Perpetual Energy?

[Goo Poni]

What machinery can be used to create perpetual energy? In old versions of Tekkit, HV Solar Arrays sufficed. Starting over in the new Tekkit with a friend, I decided to just use Redstone Engines to start off, having no need to worry about fuels and such. Except those engines didn't work. Whether it be levers, redstone, molten redstone, anything, the basic redstone engine wouldn't turn on. So we had to upgrade to Stirling engines and go from there. That was cut short by one of the Stirling Engines exploding, so I spent an afternoon building a new network with Steam Engines, with a pump and infinite water pool out of the way to keep them going. But like the Stirling Engines, they constantly needed coal. So my idea was to build a Laser Drill. Unlimited Coal to funnel straight into the steam engines. But first we needed to build a passive mob farm and tie it into a slaughter house for all of 10 seconds to have pink slime for the prechargers. Figuring that the slaughter house is a few too may resources for it's very temporary use, I eventually changed into Magmatic Engines. I figured a cobble generator tied to a block breaker that fed a Crucible would be enough. Nope. 24kMJ for a single piece of cobble which then made one bucket's worth of lava that output 18kMJ in a Magmatic Engine. Charming. Currently in the process of rebuilding the network so that the Crucible is accessible and can be filled with Netherrack on occasion. There must be an easier way to do this, the Crucible constantly consumes it's own excess energy meaning it has to be topped up regularly to keep the power going. I want to just have a power network built that can then be left alone and only expanded on when multiple new machines are introduced.

[Dewfire]

One word, BioFuel.

Havesters and Planters.

This tree farm provides me with more saplings then I can ever use, just add Fertilizers from a Sewer under 10-15 cows.

[Goo Poni]

Would just the one harvester and planter work okay? Just pipe wood into the BioFuel Generator and saplings back into the planter? Will a planter make a tight tree farm? Plain oak trees can be planted right next to each other to just make walls of solid wood.

Not sure where I can find cows. Cows and chickens are something of an endangered species on this world. I've yet to see a chicken in this world. Had to spawn in a feather to make writing desk and visit Mystcraft ages.

[warnolo]

Well, finding a large pool of lava gives a relatively infinite energy for magmatic engines, specially in teh nether or an age with a lava ocean.

[Dewfire]

Biggest issue with piping in lava from the nether, is if you're on a server it can cause issues.

And I just have 1 spot per tree, and with the fertilizer it grows instantly. All the stuff goes into my ME network, into DSU's and I use Export Bus's on my Planters and Fertilizers. I actually have 3 harvesters on that one section and the trees still grow faster then they harvest them.

[Tedris]

What's the server issue with piping lava from the nether? On the small server that I'm on, I have lava being piped through a liquid tesseract to 27 magmatic engines. Is it an issue that would happen with a higher populated server?

[Dewfire]

What I've seen is the lava flow causes lag on the server from it being pumped.

[dwwojcik]

Anothr way to run a biofuel-tree setup is to configure the planter and 2 harvesters to work over a large area. Then, you have so many saplings you get a constant stream of growth, and don't have to bother with fertilizer.

[Gildan27]

Would just the one harvester and planter work okay? Just pipe wood into the BioFuel Generator and saplings back into the planter? Will a planter make a tight tree farm? Plain oak trees can be planted right next to each other to just make walls of solid wood.

Not sure where I can find cows. Cows and chickens are something of an endangered species on this world. I've yet to see a chicken in this world. Had to spawn in a feather to make writing desk and visit Mystcraft ages.

Here's a runthrough of an early biofuel setup I had. Some of it is wrong (liquid tesseracts don't have limits, the loss of energy tesseracts is 20% now), and some stuff can be done better (Rednet works better than the RS-NOR latch I have, and negates the need of having so many energy tesseracts, coffee beans work better than wheat), but the idea is still there. There's also a thread around discussing the use of Liquid Managers for biofuel storage instead of tanks.

Also, sheep produce the same amount of sewage as cows as far as I know.

The system fully manages itself without any help.

http://imgur.com/a/1StxZ

[dwwojcik]

Here's a runthrough of an early biofuel setup I had. Some of it is wrong (liquid tesseracts don't have limits, the loss of energy tesseracts is 20% now), and some stuff can be done better (Rednet works better than the RS-NOR latch I have, and negates the need of having so many energy tesseracts, coffee beans work better than wheat), but the idea is still there. There's also a thread around discussing the use of Liquid Managers for biofuel storage instead of tanks.

Also, sheep produce the same amount of sewage as cows as far as I know.

The system fully manages itself without any help.

http://imgur.com/a/1StxZ

Awesome! That is a very impressive setup.

[svenco]

So I built a Batcave around 30 blocks under ground level, it has automated lights and everything. So now it's time to make some power come down into the cave.

I am dealing with power loss on cables when they need to cover such a distance. I want to ask you to tell me, what you think is the best way to power my cave.

I know Nuclear power is the best way but please also think of something else than that. Could you guys also give a bit of a explanation of your idea.

