Options for base load power generation

[rhn]

It appears likely the MFR laser drill requires more energy than you'll ever get out of the resources you mine with it....

I had a basic Big reactor powering my new base and a MFR laser drill limited to 3k RF and yet I seem to be going up and up in Yellorium stock without mining. It does help that in Monster the Nether Uranium Ore Macerates/Pulverizes into 4xYellorium Dust.

And from what I can gather it is the Lime Laser Focus that boosts Yellorium drops(makes sense since its categorized as Uranium).

 

[midi_sec]

It appears likely the MFR laser drill requires more energy than you'll ever get out of the resources you mine with it....

No, this thread is what he's referring to.

 

[Ieldra]

Is your base near a river? If so, Engineer's Toolbox has a hydro electric generator that can be plugged into it's sockets and then you build those into a hydro electric dam. It'll provide continuous free energy for you. Only works in a River Biome, but each one produces 10 RF/t. Plus you can coat the top layer on the surface with Solar gen for more power. Plus at full power, each socket stores 5000 RF, so any time you're over the maximum usage, it starts storing power. Plus each one can accept an upgrade for it's storage amount.

That sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. And yet another mod to learn, LOL.

I'm not on a river now, but as I said in the OP I'm planning a new one.

As for that Big Reactors/Laser Drill setup, I find it to be a little too "cheaty" for my taste. I will exploit the system if there is no other option for something I want, but I prefer not to as a rule.

 

[belgabor]

Optimized forestry saplings to ethanol can be extremely efficient, although it's a bit of a setup. I'm producing 12k RF/tick from them and don't even dare to estimate how much I could if I built more infrastructure. With gendustry they are really easy to make.

 

[Methusalem]

An easy setup is a Cursed Earth mob spawner with MFR grinders. Then feed the mob essence and gunpowder into TE's Reactant Dynamos.

 

[Ieldra]

I'll eventually try the saplings, not there yet with the breeding. And the Cursed Earth spawner? LOL, I never knew the reactant dynamo can run on mob essence.

Anyway, I'll likely go with KingTriaxx' suggest for Engineer's Toolbox hydrokinetic power and add another RoC solar tower. Also, I'll supplement it with an Ender Pearl farm and Ender generators, if only for the utter decadence of it

 

[belgabor]

Point of warning, Cursed Earth spawners are only reliable in SSP or dedicated dimension.

 

[Ieldra]

Point of warning, Cursed Earth spawners are only reliable in SSP or dedicated dimension.

I'm playing SSP, but...can you tell me what the problem is with them?

 

[belgabor]

I'm playing SSP, but...can you tell me what the problem is with them?

(As far as I know) vanilla mechanics. If there is nobody near the spawner but there is a player in the same dimension, but more that X blocks away, mobs despawn (X being a number I don't know).

 

[malicious_bloke]

(As far as I know) vanilla mechanics. If there is nobody near the spawner but there is a player in the same dimension, but more that X blocks away, mobs despawn (X being a number I don't know).

Vanilla spawners wont work unless there's a player within 16 blocks iirc.

Dunno about cursed earth but I assume it's similar

 

[belgabor]

Vanilla spawners wont work unless there's a player within 16 blocks iirc.

Dunno about cursed earth but I assume it's similar

No, that's not it. Cursed Earth always spawns, but under the conditions I mentioned the mobs immediately depawn.

 

[netmc]

No, that's not it. Cursed Earth always spawns, but under the conditions I mentioned the mobs immediately depawn.

I believe the distance is 128 blocks.. So, if you have a mob spawn, and a player is in the dimension and further than 128 blocks away, it will immediately despawn. If however the spawner is in it's own dimension and without a player in the dimension at all, it will work normally.

I think someone said that around 40-64 blocks, mobs stop moving entirely, so traps that rely on mobs dropping into water or such won't work at those distances. With most drop traps, the player is in and around the area, so is normally withing the mob activation range required for the mob to move and fall into the water. Cursed earth grinders normally don't require the mob to move, so no issue there.

