Hello, I'd like to share with you all how storing energy in BuildCraft works.

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DrowElf

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Jul 29, 2019
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IC2 stores kinetic energy
Nope. Electrical. In real life, you can't store kinetic energy in batteries. I have yet to encounter any game or mod that claims to store kinetic energy in something called a 'battery'. You can store kinetic energy in springs.
 

Nooska

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Jul 29, 2019
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My TV does, they call it "stand by". That reminds me that I should unplug the power cord. I haven't used the TV in ages.
well he did say "lights".

And no, a lightbulb that is off doesn't drain power, but the power is still produced at the powerplant and just not consumed at your end, so the example doesn't really work for what the intent of the example is.
 

DREVL

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Jul 10, 2013
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Nope. Electrical. In real life, you can't store kinetic energy in batteries. I have yet to encounter any game or mod that claims to store kinetic energy in something called a 'battery'. You can store kinetic energy in springs.
to continue this game of semantics, an unsprung spring is potential energy. Releasing the stored kenitic energy of a spring is like the energy sitting in a ic2 bat box.[DOUBLEPOST=1390433428][/DOUBLEPOST]
My TV does, they call it "stand by". That reminds me that I should unplug the power cord. I haven't used the TV in ages.
nope. Bc and rc consumers use the same amount of power whether they are doing something or not. The example you are relating to is the ic2 induction furnace. It uses a mere amount of power compared to what it uses when operation. And yes, lol to my discredit, I've had a wii plugged in and it hasn't been touched in 2 years lol.
 

DREVL

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Jul 10, 2013
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Just pondering further... what is more realistic is relative. That being said, I still want to try my kinetic pipe coil concept as a multiblock mj storage.
 

Algester

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Jul 29, 2019
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Definition of pneumatic energy
Power created by the compressive force or movement of air or gas in a confined area.
While kinetic energy is defined as
Energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion

By this you can say pneumatic energy is a class of kinetic energy but if you mean by storing them you need their substance first in this case air just as in biology we humans use carbohydrates and then convert them to calories to use a s kinetic energy and store calories as fats as a form of potential energy but nothing says in definition that refined fuel=air or oil=air. As fir torque and rotation one can use a wind up spring to store kinetic energy to potential energy and then have the spring unwind into potential energy to kinetic energy in this case both are now still refered as torque this is used by rotarycraft, old wind up watches and automata use this principles
 
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SandGrainOne

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Jul 29, 2019
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Bc and rc consumers use the same amount of power whether they are doing something or not.
That is not correct. A Quarry that has stopped will use only 1 MJ/t. If it uses more we have a bug. If you let your engines run at full speed the power is consumed by the wooden pipe. The engine isn't throttled like you see with Thermal Expansion dynamos. You will have to explicitly throttle it with a "Power requested" trigger or better yet, stop them completely with the "Has work" and "Work scheduled" triggers.
 

kaovalin

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Jul 29, 2019
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Has no one heard of a flywheel? That directly stores kinetic energy as kinetic energy. THAT would be a true battery, and not a fuel. There is difference, but I do half agree with the OP in that it is the way BC intends to work. A multiblock flywheel structure would be right up forestry's alley too.
 

SynfulChaot

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Jul 29, 2019
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Has no one heard of a flywheel? That directly stores kinetic energy as kinetic energy. THAT would be a true battery, and not a fuel. There is difference, but I do half agree with the OP in that it is the way BC intends to work. A multiblock flywheel structure would be right up forestry's alley too.

Buildcraft energy keeps being more likened to pneumatic energy. So less a flywheel and more an air tank.
 

Revemohl

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Jul 29, 2019
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One of the few things from BC I'm okay with is exactly how it doesn't have energy storage, simply because gates exist and they can automatically turn engines on when needed. Why would you need to store power when your power production only starts working when they need to?
Batteries would run dry in a minute anyway because of the silly decision to make all MJ-using machines drain power over time.
 

