were the way to go to maintain a good 512 EU. Currently building a solar array above our bunker, so I'm going to have to drop down about 64 blocks, plus some distance to reach all our machines.
Avoiding power loss over distance?
- Thread starter John Freeman
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The trick is to have so much power that the loss is negligible. But you could always convert to MJ and use redstone conduits, and thn switch back. You might not even have to, there's a GT module that let's machines take MJ. I havn't tested it myself though, but it'd definitely changing my future power systems.
Well,,, using glass cabling you'd loose 1 EU per 50 blocks,,, Negligable ^^* But if you put an MFSU at block 49 you get another few (50) blocks before you loose 1 EU ^^* Or you could just put the solar panel closer to the bunker and cover up the hole with glass?
Once you are running 512 over glass fiber cable, there are only a few options. Put multiple MFSU's in parrallel instead of series so you output multiple 512 packets. Cable is packet size limited, but can carry multiple packets so the loss is neglible and you maintain 512 even under load. Option 2 is using GregTech superconductor cable, which has 0 loss, but is highly expensive. You can also use a tranformer and bump it up to 2048 for transmision and then step it back down for your base. The final option is to make a pair of interdimensional energy storage units. One connected to your solar array and the other placed anywhere you want EU. Like an energy tesseract for EU with no loss and adjustable output.
Except you automatically like 5% for using redstone conduits. Shame really.
The only reason I can think of that transformers wouldn't work is if you have them the wrong way round. If not, you could use MFSUs - expensive, but you can always use it in place of your regular energy storage system.
depends on the panels. if they're ultimate hybrids, just run glass all the way down without a transformer. If they're basic, advanced, or hybrids, run glass to an MV transformer, step it up with a lever, then run glass down to your base. Even if the total output is over 512eu/t, it doesn't matter because its input packet size limited, not total bandwidth limited.
Let me give you an example. I had 88 thermal generators at one point, which totals over 2k EU/t, that had to run 50 blocks. If I merged their outputs and ran glass straight to my base, I would lose 88 eu/t because every single power source is traveling more than 40 blocks on glass. What I did was put an MV transformer by the power station, and stepped it up to 512 eu/t packets. The cable still ran all 2k EU/t, but I only lost 4 eu/t or so because its one power source sending 512 packets 4 times per tick, so each packet lost 1 eu.
Let me give you an example. I had 88 thermal generators at one point, which totals over 2k EU/t, that had to run 50 blocks. If I merged their outputs and ran glass straight to my base, I would lose 88 eu/t because every single power source is traveling more than 40 blocks on glass. What I did was put an MV transformer by the power station, and stepped it up to 512 eu/t packets. The cable still ran all 2k EU/t, but I only lost 4 eu/t or so because its one power source sending 512 packets 4 times per tick, so each packet lost 1 eu.
To transmit power over long distances with no loss requires understanding the incoming packet size and volume and transforming the packet size in a parallel enough setup to handle the volume of current. For example if you have 3072 eu/t coming in as hv packets (such as from the output of six ultimate solar hybrids), you will need either two AESUs (outputting at 2048) and two HV transformers (converting back to 512) every 49 glass fiber cables or 4 hv transformers every 49 glass fiber cables to transform the power up and back down to reset the distance. For ultimate hybrid solar panels, I'd probably use AESUs and one less transformer in order to build a buffer for night and rain (knowing that if the buffer ever fills, power will be wasted). Don't forget to count any extra cables used to reach parallel transformers/AESUs. The more parallel your system has to be, the fewer blocks you're going to be able to go with glass fiber before needing to reset the distance again. Thankfully the newer gregtech fusion reactor addresses this by producing plasma, which can be piped around like any other liquid losslessly and converted to eu onsite with a plasma generator.
Or, using the power converters mod, change it to MJ, pump the MJ into a redstone energy cell, use a turtle to pick up the cell, have it travel through a turtle teleporter, then make the turle place the cell down, convert the MJ from the cell back into EU. The turtle then would grab the used energy cell and travel back through the teleporter and do it again. No power loss.
Small note on the GT MJ module; it's extremely energy inefficient.
Industial Grinder uses 12,800 EU per ore or 12,800 MJ per ore with the module installed. Given that the common ration of MJ:EU is 1:2.5, that's an increase to 32,000 EU per ore.
That's a lot to pay for a little convenience. Power Converters still the better option imo, unless you're dealing with tight circuits and/or using GT machines that don't take much power like electric transposers and whatnot.
Before power convertors it was actually 1:1, the 1:2.5 conversion it added is rather 'optimistic'.
