MJ Storage

[Chaozbrother]

Hey guys I´m pretty new here and I have a decent knowledge of buildcraft. My Question is, if there´s another way to storage MJ besides a Redstone Energy Cell, I´m playing on FTb Unleashed 1.1.5 (beacause of the Server Version) and I have pretty big problems with storing my energy. A Redstone Cell takes nearly 15 sec to be completly full and I don´t want to produce more than 20 pieces.
I hope someone can help me out.

 

[Mevansuto]

There is not. I think power storage didn't really fit in Buildcraft back then anyway. Maybe ask your server OP to add Ender IO. But if you're filling a cell too quickly, you probably don't need it as MJ is easy to produce.

 

[Blue]

I found ender IO battery capictery to be buggy and not responsive all the time, i recommend asking to add mekenisiam and universal electricity. i find all the mods power sources not compatibly friendly very silly

Mek mod has things called Energy cubes as batteries they are very great at being batteries

 

[namiasdf]

Instead of focusing on producing energy, storing energy, then spending energy, you should focus on spending precisely how much energy you produce. RECs are convenient to transport small amounts of energy to "kick start" systems, or in general energy transportation, but shouldn't be used in long term solutions.

For my systems, RECs mainly exist as a buffer. I could wire it in series between the producer and consumer, if I wanted to control the flow energy, utilizing its MAX OUTPUT option.

producer ------> REC -------> consumer

You could also use RECs as a way to determine if your system is producing too much or too little energy by connecting it in parallel (I think all conversion losses have been eliminated in later versions of FTB, so utilizing it for this job can be done without worry of a negative feedback loop creating inefficiencies)

---------------------|----------------------------------|
producer -----------> consumer -----------> REC
---------------------------------|----------------------|

This will route any excess power produced by the producer, into the REC. It'll simplify the task of monitoring energy production/consumption in this system.

Though a lot of people use RECs in automation strategies with turtles, etc. I prefer these kinds of strategies, as the continuous/sustainable consumption of the energy by the system is how I've learned to deal with these problems. Also, in real life the only way we have to store massive amounts of energy is either in fuel form or some mechanical potential system (which is severely limited in its capacity to store energy). Though battery technology is improving, it is no where close to being able to store the energy required to fuel today's society. Perhaps this is where I get my inspiration.

 

[MigukNamja]

Hey guys I´m pretty new here and I have a decent knowledge of buildcraft. My Question is, if there´s another way to storage MJ besides a Redstone Energy Cell, I´m playing on FTb Unleashed 1.1.5 (beacause of the Server Version) and I have pretty big problems with storing my energy. A Redstone Cell takes nearly 15 sec to be completly full and I don´t want to produce more than 20 pieces.
I hope someone can help me out.

20 RECs is a lot of energy. For what purposes do you need that much burst energy ?

I usually build a bank of Combustion Engines with liquid fuel in huge tanks for on-demand, burst energy.

 

[namiasdf]

This is about 70% of all the total energy I produce in my base. I do store something around 100 million EU for back up purposes, but in general all the energy gets consumed/dumped into my energy sink (matter fab).

 

[MigukNamja]

Most people would store that energy in liquid or solid form and burn as needed.

But, if you're looking for direct MJ or equivalent storage in compact form, you'll be happier in 1.6.4 with TE3. Whereas TE2 RECs store (only) 600,000 MJ per block, the top-end TE3 Energy Cell stores 50M RF per block, which is the equivalent of 5M MJ, which is nearly a 10x increase in density.

 

[namiasdf]

Well, my intent is to consume almost exactly the amount of biofuel I produce from this tree farm. I just need to be careful that it is ever so slightly positive, and I can void that tiny excess. If I am netting negative biofuel, I won't be able to sustain this system infinitely. That is the step I'm at. I can add four more boilers (I have space for it), but I don't know if I will still net positive biofuel.

 

[twisto51]

Are you using optifine? If I make a build like that my FPS plummets.

 

[MigukNamja]

Also, are you using bred saplings, or vanilla saplings ?

 

[namiasdf]

Vanilla. I don't think I have the ExtraBees version with tree breeding.1.4.7

 

[Mevansuto]

To be quite frank, considering that it's MJ, you're generating too much power. I doubt you'll ever use that much. Although I am guilty of worse crimes.

 

[SocialIrony]

Lava is all I ever need for MJ power, so I just regulate the number of magmatic dynamos I have running.
*Warning: Math Below*
[MATH] Max throughput for lava in fluid ducts is 80mb/t, Magmatic dynamos produce 180,000 RF/1000mb, at a rate of 80RF/t, let's also add in max energy throughput for redstone conduits is 10000 RF/t.
This means I can have 180 engines in a line off of one fluid duct supply line, which is 14,400 RF/t (1,440 MJ/t; also note this takes two separate redstone energy conduit lines to work because one would be too much).
Some storage cell info just in case after all that you still want to store your MJ:
with 1.6, energy conduits have input/output/noput faces, so batteries are much more compact. Direct contact instead of 2 blocks inbetween shrinks everything 3 times smaller on a linear scale (old way is 3*number cells-2 blocks bigger), if you don't want to account for the energy capacity.
TE2 Storage cell: 600,000 MJ at 256MJ/t
TE3 Redstone cell: 10,000,000 RF at 2000 RF/t (166%! but slower rate)
TE3 Enderium cell: 50,000,000 RF at 10000RF/t (not_bad.png)
[/MATH]
More than I would ever need at any moment, is what I can produce at a single moment, so storage isn't an issue.

Edit: I'll add in, for energy security you could always put in a railcraft tank (or tanks) to store lava.
The laziest way to regulate production is to periodically burst into a large battery and use the last cell(s)'s interface(s) to go from there, but you can also regulate power production from your tower using redstone, which is much easier with red power's framed wire (you can use different colors to divide it up any way you like, bundle it your control room, and unbundle it to separate levers there. Or you could divide the power based on requirements for specific systems, and flip the switch there with a single cell to buffer the math since you're working with 80RF increments.)
I'm getting carried away, time to end post.