Thx in advance, you make it possible for me to learn everything there is to know about Tekkit.

[dwwojcik]

Erm there isn't nuclear power in Tekkit. Wrong section. Also, don't threadjack.

[Goo Poni]

Here's a runthrough of an early biofuel setup I had. Some of it is wrong (liquid tesseracts don't have limits, the loss of energy tesseracts is 20% now), and some stuff can be done better (Rednet works better than the RS-NOR latch I have, and negates the need of having so many energy tesseracts, coffee beans work better than wheat), but the idea is still there. There's also a thread around discussing the use of Liquid Managers for biofuel storage instead of tanks.

Also, sheep produce the same amount of sewage as cows as far as I know.

The system fully manages itself without any help.

http://imgur.com/a/1StxZ

-Early- setup? Good gawd, I don't even wanna know what it looks like now. So, would it be okay to just start with a few trees then add more and more plants when I can? I read on the wiki that the BioFuel makers work faster when they have multiple plants in them.

Quite low on various resources right now, so I may only be able to just do one type of tree. So it's either just build a planter, harvester and use massive numbers of Birch because they grow the fastest, or if I can get more resources, build lots of smaller set-ups of planters and harvesters that farm all sorts of plants.

[Gorian]

I have been powering my biofuel with nothing but ink sacs. 2 squids (use a jailer safari net to keep them from de-spawning) and 2 ranchers, and I am producing ink to power 10 bifuel reactors, with ink to spare. I have enough biofuel that I have lost track of the generators I'm running with it. If you desire more effienciency, you can combine other stuff with the ink, but I have yet to need to (24x7 powering my power grid, I have something like 500,000 ink surplus atm.)

[dwwojcik]

-Early- setup? Good gawd, I don't even wanna know what it looks like now. So, would it be okay to just start with a few trees then add more and more plants when I can? I read on the wiki that the BioFuel makers work faster when they have multiple plants in them.

Quite low on various resources right now, so I may only be able to just do one type of tree. So it's either just build a planter, harvester and use massive numbers of Birch because they grow the fastest, or if I can get more resources, build lots of smaller set-ups of planters and harvesters that farm all sorts of plants.

Massive numbers of birches would work fine. The way it works is the larger the variety, the more efficient, and with less variety it produces bioful very quickly, so either way it's possible to get a good deal.

[Goo Poni]

I have been powering my biofuel with nothing but ink sacs. 2 squids (use a jailer safari net to keep them from de-spawning) and 2 ranchers, and I am producing ink to power 10 bifuel reactors, with ink to spare. I have enough biofuel that I have lost track of the generators I'm running with it. If you desire more effienciency, you can combine other stuff with the ink, but I have yet to need to (24x7 powering my power grid, I have something like 500,000 ink surplus atm.)

Hrm. Just make like a 5x5x5 cube and throw the squiddies in it? Or 5x5x1 (1 deep) with the rancher at one end? I've seen squiddies drowning before if they get clumped up.

[Norman1346]

What machinery can be used to create perpetual energy? In old versions of Tekkit, HV Solar Arrays sufficed. Starting over in the new Tekkit with a friend, I decided to just use Redstone Engines to start off, having no need to worry about fuels and such. Except those engines didn't work. Whether it be levers, redstone, molten redstone, anything, the basic redstone engine wouldn't turn on. So we had to upgrade to Stirling engines and go from there. That was cut short by one of the Stirling Engines exploding, so I spent an afternoon building a new network with Steam Engines, with a pump and infinite water pool out of the way to keep them going. But like the Stirling Engines, they constantly needed coal. So my idea was to build a Laser Drill. Unlimited Coal to funnel straight into the steam engines. But first we needed to build a passive mob farm and tie it into a slaughter house for all of 10 seconds to have pink slime for the prechargers. Figuring that the slaughter house is a few too may resources for it's very temporary use, I eventually changed into Magmatic Engines. I figured a cobble generator tied to a block breaker that fed a Crucible would be enough. Nope. 24kMJ for a single piece of cobble which then made one bucket's worth of lava that output 18kMJ in a Magmatic Engine. Charming. Currently in the process of rebuilding the network so that the Crucible is accessible and can be filled with Netherrack on occasion. There must be an easier way to do this, the Crucible constantly consumes it's own excess energy meaning it has to be topped up regularly to keep the power going. I want to just have a power network built that can then be left alone and only expanded on when multiple new machines are introduced.

When I started the new tekkit I had the same problem with red-stone engines. I was going to just have a ton of them under my lab hooked up to pipes, but red-stone engines can no longer power pipes. After that I did switch to steam engines and now I have a pretty sustainable set up now.

I use and MFR harvester sapling farm. I have several vanilla furnaces and insertion pipes set up to automatically cook wood blocks over wood blocks from the harvester and then from there I just pipe the charcoal passed my steam-engines continuously in a loop. Very little upkeep.

I only use bio-fuel when I am running quarries.