If you're on Ultimate, I suggest getting a pair of energy bridges(or whatever they're called) and make a EU consumer for the solars to feed and a steam producer to turn the EU into steam, then transfer the steam with a liquid Tesseract(to save on liquiduct usage) and use a steam consumer to make EU again.
Lossless energy transfer at it's finest/more broken.
Lossless energy transfer at it's finest/more broken.
Celestialphoenix
Too Much Free Time
A while back- I did build a fully lossless grid for transporting Eu over *any* distance without any loss. Also its insanely easy/cheap to expand the distance once you have the basic mechanism setup.
Charging station- fills energy crystals (any type of 'battery' will do) from my solar array.
A filter pulls full crystals out, and dumps them in a relay.
-A retriever pulls empty crystals back into the charging station.
The actual "energy grid" is a length of pneumatic tube connecting the charging station to my machines
Most the machines have a slot in them to accept batteries (accessed from bottom face), or you can unload into a MFE/Batbox ect.
(personally I used energy crystals and MFEs- any type would work.)
This was back in Tekkit 1.2.5, you could use tesseracts/enderchests or AE or similar for distribution. Its basically Charging station->item transport->Discharging station/machine.
Edit- with AE and tesseracts/enderchests- you can instantly transport power over an infinite distance or across dimensions without energy loss
Charging station- fills energy crystals (any type of 'battery' will do) from my solar array.
A filter pulls full crystals out, and dumps them in a relay.
-A retriever pulls empty crystals back into the charging station.
The actual "energy grid" is a length of pneumatic tube connecting the charging station to my machines
Most the machines have a slot in them to accept batteries (accessed from bottom face), or you can unload into a MFE/Batbox ect.
(personally I used energy crystals and MFEs- any type would work.)
This was back in Tekkit 1.2.5, you could use tesseracts/enderchests or AE or similar for distribution. Its basically Charging station->item transport->Discharging station/machine.
Edit- with AE and tesseracts/enderchests- you can instantly transport power over an infinite distance or across dimensions without energy loss
expensive but works over extreme distances: a IDSU network
expensive, cable solution: superconductors
expensive, cable solution: glass fiber cable + MFSU ever 39 or 40 blocks to reset the resistance counter
medium: load lapos in an mfsu and send them through a item tesseract and send the empty ones back.
cheap: railcraft mfsu-cart. runs over a track (with mystcraft portals even interdimensionally)
cheap: use an steam power bridge and send the steam around (negative: high steam volume)
cheap (fairly): use an oil fabricator + refinery and send the fuel around (with combustion engines energy-neutral, with 36-boilers exploitable... the boiler gives more than fabricating oil costs).
cheap: igneous extruder + magma crucible, or lava fabricator, send the lava through a tesseract and burn the lava in combustion engines (no idea how lava could burn) a power converter from MJ to EU converts it back.
did I miss a solution?
expensive, cable solution: superconductors
expensive, cable solution: glass fiber cable + MFSU ever 39 or 40 blocks to reset the resistance counter
medium: load lapos in an mfsu and send them through a item tesseract and send the empty ones back.
cheap: railcraft mfsu-cart. runs over a track (with mystcraft portals even interdimensionally)
cheap: use an steam power bridge and send the steam around (negative: high steam volume)
cheap (fairly): use an oil fabricator + refinery and send the fuel around (with combustion engines energy-neutral, with 36-boilers exploitable... the boiler gives more than fabricating oil costs).
cheap: igneous extruder + magma crucible, or lava fabricator, send the lava through a tesseract and burn the lava in combustion engines (no idea how lava could burn) a power converter from MJ to EU converts it back.
did I miss a solution?
Glass fiber cable + Hv transformer every 40 blocks (39 cables + 1 transformer) is cheaper and one transformer can support 2048 EU/t and MFSU only 512 EU/t.
HV cable also is a cheap solution. If you transfer 2048 EU packets loss isn't that bad.
Nah, mate .. an industrial grinder cycle costs 12800 EU per ore, or (if you put the module in) it costs 12800 MJ per ore. All the module does is change the machine from using EU to using MJ, it doesn't account for conversion in any way, it's a 1:1 ratio.
That's per hardmode GT on the most recent Ultimate pack. May vary depending on configs.
As MJ is worth more than EU (1 MJ to 2.5 EU as you mentioned) it ends up being much less efficient to do so.[DOUBLEPOST=1370096884][/DOUBLEPOST]
Nah, conversion via a magma crucible on Netherack is also 1 MJ/2.5 EU (12000 MJ per bucket of lava giving 30000 EU in a thermal generator).
MFFS also offered a similar 1:2.5 ratio by using MJ to power an MFFS extractor and then shifting the force energy to EU via an MFFS converter.