Power Generation vs Power Storage.

[vat21s]

Alright, so every time I've played ftb before. I've usually tried creating more eu/t, rf/t or mj/t than needed so I could run my machinery constantly.

Now the reality is that my machinery never really ran constantly so this was a waste of resources. Comparing the costs of Solar Panels with GT installed to that of an MFSU. In reality crafting 10 MFSU's would have harvested electricity more efficiently than 10 Ultimate Hybrids.

So considering the exponential growth of fueling systems needed for power generation.
Would building a large brick of MFSU's(3x3x9) be better in the long run, Than lets say 20 Ultimate Hybrid Panels?

 

[jordsta95]

It would depend on how much EU you use, and how much your machines run.
If you have a constant drain of 64EU/t, and only use your other machines for maybe 1 minute every 10, or something, and you produce 128EU/t, it could be easy to say the MFSU block would be better. However, if your gain and drain are similar, then a mixture of the 2 would be better.

 

[Inaeo]

In any power system (RF, EU, etc), my rule if thumb is to have constant production equal to constant drain plus 5%. The extra 5% goes into storage for burst use. If you find your bursts draining you completely, up your extra production to 10-15%.

I find it easier and more efficient most of the time to build storage than to build generation. So long as you're producing more than the constant drain, a large enough storage buffer will see you through your shortlived peaks. From there, I tend to make double the storage per generator. It's not a hard and fast rule, just an observation.

 

[asb3pe]

It depends what modpack you are playing, and what difficulty the pack is set to. Some modpacks are "special cases" (i.e. Infinity Evolved Expert). But for most modpacks, the general idea (IMO) is that you want to get some sort of automated mining going as soon as you can. The earlier the better. Turtles, BC quarry, Immersive's multi-block, railcraft - whatever your preferred method, just get it going. The quicker you begin automation, the faster the mats (raw materials) will flow in. And the faster the mats come in, the quicker you can improve your power, add upgrades or change methods (to Ender Quarry). I call it "climbing the ladder". For a veteran player, it's not a very difficult ladder, which is why Infinity Evolved Expert mode has received such glowing praise from so many people - because it makes the ladder much more difficult to climb, and you have to climb it in many more steps that are much smaller (because you just won't have the mats to make large improvements all at once). In regular modpacks like Direwolf tho, once you've climbed a few rungs on that power ladder, you'll have so much excess Yellorium you'll wonder why you were ever worried about fuel usage and fuel savings at all. LOL

Another thing I don't think all players are aware of is that a Big Reactor can be automated to not waste any fuel via the use of two Rednet Ports or else two Redstone Ports (they do the same thing). Set one port to Power Buffer (the battery symbol) and set the other port to Control Rod Insertion... connect the ports using respective conduit (Rednet or Redstone) and voila! Your reactor is now on cruise control and it will never waste a millibucket of fuel.

In Infinity Evolved, I automated my IC2 nuclear reactors using redstone conduit attached to the MFE's set to "Emit When Full" for redstone mode. The redstone signal will tell the nukes to turn off, again, not wasting any fuel.

For Quantum Solars, I just made my 9th one and my philosophy has been to pair each Quantum Solar with 2 MFSU's... even with day/night cycle and rain, the MFSU's stay pretty much full all the time, no matter what.

 

[Henry Link]

Also if you have Ender IO and use their capacitors with thier power monitor, the power monitor can automate the power production via redstone signal. I typically set mine to emit redstone at 25% or less energy stored and stop emitting at 90%. I've used this setup with a few different power generation methods.

 

[Aetherpirate]

The mekanism induction matrix can store a ton of power. As you progress you can upgrade its components and store trillions of rf.

 

[Dentvar]

First you have to define what "better" is? Less expensive in resources? So then of course a "brick of MFSU" is better. Since its cheaper and you can still use all the machines you need without running out of engergy.
On the other hand, if you build the Solar Panels, it will give you more energie so the moment you expend your machines you will have already a plus and may only add a MFSU instead of more power production.
But on long terms it should always go to what @Inaeo said. Produce your need+5%(personal).

A car batterie works the same iirc. It will load up while you drive but the motor also let you use all other electrics of the car at the same time so when motor is not running you have a buffer

 

[LoGaL]

speaking of raw strenght, i would prefer 10 hybrids over 10 MFSU all the time,
speaking of resources, i would probably go 1-2 hybrids, rest MFSU