I recently joined a new server, so far I am loving it. The only problem is that due to people messing around with ThaumCraft, it is raining almost constantly. Up to this point, I've used nothing but solar, but obviously that isn't an option any more. Is there any alternative that can give me an EU output comparable to an HV solar array with just as little maintenance?
Low-maintenance or maintenance-free solar alternatives?
- Thread starter Tiwuno
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IC2 watermills, and they're pretty easy to make. Even easier to set up if you want to just put it directly in the water. Sure it's not the best thing, but it'll work.
Not really, as far as I know. I think solars should be nerfed, really. Just 1 advanced solar (which is easy to make) will power an average sized processing area. Keep in mind that's only running 1/2 day. Personally, I'd love to see water mills and windmills become multiblock machines, like steam turbines. I'd love to set up a huge hydroelectric plant full of 6x6x6 watermills.
Most "free energy" systems you can set up will be maintenance-free and produce as much energy as any number of solar arrays, but the foot print will be much larger (although often the output is much more stable), and the cost may be higher.
As it sounds like you've got Ultimate, why not make a MystCraft age that will be always day and have no weather? You may need to ask the admin to give you a book/make the book for you if they restrict it.
Greg really has room to add in some advanced water/wind mill machines. Maybe even two teirs, becuse what we have now is crap unless you make 100+ of them. We need ones that do 8x, and then an upgraded version that does 8x again for the 'ultimate' versions. They should not be as good as solar though, at most 1/2 as good. So top water/wind when installed correctly would do 256EUt max.
I saw this on you tube and tried it
The video I saw pre-dated this one but used the same method.
Also to produce a teensy weensy little bit more power I surrounded the mills with water and closed up the hole I made in the ground. Only thing sticking out was a power feed for me to draw on.
You could also try an automated tree farm and harvest the wood for your generators to burn.
Move to the desert, it doesn't rain there.
The video I saw pre-dated this one but used the same method.
Also to produce a teensy weensy little bit more power I surrounded the mills with water and closed up the hole I made in the ground. Only thing sticking out was a power feed for me to draw on.
You could also try an automated tree farm and harvest the wood for your generators to burn.
Move to the desert, it doesn't rain there.
GregTech doesn't add the different revisions of solar panels, Compact Solar or Advanecd Solar add those. So, in reality, you want someone to make a Compact Windmill/Advanced Windmill and Compact Watermill/Advanced Watermill mod, right?
I don't see any outright problem with this, except that it feels useless when we've already got free energy from solar panels that scale now, but I'm all for more awesome things.
A better guide, because it is not video based and is much clearer, would be this: http://technicpack.wikia.com/wiki/Automation_4:_Free_EU_using_Water_Mills
How is that a problem? There are no advanced/compact versions of either windmills or watermills in mod form, from my understanding. That does not make it a failing of advanced solar and compact solar, but a reality of the mod market not seeing a demand for those devices.
You might want to go over to the IC2 forums, and chat up the creator of advanced solar and/or compact solar, and discuss the possibility of advanced/compact watermills/windmills using a similar principle of multiplying the output by eight (or four, or just keep it editable in the configs).
Good luck!
Not relevant, Greg adds what Greg wants
What I'm saying is, if anyone is going to add it, id bet on him. There is an obvious imbalance there, the gap is begging to be filled (thats what she said)A railcraft steam boiler fed by a steve's cart tree farm is nearly maintenance free. Here's at least one setup tutorial from youtube on this:
You'll be getting buildcraft MJ out of this, but can attach a steam turbine for IC2 EU power (which only uses up the rotor when it is producing EU).
EDIT: I should note that this is a mid-game "thing" since it does require an initial resource investment.
You'll be getting buildcraft MJ out of this, but can attach a steam turbine for IC2 EU power (which only uses up the rotor when it is producing EU).
EDIT: I should note that this is a mid-game "thing" since it does require an initial resource investment.
What is the resource cost of one HV solar?
Is this still accurate for one HV?
http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&postID=49260#post49260
You can easily get 512+ EU/t with just the refined iron stacks needed for a HV array. Especially if it rainy/stormy on your server then each tower of 64 turbine could average over 200 EU/t.
256-Wind cost in stacks of material:
Refined Iron 32
Iron 16
Cobble 32
Redstone 8
Tin 16
Copper 2
Rubber 4
Main downside to wind is getting it down to the ground. You can make a bunch of diamonds out of the coal you save and start up some nuclear reactors with the copper and tin you save.
Is this still accurate for one HV?
