I returned to Minecraft and IC2 recently, and I'm working with all 10.2 mods on a dedicated Survival server. My IC2 build is 2-2.6 190-ex110.
Let me start by saying I love this new chain, it's really fun. I really appreciate the complexity of it, and that you can create a closed system that involves so many different things.
Having said that, the whole steam thing in IC2 is new to me, and I have some questions. It could be that I don't fully understand the mechanics, or that the development of these new machines is still a WIP. Here is what I what I tried doing:
I had lava in a railcraft tank. Using EnderIO conduits, I piped the lava into an IC2 Liquid Heat Exchanger. I piped the Pahoehoe Lava from the Liquid Heat Exchanger into a tank for later disposal. I used Heat Conductors in the Liquid Heat Exchanger (more on this later). For the most part this all seemed to work.
I used a Steam Boiler adjacent to the Liquid Heat Exchanger. I piped steam from the boiler to a tank. Distilled water was piped into the Boiler from another tank (filled from the turbine and condenser). I set the bars to 0 (more on this later) and the output to 1 mb/t (more on this later). This machine kind of works, but not as I expected.
Steam from the tank was piped into a Steam Turbine (machine) with a Steam Turbine (part) in it. Distilled Water was piped from this machine to a tank. The Steam Turbine functioned, but would constantly explode. The amount of kinetic energy produced would fluctuate, and I couldn't find a way to control how much steam I was pushing into the machine (more on this later).
A Condenser was adjacent to the Steam Turbine. It would collect Steam and then convert it to Distilled Water, which was piped into a tank. The heat vents seemed to do the opposite of what I expected them to do, adding them made the machine much less efficient; it held more steam longer and produced far less Distilled Water. I thought the idea was to manage the steam by converting it to Distilled Water as fast as possible, because when the steam in the machine is full it no longer prevents explosions? In any configuration, the Steam Turbine would continue to explode constantly.
A Kinetic Generator was adjacent to the Steam Turbine as well. The generator would create around 40 eu, but this did fluctuate.
Okay so hear are some of my questions:
1. Are these machines working as intended?
2. The rate at which lava is consumed in the Liquid Heat Exchanger seems very high. So high, that it might be impractical? If the only time heat is created is when lava is converted to pahoehoe, you can really consume a lot of lava very fast. What do you do with that much Pahoehoe when so much is created so quickly? Is this working correctly?
3. The Heat Conductors confuse me. I understand that you create more heat by adding in the Heat Conductor, but what exactly is the math here? One seemed to do nothing, but multiples of two did something. Any more than two didn't seem to give any benefit, as you can increase the temperature on the Steam Boiler regardless of how you have the Liquid Heat Exchanger setup.
4. I don't really understand how the Steam Boiler controls work. How do you make more regular steam? Increasing the water or the bars of pressure didn't seem to increase steam output.
5. Does super heated steam work? I tried creating it with 221 bars of pressure, but the Steam Turbines seemed to work exactly the same, and I couldn't chain two of them together.
6. The Steam Turbine constantly explodes regardless if it's alone, with a Condenser, or with another Steam Turbine. How do you prevent this?
7. The Condenser doesn't seem to relieve pressure of the Steam Turbine. How do you do this?
8. What effect do the Heat Vents have? It seems to be working in reverse where adding them makes the machine work slower and less efficiently?
9. I used Copper Insulated cables from the Kinetic Generator, and they melted. The reported voltage was well under 128 EU/t, so that wasn't what I expected. Am I missing something here?
10. Given the complexity of the whole system and all of the machines and parts involved, I expected a lot more EU to be produced in the end. You can setup a single Wind Turbine in about 5 minutes with only basic materials, and make more power! Is this still being balanced?
Clearly I need some help here. If anyone can give me some assistance it would be appreciated. I really like the whole idea!
It's great to still see IC2 alive, and some of the old timers like Choco are still moving it forward. You're doing god's work son. 
