Question: Different voltage levels

1st Official Post

    I am bit confused about different voltage levels. Here is a few questions about them.



    Wiki says:


    Quote

    Tier 1: Copper Cable: can handle up to 32 EU/s, 1 EU lost per 5 blocks (insulated)

    When I connected enough generators to a single copper cable connected to a MFE I was able to get readings like 130 EU/t. How is this possible?



    Why is the energy loss higher on high voltage cables? Isn't that a bit unrealistic? In the real world they use high voltages to transfer power over long distances because the power loss is smaller.



    Also how is it possible to convert Low Voltage to Medium Voltage and so on? Isn't that like free energy?

    • Official Post

    1: Voltage and EU/s are 2 completely different things. Voltage is the power 'tier' whereas eu is the amount of energy being transferred.


    2: The maximum EU of 32 EU/s is per pulse. So you could theoretically have 100 generators attached, each sending 5 eu/s for a total of 500 eu/s. This will not damage the cable, as no individual packet is more than 32. There are just 100 5 EU packets.


    3: High voltage has higher loss, but because you will be sending much larger packets of EU, the overall loss will be much less. e.g. batbox sending current to another batbox over 5 cables, that's one loss. Over 32 pulses (for ease of math), you essentially lose one full pulse.
    Using an MFE, because the energy is bunched up into larger packets, 2 or 3 loss is much less of an issue (basically, you'll need to have 4 times the loss before you're better off with lower voltage). Similar rules apply to the higher tiers of electricity.


    4: Converting low voltage to medium voltage doesn't give you extra "energy". It just transforms it to a higher voltage. If you put 128 eu into a LV transformer (4 ticks on a batbox), you will still get 128 eu out the other end. It will just be a higher voltage. You could send it all the way up to HV and you'd still get exactly the same output as what you put into it.

    I think I got it now. Thank you for helping. :)

    Quote from Lurch1985

    3: High voltage has higher loss, but because you will be sending much larger packets of EU, the overall loss will be much less. e.g. batbox sending current to another batbox over 5 cables, that's one loss. Over 32 pulses (for ease of math), you essentially lose one full pulse.
    Using an MFE, because the energy is bunched up into larger packets, 2 or 3 loss is much less of an issue (basically, you'll need to have 4 times the loss before you're better off with lower voltage). Similar rules apply to the higher tiers of electricity.


    I don't know if I got it, tell me if I'm right:


    I have 2 insulated copper cables which are 5 blocks long, If I send through them the same amount of energy (for example 32 EU/t) but in the first cable this power is into only a single packet and in the second one into 16 different packets, at the end of the cables will the first cable have a packet of 31 EU and the second one 16 packets of 1EU?


    Is the energy loss calculated on every packet or on the average energy per tick?


    I apologize for my English.