 

[Adonis0]

I believe the distance is 128 blocks.. So, if you have a mob spawn, and a player is in the dimension and further than 128 blocks away, it will immediately despawn. If however the spawner is in it's own dimension and without a player in the dimension at all, it will work normally.

I think someone said that around 40-64 blocks, mobs stop moving entirely, so traps that rely on mobs dropping into water or such won't work at those distances. With most drop traps, the player is in and around the area, so is normally withing the mob activation range required for the mob to move and fall into the water. Cursed earth grinders normally don't require the mob to move, so no issue there.

They begin to despawn 32 blocks away, but that's only a small chance, and that chance of despawning per tick increases as they move further away to 128 blocks which it is then 100% chance of despawning.

For movement 40 blocks away yes, they don't move (except for zombies which is 64)

 

[rhn]

I don't think I would go for a mob spawning/grinding power solution if you are going for "low lag". Any decent high energy production would require a lot of mobs being spawned and with all the pathfinding etc. going on it probably wouldn't be pretty if you are already struggling.

 

[KiwiUSA]

I'm generally ok with using a MystCraft age for my base-load, so I generate a constant daylight world (normally Mushroom Island) and use Factorization Solar Boiler towers.

It takes a crap load of silver for the mirrors, but this build powers 16 MFR Steam Turbines with no maintenance for 2560 RF/t

Spoiler

Edit: Ok I'm having problems with images

Edit2: Finally got it working

 

[netmc]

I don't know if using Aq. Acc. and tanks count as non-moving parts, but I finally just converted my high ovens (tinker's steelworks) over to using fluiducts completely. It is now completely maintenance free and costs nothing to run (other than a bit of charcoal every now and then). The two high ovens connect to 34 MFR steam turbines and output 60 buckets of steam each every 55 ticks. This equates to about 2180 RF/tick each for a total of 4380 RF/tick. This will literally run for days on couple stacks of charcoal blocks.

This build is pushing the limit of the high oven capabilities, but you could simplify this a lot if you don't need as much power. If you are only looking for 1000 RF/tick, you could get by with a quarter of this or less. 2 max size high ovens with 1 scorched duct each (charcoal input), 40 scorched drains each (water input), 8 scorched drains each (steam output), 25 mariculture tanks each (buffer), and approximately 40 aqueous accumulators (may need a few more). Not counting the MFR Rednet controller and cabling to setup the required timer, nor the insane amount of fluiducts needed to connect it all. But now that it is done, I don't have to touch it again ever. (I hope.)

Spoiler

 

[Strikingwolf]

I like Big reactors a lot. There is also the culinary generator and the nether star generator

 

[Ieldra]

Well, just as in the real world, it appears water power is the most reliable option.

What I'll do will likely depend on where my new base will be located. If there are Extreme Hills nearby, I may go for 10 RotaryCraft hydrokinetic engines, if there is a river nearby I'll use Engineers' Toolbox hydrokinetic engines.

A question for anyone familiar with Engineer's Toolbox: you can put the sockets with hydrokinetic modules under water and dam a deeper river with them, so you'll get 10 x the cross-section of the river in RF? And you can draw the power out through adjacent sockets by using power routing modules and collect it all at one main exit point of the dam?

Also, I notice that Engineer's Toolbox has a direct EU<>RF conversion block. At last I can dispense with the inefficient lava cycle to power my IC2 induction furnaces.

 

[GreenZombie]

It appears likely the MFR laser drill requires more energy than you'll ever get out of the resources you mine with it....

Where did you get that, totally erroneous, impression? A single yellow filter makes it produce more than enough yellorium on MFR and BigReactors default settings.

 

[Ieldra]

Where did you get that, totally erroneous, impression? A single yellow filter makes it produce more than enough yellorium on MFR and BigReactors default settings.

According to the wiki, it costs 6 million RF to generate a single block of ore. As the yellow filter also produces gold, sulfur and glowstone, assuming that the chances of each are equal, on average you'll spend 24 million RF for a single block of yellorium ore. Does reactor fuel generated from that single block return more than 24 million RF?