Is there a reason to put water in a multitank/xycraft tank?

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natnif36

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well yes, but if you pump the water in, it will probably block the grinder from being used for the other types. And even though I have multiple grinders, I prefer to have them all available for all types - while I can't process one ore type in more than one grinder in parallel due to AE's limitations, I can for example process iron in one and coal in another, both requiring water. Or gold in one and silver in another, both requiring mercury.

That is the main reason I just went with the cell method for all three types. And then there's the fact that the tanks are on the other side of my facility :p

If one has both a specialised cell in the bottom slot, and wAter in its internal tank, and someone puts in an ore that can be used with that cell for better results, it will give this higher priority than the water.
However if you put something in that doesn't use that cell type, it will default to the water.

So for example, if I have mercury in the bottom slot, and put Sheldonite in, it will use the mercury cell, however if I put in something such as iron, it uses the water from the tank.
So one can have their mercury grinder ( which normally runs off rare ores) also process say redstone ore, or something.

The grinder is smart, and priorities cells.
 

ScottulusMaximus

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Jul 29, 2019
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I have 3 Aqueous Accumulators under a Railcraft Iron tank in my "Shared Liquids Room" that then has three valves on it with valve pipes pumping out to a Phased Liquid Pipe(Teleport Pipe) that then sends water out wherever I need it, eg:- carpenters, liquid transposers, boilers anywhere!!!
 

tobi1449

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well yes, but if you pump the water in, it will probably block the grinder from being used for the other types. And even though I have multiple grinders, I prefer to have them all available for all types - while I can't process one ore type in more than one grinder in parallel due to AE's limitations, I can for example process iron in one and coal in another, both requiring water. Or gold in one and silver in another, both requiring mercury.

That is the main reason I just went with the cell method for all three types. And then there's the fact that the tanks are on the other side of my facility :p

You know that if you pumped water in it it will still prefer cells?
So you can pracitcally have both water and mercury in it: it will choose mercury for those things that use mercury and just take the water for everything else.
 

Omicron

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Jul 29, 2019
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That may be, but the tanks are still on the other side of the facility ;)

Also consistency.
 

namiasdf

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Jul 29, 2019
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How much biofuel are you using on them? How is your biofuel setup? Im trying to find the golden way to infinite fuel but are lucky right now to find huge oil wells.
It's much less efficient (about 50%) compared to using boilers. I just told myself that I wouldn't use boilers or fusion, they're both too easy. I'm even limiting the amount of solar energy I am allowed to use.

Think about it this way. I have one fuel line supplying the biofuel needs of all 40 + 3 engines (I use three to power my quarry/pumps). This fuel line is powered by one (1) redstone engine from one (1) valve out of the iron tank I use to store it.

Three tree farms (non-fertilized, so I rely on their normal growth rates) supply the biomass. Converting the biomass with four (4) stills running off of two (2) bioengines provides a positive net of biofuel, despite running 43 combustion engines simultaneously.
 

namiasdf

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Jul 29, 2019
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Oh this got much larger than i thought it would, anyway, alot of awesome answers popping up which i really like, i found 2 which really catched my eye though..
Also i got another question, from a valve on a tank (Going to have a water and lava it seems like) what pipes should i run? Thanks! :)





Oh yeah, i didn't think of this, thanks for telling me it! :D





Oh, well i think im gonna be making this one, so could i run magma crucibles with those crucibles, which will produce lava to another tank which i can direct to a MFE? Would that work?
Also, what pipes should i use for that to work?

For the water, I alternated cobble/stone piping out of the twenty valves I have in two rows (each water line supplies water for two engines), coming from the side/bottom of that water tank. I reformatted the pipe organization for that little lava generating cell, quite a few times to reach this optimal set up.

Lava into thermal generators to produce energy. I have 28 thermal generators, which provides a little over 700 EU/t, so I run them to MFSUs. My storage tank also holds 3.2 million units of lava, which is 3 200 * 30 000 EU.