- Rubber: 128 Stacks + 9
- Iron: 64 Stacks
- Copper: 52 Stacks + 49
- Redstone: 48 Stacks + 10
- Refined Iron: 41 Stacks + 9
- Tin: 32 Stacks
- Coal Dust: 32 Stacks
- Glass: 24 Stacks
- Wooden Planks: 4 Stacks
- Gold: 6
- Diamonds: 1
http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&postID=49260#post49260
You can easily get 512+ EU/t with just the refined iron stacks needed for a HV array. Especially if it rainy/stormy on your server then each tower of 64 turbine could average over 200 EU/t.
256-Wind cost in stacks of material:
Refined Iron 32
Iron 16
Cobble 32
Redstone 8
Tin 16
Copper 2
Rubber 4
Main downside to wind is getting it down to the ground. You can make a bunch of diamonds out of the coal you save and start up some nuclear reactors with the copper and tin you save.
Routers can do absurd things with water buckets. If you're in Ultimate, Routers + Xycraft Item I/O can make the whole thing work even better (I think you can use exactly 0 redpower timers now!). I think you can get it very close to using no timers at all with a few routers and a perpetually full xycraft tank. And that system is extensible just by tossing more watermills on the end of the line and adding more buckets to the system.
If you don't have Xycraft tanks, RP2 machinery surrounding a deployer can fill the buckets. I've seen such a build and it's fairly humorous.
If you don't have Xycraft tanks, RP2 machinery surrounding a deployer can fill the buckets. I've seen such a build and it's fairly humorous.
Water towers, wind farms, or geothermal banks are going to be your primary options, all of them require a bit of infrastructure.
Geothermal is the most lucrative, however you're probably going to want a pair of Liquid Tesseracts, one of them in the nether and attached to a pump, the other going to the geothermal battery with liquiducts feeding them. At 20 EU/t per generator, it's got the highest EU per block output of any of these options.
Wind Farms are your second most lucrative, but have an engineering challenge in that storms can cause them to break from producing too much EU. Solution is to build them in the desert or other biome without weather. The other problem is that they tend to be built fairly high up for maximum EU production, so piping the EU might be troublesome. You'll likely need at least one transformer to keep from losing it all.
Water Towers are the cheapest option, but has a large 'footprint'. Basically, you have your tin cable running down, and every other block you have four water mills, one on each of the four sides of the cable. Then you just fill everything in with water. Each set of four water mills produces around 1 EU/t, so you'll want to build them in bulk. Build them 30 high (to give yourself a margin for connectivity so you don't lose it all from EU loss) for 15 EU/t per tower.
Geothermal is the most lucrative, however you're probably going to want a pair of Liquid Tesseracts, one of them in the nether and attached to a pump, the other going to the geothermal battery with liquiducts feeding them. At 20 EU/t per generator, it's got the highest EU per block output of any of these options.
Wind Farms are your second most lucrative, but have an engineering challenge in that storms can cause them to break from producing too much EU. Solution is to build them in the desert or other biome without weather. The other problem is that they tend to be built fairly high up for maximum EU production, so piping the EU might be troublesome. You'll likely need at least one transformer to keep from losing it all.
Water Towers are the cheapest option, but has a large 'footprint'. Basically, you have your tin cable running down, and every other block you have four water mills, one on each of the four sides of the cable. Then you just fill everything in with water. Each set of four water mills produces around 1 EU/t, so you'll want to build them in bulk. Build them 30 high (to give yourself a margin for connectivity so you don't lose it all from EU loss) for 15 EU/t per tower.
SC tree farm > line of sawmills > solid fuel LP36 boiler = all MJ needs satisfied.
Once boiler gets up to temp you will very quickly be swimming in excess wood, so :
Planks > array of IC generators > MFSU = 10 EU/t x however many generators you have.
We have a wall of 50 generators taking the excess wood = 500 EU/t 24/7. Taking into account night time cycle and rain, that's way more than what a HV array will produce and can be knocked up in about 15 mins assuming you have a reasonable supply of tin and iron (+ some copper, rubber, cobble and a bit of redstone). If your boiler is running on solids there is simply no point in making a steam turbine as you're just adding about 3 extra steps into the process to get the same end result (not to mention the crazy amount of steel needed for the rotor and the babysitting for when it breaks every other day).
Once boiler gets up to temp you will very quickly be swimming in excess wood, so :
Planks > array of IC generators > MFSU = 10 EU/t x however many generators you have.
We have a wall of 50 generators taking the excess wood = 500 EU/t 24/7. Taking into account night time cycle and rain, that's way more than what a HV array will produce and can be knocked up in about 15 mins assuming you have a reasonable supply of tin and iron (+ some copper, rubber, cobble and a bit of redstone). If your boiler is running on solids there is simply no point in making a steam turbine as you're just adding about 3 extra steps into the process to get the same end result (not to mention the crazy amount of steel needed for the rotor and the babysitting for when it breaks every other day).