Energy and conversions etc etc

[white_bear_84]

OK, so im starting to dabble in more advanced machinery.. ..as a result i will need more energy.. ..i was looking at solar panels and the gregtech recipie is pretty complex, but i did notice bluetricity to be much simpler.. ..is there a convenient way to convert bluetricity to EU??

[marvelmanic]

There is another article around here that discusses this.

The short answer is no.

The long answer, it is possible but in a very indirect manner.

I think I have come to the conclusion that BU is a good, clean way to create MJ. But EU can only be created by EU generators.

[Irimar]

Originally Posted by marvelmanic

There is another article around here that discusses this.

The short answer is no.

The long answer, it is possible but in a very indirect manner.

I think I have come to the conclusion that BU is a good, clean way to create MJ. But EU can only be created by EU generators.

This is about the size of it. Both Blutricity and EU can be converted to MJ, but there's no good way to convert to either of them. All paths in that direction are really, really inefficient, to the point that, if you were converting EU to MJ, and then turning that back to EU, you'd only get out about half as much EU as you put in. It's really not worth it.

Solar panels are generally my preference, but there are other ways to go. If you need a hand getting started with solar, poke me on the server or drop me a PM. I'm sure we can get you sorted out.

[DarkDuck]

so with EU you can make
1) Generators - use Coal, Coke, Charcole
2) GEothermal - Uses Lava, very good middle power, about as good as Advanced Solar
3) PetroGenerators - use BU to make MJ power, Refine oil to Fuel, Burn Fuel to make EU
4) Use Fermenter and refinery to make Biofuel from wheat, use a BioGenerator to make EU
5) Go Nuclear - TBH the nuclear route is easy, first level called Mk1 reactors can be passively powered and can generate more energy than most will need for a long time.

[white_bear_84]

Originally Posted by DarkDuck

so with EU you can make
1) Generators - use Coal, Coke, Charcole
2) GEothermal - Uses Lava, very good middle power, about as good as Advanced Solar
3) PetroGenerators - use BU to make MJ power, Refine oil to Fuel, Burn Fuel to make EU
4) Use Fermenter and refinery to make Biofuel from wheat, use a BioGenerator to make EU
5) Go Nuclear - TBH the nuclear route is easy, first level called Mk1 reactors can be passively powered and can generate more energy than most will need for a long time.

Well im building a blast furnace so think i will make up some aluminium and build myself a couple of thermal generators which can be fueled by magma crucibles.. ..seems like a good choice!?! With eight magmatic engines per crucible i should be able to continually power the thermal generators?

[DaedalusAlpha]

Instead of very inefficient magma crucibles, why don't you look around for normal lava? It's pretty easy to find, and in worst case you can even set up a pump in the nether.

[white_bear_84]

Originally Posted by DaedalusAlpha

Instead of very inefficient magma crucibles, why don't you look around for normal lava? It's pretty easy to find, and in worst case you can even set up a pump in the nether.

How do you get it back from the nether?

Also, isnt lava limited though?? how long can one supply block last?

[DarkDuck]

to turn Cobble to Lava you need 20000 MJ
An electric Engine (without upgrades) produces 5 mj/t for 12.5 EU/T

So rough maths you need 4000 Cycles of a normal electric engine to produce enough energy so thats 50,000 EU needed for 1 Lava Source Block.

1 lava block only produces 20,000 eu so you would not be able to keep up with demand.

I still point you towards a petro generator, 300,000 eu from 1 bucket of Fuel!!!
Bio Generator
8,000 EU at 8 EU/t for Biomass
32,000 EU at 16 EU/t for Biofuel

For the Petro Generator
A bucket of Oil will make 30,000 EU at 10 EU/t.
A Bucket of Fuel will produce 300,000 EU at 25 EU/t.

[Cheith]

Originally Posted by DarkDuck

to turn Cobble to Lava you need 20000 MJ
An electric Engine (without upgrades) produces 5 mj/t for 12.5 EU/T

So rough maths you need 4000 Cycles of a normal electric engine to produce enough energy so thats 50,000 EU needed for 1 Lava Source Block.

1 lava block only produces 20,000 eu so you would not be able to keep up with demand.

I still point you towards a petro generator, 300,000 eu from 1 bucket of Fuel!!!
Bio Generator
8,000 EU at 8 EU/t for Biomass
32,000 EU at 16 EU/t for Biofuel

For the Petro Generator
A bucket of Oil will make 30,000 EU at 10 EU/t.
A Bucket of Fuel will produce 300,000 EU at 25 EU/t.

The real reason to use EU (or BU for that matter) is storage. Storing MJ is a pain and is (supposedly) buggy on full conditions for the storage. Storage is also very small (600K MJ is nothing).

Converting MJ to EU is best done using the magma generator tied up to a geothermal BUT make sure you power the magma generator with a proper MJ engine (3 combustion engines using biofuel for example do a decent job and give you a little pause to pick up some more cobblestone when they empty). This gives you about 250K EU per biofuel bucket, which is much more efficient that the Bio Generator.

If you wish to convert BU (solar) to EU I would suggest solar -> BU store -> Bluelectric Engine -> Magma Generator -> Geothermal Generator. It is a bit of a pain, but if you wish to do it that would be the route for the solar panels or the thermopiles.

MJ converts to EU (in this method) at a rate of 1 MJ -> 1.25 EU (Geothermal gives 30K EU/lava for 24,000MJ input). Do NOT use Electric Engines to power a magma generator as the best you can do is 2.5EU -> 1 MJ.

So, you would get 1kW of BU becomes 1.25EU using this method. Based on the Bluelectric Engine stats you only need one engine per magma generator.

So, in theory (with a max output of 200W each) you would need something like 75 solar panels to operate the engine/magma combo continuously (15kW). A battery box would empty in something like 20 seconds (300kJ) I guess.

All in all, interesting but not efficient. I recommend Duck's fuel burning! Of course you can get more EU using the magma route (1 fuel in a combustion gives 600,000MJ -> 750kEU) but it may not be worth the pain of setting it up. It is, though, another way to remove all that cobble!!!

Cheith.

[OranjeJus]

This is quite similar to what I'm going to do and Cheith has saved me the effort of describing the process (although it is Thermal Generators that give the 30k EU.) It might not be the most efficient, but it is an interesting stepping stone before hitting up something for huge power generation, which I'm developing a plan for.


- OJ

Originally Posted by Cheith

MJ converts to EU (in this method) at a rate of 1 MJ -> 1.25 EU (Geothermal gives 30K EU/lava for 24,000MJ input). Do NOT use Electric Engines to power a magma generator as the best you can do is 2.5EU -> 1 MJ.

So, you would get 1kW of BU becomes 1.25EU using this method. Based on the Bluelectric Engine stats you only need one engine per magma generator.

So, in theory (with a max output of 200W each) you would need something like 75 solar panels to operate the engine/magma combo continuously (15kW). A battery box would empty in something like 20 seconds (300kJ) I guess.

All in all, interesting but not efficient. I recommend Duck's fuel burning! Of course you can get more EU using the magma route (1 fuel in a combustion gives 600,000MJ -> 750kEU) but it may not be worth the pain of setting it up. It is, though, another way to remove all that cobble!!!

Cheith.