Random geo-thermals not taking lava

[ATJ]

Hi,

Can anyone find me a simple non-costly solution to this problem please :

http://imgur.com/zKdkw

Basic explanation of the set-up :

Got a matter fab running just out of shot on the left, currently one side is being fed a 100 EU/t nuke through an MFSU and the other side is being fed from the pictured GTGs with another MFSU inline.

Our nether spawn was on a tiny island right in the middle of a huge lava ocean as far as you can see in all directions so perfect for lava as energy. Got 2 railcraft liquid carts running back and forth through crystal portals, emptying into a ~4m iron tank. All fed with gold waterproof pipes in the nether and overworld - 4 electric engines pumping out of 4 storage tanks in the nether (pipes always full), and 3 electric engines connected to a wood waterproof pipe pulling out of the iron tank in the overworld, which goes up through ceiling and into the GTGs pictured.

The problem is that about 50% of the (20) GTGs seem to randomly ignore the lava and rarely produce any power. I've only seen the max 400 EU/t once on my reader when they all had some lava in them, but right now the total power running down the pipe is 160 EU/t and I don't understand why it's dropping when I've since added 2 more leccy engines pulling out of the iron tank. The other 50% of the GTGs all have the black window in the inv completely filled with the lava and are producing 20 EU/t just fine, but the others have absolutely nothing. Some bug with the GTGs or do I need to add another output valve, pipes and engines on the iron tank to double the output or is it some other issue?

Thanks.

 

[ItharianEngineering]

Since you are pumping it out of the tank through a wooden waterproof pipe you won't be able to get enough lava out of it to actually make full use of the golden waterproof pipes, it doesn't matter how many engines you use. If you switch to liquiducts from Thermal Expansion it should improve your situation greatly since it can hold more than a golden waterproof pipe and is easier to setup to a tank since it just requires a redstone signal and using a wrench to set it to 'suck' mode. Using more connections on the tank may also help but liquiducts are really the best option. Also, if you are still using the beta pack your only choice is more connections since liquiducts aren't in that pack, if you are using the mindcrack pack I would recommend upgrading your geothermals to the gregtech thermal generator which generates more EU/t using lava.

 

[Strubinator]

Could try Thermal Generators. They save the cells/containers, and you can pump lava into them.

 

[ATJ]

Thanks but I don't have thermal generators or liquiducts available to me as I am indeed playing with the beta A v12 pack (no RP2 either). I will look at making more output valves on the tank.

What power source should I be looking to upgrade to for powering the matter fab and the factory IC2 machines (all overclocked, pull about 450 EU/t at peak between them)? Currently I have 20 adv solars powering the factory on its own, and then a 100 EU/t nuke and the aforementioned lava setup with GTGs powering the MF.

I'm reluctant to go down the hybrid solar route as each of these needs 8 iridium which I don't have and they only generate 64 EU/t at peak anyway so I'd be 'wasting' a lot of resources for not much gain. Making more adv solars seems a bit of a backwards step at this stage and I'd need 100s to satisfy the power requirements of the MF. Not keen on the nuke route as these need nannying every 2.5 hrs replacing the uranium cells. I have a good stock of all the basic ores + about 2.5 stacks of uranium, 15 uu-matter and enough coal to make a stack of diamonds. What should I make to power my matter fab?

 

[ItharianEngineering]

A fusion reactor... I joke. It would power it perfectly though! Just making it... But seriously I can't think of much else besides just more of what you have. More solar panels, more nukes, more geothermals. There isn't really a way to just generate that much power at once from a few machines other than the fusion reactor, but the amount of materials it needs and the start up EU cost makes it not applicable in this case.

 

[Daemonblue]

If it's the hybrid solars the ultimate hybrids produce 512 eu/t during the day and iirc 64 eu/t at night. Sure they cost a lot to create, but it's massive free energy in a single block after you make it, and due to the amount of energy it outputs it's effectively a self-fulfilling system - each one you make makes it that much easier to produce yet another.

 

[ATJ]

If it's the hybrid solars the ultimate hybrids produce 512 eu/t during the day and iirc 64 eu/t at night. Sure they cost a lot to create, but it's massive free energy in a single block after you make it, and due to the amount of energy it outputs it's effectively a self-fulfilling system - each one you make makes it that much easier to produce yet another.

But that's the problem... I need the power to generate enough resources to make it. Catch 22.

 

[Daemonblue]

If it were a Catch-22 that would imply you had no other possible way of generating energy. What you're thinking of is called a False dilemma.

There are several ways to produce energy, you just really need to either find a way to store a lot more of it, produce more of it, and/or use less of it so you can divert it towards your matter fabricator.

Either way, for your initial problem you're almost definitely not providing your geos with enough lava. Part of this would be that liquid wooden pipes work different from wooden transport pipes. More engines on a waterproof pipe does zilch, and really anything other than a redstone engine on them is overkill. What you need is to attach more wooden pipes to the set up and either attach autarchic gates or redstone engines to them, as any other engine, as mentioned above, is just a waste of power.