[phazeonphoenix]

When I started the new tekkit I had the same problem with red-stone engines. I was going to just have a ton of them under my lab hooked up to pipes, but red-stone engines can no longer power pipes. After that I did switch to steam engines and now I have a pretty sustainable set up now.

I use and MFR harvester sapling farm. I have several vanilla furnaces and insertion pipes set up to automatically cook wood blocks over wood blocks from the harvester and then from there I just pipe the charcoal passed my steam-engines continuously in a loop. Very little upkeep.

I only use bio-fuel when I am running quarries.

Just wait until you want to build a large ME Storage/Crafting Network and/or a MFFS Force Field...

To answer Goo's question almost any energy generator can be automated to a degree. My little group of friends I play with started with Stirling engines which we later upgraded to steam and had a highly inefficient contrivance that continually fed coal from a chest into the engines (think loops of BC pipes). We had no idea what we where doing but it worked for quite some time before upgrading to a large bank of Magmatic engines using lava pumped in from the nether. More energy, more efficient, but not ideal either. Biofuel promises higher energy outputs but with a greater amount of preparation required to do it. The same with Atomic Science and the fusion reactor.

[Edited to add something relevant]

[Gorian]

Hrm. Just make like a 5x5x5 cube and throw the squiddies in it? Or 5x5x1 (1 deep) with the rancher at one end? I've seen squiddies drowning before if they get clumped up.

I have a 5x5 pool that is 2 blocks deep, with only 2 squids. with 2 ranches in the middle of the 5x5, one on top of each other. Obviously you can change to suit your tastes etc. but that is what it working for me .

[micecd]

Make 2 MFR farms with range upgrades on planters.

You should have 19x19 (14 or more blocks for height, maybe with 10) pads of dirt for the planters to place Saplings, or Rubber Saplings.

You can run the farm on charcoal that it can craft automatically, and save the excess.

I did this in a base on the last server I played on, and had 200k wood by day 4. That wood turned into charcoal as well because I dumped all the wood into the processing area to transform it into charcoal.

I used the charcoal in Thermal Expansion steam engines, and the power grew additively for each engine block (A block is 4 engines in a plus sign shape with a conduit in the middle stacked to content.) I added to the area.

All you do is add more engine blocks until you use more charcoal than you can produce, and move up the chain of resources.

Step 1: You make engine blocks until you can't supply them with enough charcoal.

Step 2: You process wood into charcoal until you can't supply enough wood.

Step 3: Copy your setups in an efficient way (also make it look cool, and effective to walk around/fix/put together).

If you do this, you know how much energy you can produce.

Your next step is to store the energy. I chose to transform the energy I produced into lava using lava fabricators from MFR i think.

This way, I could store the lava in Iron Tanks (Wish I could have used XyCraft). There is almost limitless storage if you just add more and more tanks, or make them bigger.

If you want to output energy, all you do is make a Lava Generator Processing Block (As many as you can) to output all the lava stored into EU, or whatever unit you need.

Then skim some power to your farms, and power everything else you need.

Tell me when you reach the point of powering a series of recyclers and mass fabricators and produce 4x that energy as excess.

Hint (You'll be mining for weeks.)

[Gorian]

I believe that you may be on the wrong forums. This is for Tekkit, not tekkit classic or tekkit lite. There is no EU, recyclers, mass fabricators, or iron tanks in Tekkit.

With that said, this would work in the newest Tekkit, as Thermal Expansion Steam engines are available for burning coal, and Thermal Expansion Magmatic Engines for lava. You'll have to use buildcraft tanks or Steve's Carts Liquid Managers for storage though.

[Lethosos]

I recommend OpenBlocks if you're pining for those multi-tanks. There's some seriously nice tank blocks that can be stacked in any way you'd like.

[jakalth]

Ok, self sustained power generation? How about a perpetual magmatic engine block? Well, nearly perpetual. All it needs is a steady supply of netherrack.

here's what you need:

1. one magma crucible
   
2. 12 - 16 magmatic engines
   
3. a bunch of liquaducts to pipe lava from the crucible to the engines
   
4. a bunch of energy conduits to pipe energy from the engines back into the crucible
   
5. 1 redstone energy cube to act as a power regulator once the engine block reaches full power.
   
6. engough energy to make 1 block of lava and/or a bucket full of lava(to get the thing kick started)
   
7. a chest and funnel to feed into the crucible
   
8. Many stacks of netherrack.
   

It takes quite a while for this setup to reach critical mass, a point where the crucible produces enough lava to keep the engines running continuously. but once it does, all you need to do to keep it running is keep it supplied with netherrack. It will eventually reach a point where all the engines and the crucible are full of lava, but only just. At this point it's nether rack consumption will drop a bit making it a little easier to keep supplied.

just a note though: this thing gets hungry. It can chew through netherrack fairly quickly until everything is filled. with 15 engines it produced 60Mj/tick, the crucible uses 30Mj/tick, so it has a surplus of 30Mj/tick. More then 16 engines and the crucible can no longer keep up.

perpetual? sort of... practical? maybe... powerful? no. 2 biofuel generators can produce as much power. but this thing looks better.