I did experiment with putting 4 redstone engines direktly too the box and it took about sec too start mining (mining well not a Quarry less energy required) but with the Conductive pipe i whaited for 10 minutes and not even the first mining pipe showed upp.. im pretty shure that 4 golden pipes loose that mutch energy.
im pretty shure that the piping is bugged i have done several experiments with this ant the results show the same.