confusing energy loss!? (cable/voltage)

MiK3gamer · May 19th 2012

hi.
i wonder how i am supposed to calculate the energy loss for my future builds, after i got confused like this.
wiki sais ...
2x ins gold cable: 0,4 eu/tick energyloss per block
3x ins HV cable: 0,8 eu/tick energyloss per block

my testing setup:

MFE -> 64x gold cable (2x insulated) -> MFE
that got me 103 eu/tick of energy trasfer. tested with my eu-reader

mfe -> mv transformer creating High voltage -> 62x HV Cable (3x insulated) -> mv transformer creating medium voltage -> MFE
that got me something between 112 and 117 eu/tick

so the wiki tells me that gold has 0,4EU loss per block. that's 25eu using 64 cables.
128 - 25 = 103
ok.

the wiki tells me that a HV cable has a loss of 0,8 eu/tick. that would be 50 eu/tick
128 - 50 = 112??? not really
i think that does not match the wiki (or there is some missing information about the voltage?)

can anyone tell me with distance is good for wich kind of coltage and cable? (i guess it makes no sense to use HV cables for a 5 blocks distance)
i am totally confused because of that test

ANATOMICA_3rd · May 19th 2012

Here are my suggestions:
long distance & above LV= glass fibre cable
a 1 block wide gap for MV= 2x gold insulated
Nuclear reactor going long distance (creating a load of energy)= 4x HV cable
normal LV wiring= insulated copper cable
tranfer to storage block for green generators(watermill & solarpanels)= tin cable

ALSO

Dont trust your firat reading it can be false sometimes

MiK3gamer · May 19th 2012

well ...
i hope i will have enough diamonds for glas fiber cable. but i think i don't ...
i don't know the exact distance between my powerplant and my base, but i guess HV (with 4x ins HV cable) will have less energy loss than MV
i also thought of upgrading everything to MV or even HV (using transformer upgrades for mashines) ... but the problem is that some mashines can't use upgrades! like the pump and the cropmatron! so i have to go with some LV too.

jppk1 · May 19th 2012

The reason why your HV cable is losing less than what you expected it to lose is because it carries 512EU packets instead of 128EU packets. 512-50=462. Conversion back to low voltage makes the average EU/t 462/4=115.5EU/t.
For your wiring system, just use any voltage but remember than you can (and should) use high voltages for power transportation

(MFE output on right side, the LV-transformer converting the MFE's output to LV packets.)
You can use a system like above to get 128EU/t usable power for your stuff without blowing up your machines that can only accept LV. The LV transformer makes the MFE's output into four 32EU packets every tick.

quantumleaf7895 · May 19th 2012

Remember -- when packet size is taken into account, Gold cable has half the energy loss of Copper, HV Iron has half the energy loss of Gold, and EV Iron has a quarter the energy loss of HV Iron. Diamond cable has, of course, almost 0 energy loss.

MiK3gamer · May 19th 2012

thanks, quantumleaf7895 and jppk1 ...
those answers really helped me in understanding how the energy loss is calculated.
and it also helped me in planning my wiring for the future

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