Though this is technically less efficient than combustion engines into steam boilers:

(1) Steam boilers are too easy imo.

(2) Centrifuging lava provides for the copper/tin/electrum needs of my base. I produce lava in excess and have other EU sources as well. I also can double the production, there is another side of that water tank. I am just worried that three pumps can't keep up. I use three combustion engines to power those three pumps. There is no excess MJ to be found.... >_>.[DOUBLEPOST=1372779967][/DOUBLEPOST]
Hmm, might be closer to 33%. I just used an online timer and recorded the values of biofuel in my tank at the start and end of my timing. Also ensuring that the biomass -> biofuel production was turned off, obviously.

Though for my steam boiler values, I used the numbers provided in the wiki, so I don't know how accurate this person's math is, or what their aptitude for such things are.

All I know is that I had to convince myself that I was okay with using a less efficient system, because it looks pretty. Heh.
 

natnif36

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Jul 29, 2019
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Dude.
It's Omnicrom.
If anyone knows something - it's him.

Overall that sounds like a nice system.
I personally prefer combustion engines to boilers due to being able to better use the fuel - no point having a boiler using fuel efficiently if you don't have enough fuel to run a second boiler of a size great enough to be more efficient than the combustion engines, and this have an excess building up, and engines allow you to uexactly use your fuel input exactly without risk of overstepping your limits as with a boiler.
 

namiasdf

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well through calculations, boilers do use the fuel more efficiently, in terms of output. Steam power provides a significant efficiency increase, in comparison to running magma crucibles off of combustion engines. Also, the versatility of combustion engines are limited, since they do require a water source. The amount of times I run down to the engine room, to find my water tank nearing empty... Panicking... Heh. T

Though the same could be said for steam boilers, they require much less organization in terms of piping. If I were just to make and array of indiscriminate pipe for all those engines, there would be significant liquid flow problems, as I've experienced. The ways liquids behave in FTB offer a similar challenge to what we have in real life, aside from the non-reliance on gravity to determine the flow, rather quantum physics (or simply.... probability) is the name of the game.
 

Omicron

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Jul 29, 2019
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Dude.
It's Omnicrom.
If anyone knows something - it's him.

Ahaha no. Don't blindly believe everything I say, that way lies desaster :D

In the past I have screwed up my math, measured with the wrong configs, made logic errors, misinterpretated results, used the wrong setups and hung myself up on basic assumptions that were never true to begin with. It's important to get peer reviews - other people confirming your measurements. In the case of the steam boiler analysis, thankfully Forecaster built his great online simulator, with the result that both independent works confirm each other. Only through that we can be largely sure that the described mechanics are error-free.

P.S.: The name comes from a greek letter, not the latin prefix 'omni-' ;)
 

Evil Hamster

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Jul 29, 2019
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Having a large water tank hooked up to a boiler or combustion engine, will function as a buffer if something goes wrong. It allows you to keep an eye on potential problems.
If the tank is not full, something is wrong.
(Kinda like the water gauge(s) on some real life steam locomotives)


Yes, but- having a dedicated AA for each boiler means set & forget, you will never have problems. Having a "system" that pipes water multiple places means a problem elsewhere can cause problems for your boilers. Like I said, AA are cheap enough that dedicating one each to each of my much more expensive boilers is to me a no-brainer.
 

Runo

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yes, but- having a dedicated AA for each boiler means set & forget, you will never have problems. Having a "system" that pipes water multiple places means a problem elsewhere can cause problems for your boilers. Like I said, AA are cheap enough that dedicating one each to each of my much more expensive boilers is to me a no-brainer.

as with the real world, pragmatic decisions and aesthetic decisions are quite often at odds. personally, i use lots of ender tanks to teleport liquids around and keep all my liquid sotrage in one area, and the floor isnt thick enough to hide aqueous accumulators under my boilers. also, as my boilers are directly above my fusion reactor, i do not want any remotely possible chance of water spilling through a 2-thick floor.

this space constraint is a result of me wanting one block gaps between my boilers, an aesthetic choice :p