Pump placement

[Wizaerd]

I'm caving, finding good resources, and I'm pretty far underground and quite a distance from my home. I break some blocks, and see lava. So I have to ask myself... Is this an appropriate source of lava for a pump?

Is there a general rule of thumb on when a lava source is too far away? Should I pump it through pipes to a tank that is at my home? Where should I place the pump, assuming it is a good lava source? Should I dig around more to reveal more of the lava? Should I place the pump at the edge? Should I write down the coordinates, then go topside, navigate to those x, z coordinates and drill straight down for placing the pump?

Any insight into this type of information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DVeagle74]

Buildcraft pumps have a fairly large range, at least 30 blocks IIRC. It will pump out any source blocks that are connected to the point where it starts and is within range. So for example you can have two pools of water next to each other, but only one will drain unless you break the barrier between them. The pipe arm will extend so long as the liquid is beneath the pump itself, to almost any distance. You would want to use pipes to put it into tanks or into machines.

It would be a good source for a while, but not for anything too permanent. Useful for a decent amount of crafting and use, but not for long term power from geothermal generators. A good source for those would have to be the nether with its endless oceans of the stuff

 

[Wizaerd]

Thanx for your input. I find it odd that I see a myriad of postings in this and different forums about how great geothermal power is, yet to me it seems severely limited. Unless one transports it from the Nether, like you said. I guess if I wish to do this, I'll need to start looking into building in the Nether, and transporting across to the overworld. Or look into Solar or Wind power...

 

[any1seenjoe]

rather than drain the nether, I personally aim to breed nether bees asap to fuel my geothermal generators

 

[b0bst3r]

No need to pump lava from the nether anymore, just do this:

 

[warfighter67]

Additionally, you could find a low-level ravine. Those things tend to have vast amounts of lava (usually large enough for a single pump to take full advantage of) and you won't need to do multi-dimensional transportation of the liquid.

 

[Wizaerd]

Additionally, you could find a low-level ravine. Those things tend to have vast amounts of lava (usually large enough for a single pump to take full advantage of) and you won't need to do multi-dimensional transportation of the liquid.

But if the ravine is far away... Have to build a pump, and a tank cart system to move it from the tank close by the ravine to my base to make it useful, right?

 

[SilvasRuin]

It would at most require the same solution as pumping from the Nether: Liquid Transposing it into Cells/Cans, piping the Cells/Cans into an Enderchest, and pulling the Cells/Cans out of the Enderchest at your base and Transposing the lava back out of the Cells/Cans and sending them into another Enderchest to send them back.

 

[Phycoz]

It would at most require the same solution as pumping from the Nether: Liquid Transposing it into Cells/Cans, piping the Cells/Cans into an Enderchest, and pulling the Cells/Cans out of the Enderchest at your base and Transposing the lava back out of the Cells/Cans and sending them into another Enderchest to send them back.

I've never heard of that one, I use Mystcraft portals and railcraft to cart in lava. I have two giant iron tanks full to the brim powering a mass fabricator and two full sized quarries with plenty to spare lol.

Although I would assume you would need a modified book so it would work in the same world.