Loufmier

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Jul 29, 2019
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Batteries would run dry in a minute anyway because of the silly decision to make all MJ-using machines drain power over time.
well since gates do exist and Additional BC objects adds power switch pipe you could have a single energy storage suppling multiple machines.
 

Algester

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Jul 29, 2019
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Has no one heard of a flywheel? That directly stores kinetic energy as kinetic energy. THAT would be a true battery, and not a fuel. There is difference, but I do half agree with the OP in that it is the way BC intends to work. A multiblock flywheel structure would be right up forestry's alley too.
I don't get it why do you keep on insisting a flywheel when thats definitely in Rotarycraft's (dur a device that stores rotational energy) territory or thermal expansion dynamos but we have energy cells for that and not gas/bellows/pumps which BC uses...
 
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Uristqwerty

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Jul 29, 2019
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In real life (from what I understand, at least), you can't efficiently store large amounts of electricity, either.

A rechargeable battery converts electricity to potential chemical energy (plus a little bit of loss as heat), which constantly but slowly loses its charge, and when power is needed it converts its stored chemical energy back to electricity (again, lossily). Larger electricity storage systems also convert it to some other form.

By the crafting recipes, IC²'s battery box losslessly converts EU to potential chemical energy, stores it perfectly, then losslessly converts exactly as much as is needed back to EU.

And for the lightbulb example? You turn a lightbulb off by entirely disconnecting its power source, often with a switch located some distance away.

So, rather than building a large structure of pipe loops (which actually seems rather effective storage for powering smaller machines. See how long you can run a refinery or three off a reasonably-sized pipe coil which starts full of power... (and they can look really cool, too)), players want a single magical block that can losslessly convert MJ into a losslessly storable power type, losslessly converts it back, and on top of that, you can pick up, carry it around, and place it anywhere and it retains its charge perfectly. All while outputting exactly as much power as necessary, no more, no less.
 
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Pyure

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Aug 14, 2013
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Its sufficient that the point of the thread is that, one way or another, you can store energy in BC in some form or other that can get used later. Semantics are irrelevant, and the fact that some (many?) players want another storage medium is kind of moot too since, as with most things, there's (a lot of) mods for that.

PS: more opinions on potential vs kinetic energy plz.
 
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Uristqwerty

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Jul 29, 2019
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glad you understand what some people want from BC. and your point is?

That BC's power system was designed with the assumption that there isn't one? That adding one makes BC's power system less unique, as people then treat it as just another line of cables to attach to each machine and then completely ignore?

As it currently is, BC power has an interesting tradeoff between fuel efficiency, time spent designing the power system, and how centralized power generation is. It's even fun at times. A magical storage machine gives you maximum efficiency, both maximum centralization(one generator room) and maximum decentralization(power storage at each machine), and takes minimal thought to set up. Instead of being a fun challenge that takes time to plan, it's a boring routine that only involves placing pipes and is over quickly. It's better for streamers and youtubers, though, as planning a power system isn't all that fun to watch (at least, compared to other things they could be doing) (and fire-and-forget power systems work well for making themed episodes).
 
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SynfulChaot

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ITT: Where we're told we're wrong for wanting efficiency and no phantom power loss and where 'fun' can be universally defined as something we're not having.
 

Pyure

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ITT: Where we're told we're wrong for wanting efficiency and no phantom power loss and where 'fun' can be universally defined as something we're not having.
Moderately off-topic, but my idea of fun might have been phantom-loss at default, striving towards futuristic gizmos that give me lossless transmission.
 
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SynfulChaot

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Moderately off-topic, but my idea of fun might have been phantom-loss at default, striving towards futuristic gizmos that give me lossless transmission.

^ This is something I wouldn't mind at all.

My end-goal in any mod, in regards to the power system, is a modular on-demand system with a healthy buffer and no persistent phantom power loss. And by power system I mean after the engines/dynamos/generators. Not before. Right now Buildcraft alone fails in this task.