Is it possible to make electric engines not to overheat?
- Thread starter Affex
- Start date
Electric engines shouldn't ever overheat unless the thing you are pointing it at cannot accept all the energy it outputs.
An often overlooked feature of conduits is that they will quietly dissipate any unneeded energy. So your engines should only overheat if you attach them directly to a machine that can't handle it. If you have even two conduits* inbetween, they should never overheat as any extra power will be eaten by the conduit.
* You need one input and one output conduit. I really wish there was an in/out mode for more compact setups.
* You need one input and one output conduit. I really wish there was an in/out mode for more compact setups.
This is a problem I have with BC energy in general. It is so wasty. It seem like every engine runs and runs until it does not have any fuel, no mater if the output energy is being used. Hell, until TE there was no way to really store up MJs.
Whereas with IC2 you have many different storage devices and a ton of fuels to use. Then your generators only produce energy when there is somewhere for that energy to go, else it stores it internally (generator), does not use the fuel (geothermal) or the fuel is free (solar, wind, hydro).
Maybe I am just completely ignorant when it comes to BC2 energy but it feels rather primitive when compared to IC2.
That is how engines work, as YOU are the one that needs to add the way to disable it, which isn't all that hard to do either.
You've overlooked the majority of generators that produce energy given fuel and will keep producing energy until they are out of fuel (generator, fusion, nuclear, etc) even if nothing is using the power, which means that when the internal buffer fills you are wasting fuel.
I also dislike that the geothermal engine works like that, as it should work like a standard generator in that it uses fuel until it has no fuel, producing power as needed, because that is the standard set for fuel-based generators in IC2 already.
I think you just misunderstand that the geothermal generator is not the standard way generators work, even in IC2.
That's by design. If they were the same, why bother having two systems in the first place?
Buildcraft energy has often been likened to a kind of pressure (it's even called "pneumatic power framework" in the Buildcraft config file). As soon as you switch off the engines, the pressure is gone. Industrialcraft power is more like a system of discrete tokens being stored and exchanged, while Redpower attempts to simulate real electricity and Thaumcraft hums to the tune of Queen's "It's A Kind Of Magic".
Buildcraft energy has often been likened to a kind of pressure (it's even called "pneumatic power framework" in the Buildcraft config file). As soon as you switch off the engines, the pressure is gone. Industrialcraft power is more like a system of discrete tokens being stored and exchanged, while Redpower attempts to simulate real electricity and Thaumcraft hums to the tune of Queen's "It's A Kind Of Magic".
It's also worth nothing that a little bit of MJ goes a lot further than a little bit of EU. 64 mj/t is a pretty mighty sum of mj and only a few types of machines can ever actually consume that much (only quarries and extra bees machines can really come close).
Another fun fact, redstone energy conduit not only refuses to explode and is better at routing mj/t, but it also seems to have a certain amount of internal capacity which it dumps out upon demand. This is why connecting new machines to a saturated network seems to spike power to the machine beyond what your power plant is actually capable of housing.
Another fun fact, redstone energy conduit not only refuses to explode and is better at routing mj/t, but it also seems to have a certain amount of internal capacity which it dumps out upon demand. This is why connecting new machines to a saturated network seems to spike power to the machine beyond what your power plant is actually capable of housing.
I believe it is 1000mj per conduit connected to a machine, although I am not sure. But yes, redstone conduit really is excellent. Now, if only it was better at being happy in smaller spaces.
Lasted edited by zemerick on Thursday, February 28, 2013 (02/28/2013) at 11:00:41 PST.
You realize that that is beyond massive overkill, right?
26 electrical engines requires 156 eu/t. You are producing 440 eu/t. Actually, if you add in some circuit boards with iron electron tubes, those 26 engines would only use 130eu/t.It's 1,000 per conduit that connects to a machine. The other ones in a line don't store it
You realize that that is beyond massive overkill, right?
This is how it looks. Any idea how I can improve it? Remove all the advanced panels?
Assuming Zemerick's math is correct, all you should need to do is keep two hybird and four advanced solar panels (you'll get 160eu/t this way to power your 156eu/t load).
Besides switches/redstone signal what ways are there to disable the engines?
Even then, with redstone, is there a way to make, say a saw mill from TE emit a redstone signal when it no longer has wood to cut?
The easiest way is to use buildcraft gates, which require the assembly table and lasers, which are a midgame thing. Buildcraft gates will give you the ability to enable a redstone signal whenever a machine (if it is set up properly) does not have work, or when it does not have items in its inventory. You can also switch it around to have a machine turn on a redstone signal when it does have work or when it has items in its inventory, to turn on the engine.
You can also use a gate near the machine (but not on the pipe used to move things into it, a standalone pipe) that checks the inventory/has work status, and then turns on a redstone signal. Then run redwire/redstone across the floor to toggle as many engines as you need to toggle.
Without gates, you will likely want to use a computercraft computer to time it.
Redstone signal is the only way.
Yes, gates.
People often assume that BC power is as idiot-proof as IC power, which travels in discrete packets, is stored in a specific location forever, and is in most cases renewable or at least plentiful enough to let your generators run forever whether you use it or not. BC power requires an intelligent design and a control system to regulate if you don't want it to go to waste or worse blow stuff up.
After seeing so many setups as the one posted above, I really wish they made electrical engines the same way as redstone ones: only being able to power individual machines, not energy networks. (Or just remove the abomination that is obsoleting 70% of buildcraft from the game entirely.)
The obscene inefficiency of such systems is their own penalty. A well-designed set of magmatics can product more MJ with less work and less resources committed. I'm happy that EE's exist in their current form. It basically says, "The lazy pay dearly." And you can pay that price once you get the big gun solars, I guess. Or you can just do it with real engines.
It also encourages people to not use gates. This means I can keep my hipster cred with my systems that have huge sums of multi-color pipe wire and diamond gates.
It should be noted that my math assumes daylight. With solar panels, you pretty much always want an eternal day no weather mystcraft age if you have access to it. ( not sure what pack / modifications to said pack you are running. )
The electrical engines use 6 eu/t each by default. Attaching an iron electron tube to a circuit board and inserting that into each engine will bring it down to 5 eu/t.
Regular solar panels generate 1 eu/t during daylight. Each solar upgrade is 8 times the previous generation, so Advanced is 8eu/t, Hybrid is 64eu/t, and ultimate is 512eu/t. The advanced also generates 1eu/t during storm or night. Hybrid generates 8, and Ultimate generates 64eu/t.
Even if you are in the overworld/somewhere with night and weather, sleeping fixes this. Naturally, this can be difficult on servers. There is also a forestry item to remove any rain.
If you do have night cycles and storms, you really need to invest in at least an MFE between the engines and solars to provide more buffer than the solars have in them.
1 full day is 24,000 ticks long ( if the server isn't lagging. )
Really though, just make 1 MFSU for 10 million EU and you're set there. It looks like you're already using glass fibre cable so the output isn't an issue. Next, make sure you do have the iron tube upgrades, as it does make a sizable difference. Now, you have a total draw of 3,120,000 EU over 1 day. 3 Hybrid and 5 Advanced Solar Panels would net you 232 EU/t during the day, and 29 EU/t at night for a total of 3,132,000 EU generated. A very slight net gain. This is about as efficient as you can get with 26 electrical engines.
Without the iron tubes you could use 4 Hybrid and 5 Advanced to get kinda close. Might be a better setup than that, just did a quick check. You would need 3,744,000 EU and that would generate 3,996,000 EU.
In case you were curious, you are generating 5,940,000 EU per day, for a waste of 2-3 million EU
The electrical engines use 6 eu/t each by default. Attaching an iron electron tube to a circuit board and inserting that into each engine will bring it down to 5 eu/t.
Regular solar panels generate 1 eu/t during daylight. Each solar upgrade is 8 times the previous generation, so Advanced is 8eu/t, Hybrid is 64eu/t, and ultimate is 512eu/t. The advanced also generates 1eu/t during storm or night. Hybrid generates 8, and Ultimate generates 64eu/t.
Even if you are in the overworld/somewhere with night and weather, sleeping fixes this. Naturally, this can be difficult on servers. There is also a forestry item to remove any rain.
If you do have night cycles and storms, you really need to invest in at least an MFE between the engines and solars to provide more buffer than the solars have in them.
1 full day is 24,000 ticks long ( if the server isn't lagging. )
Really though, just make 1 MFSU for 10 million EU and you're set there. It looks like you're already using glass fibre cable so the output isn't an issue. Next, make sure you do have the iron tube upgrades, as it does make a sizable difference. Now, you have a total draw of 3,120,000 EU over 1 day. 3 Hybrid and 5 Advanced Solar Panels would net you 232 EU/t during the day, and 29 EU/t at night for a total of 3,132,000 EU generated. A very slight net gain. This is about as efficient as you can get with 26 electrical engines.
Without the iron tubes you could use 4 Hybrid and 5 Advanced to get kinda close. Might be a better setup than that, just did a quick check. You would need 3,744,000 EU and that would generate 3,996,000 EU.
In case you were curious, you are generating 5,940,000 EU per day, for a waste of 2-3 million EU
If that gets too mainstream you're going to have to start using solar-powered Electrical Engines ironically.