Can generators/geothermal generators waste power?

huldu · Aug 10th 2012

I was just wondering if you supply too much fuel, ie coal or lava cells to a generator can EU go to waste?

I have no idea how the geothermal generator works but a normal generator starts to burn a new coal if the EU drops -1 in the storage.

If it leads to wasted energy is there any way to set the generators to only burn fuel when there is an actual need for it, say the internal storage drops below 75%?

<edit> Why I'm wondering is because currently I'm basically babysitting the generators and manually add fuel. Just worried that they might be too happy using fuel if left unmanned, otherwise I would plug them into a supply system that would do it automatically.

DZCreeper · Aug 10th 2012

Geothermal generators waste no lava, they only run when they have a place to output power too.

CrafterOfMines57 · Aug 10th 2012

In normal generators it is entirely possible to waste eus by burning coal with just under the maximum storage already in the machine, I don't think that it works in geothermal generators however, and to answer your question there is no way to change generator behavior through a redstone signal similar to how the energy storage devices work

huldu · Aug 10th 2012

Quote from DZCreeper

Geothermal generators waste no lava, they only run when they have a place to output power too.

That is great news so I can supply a stream of lava cells to the generator and not worrying that it'll be wasting any cells? Just wondering since 1 cell gives... 20k EU or something like that, if you have a machine that only uses 5 EU for a couple of seconds I wouldn't want the generator to burn another cell of lava just to cover that little EU use

bbqroast · Aug 10th 2012

Quote from huldu

That is great news so I can supply a stream of lava cells to the generator and not worrying that it'll be wasting any cells? Just wondering since 1 cell gives... 20k EU or something like that, if you have a machine that only uses 5 EU for a couple of seconds I wouldn't want the generator to burn another cell of lava just to cover that little EU use

No, they have a big internal storage and only consume a cell when they have enough room for it.

god_chris · Aug 12th 2012

with the normal generators, all the EU generated by the coal will either be used or wasted, think of it like using a furnace but only putting 5 items in instead of 8, the remaining 'fuel' will be wasted, as will the EU in this case, to stop this from happening, you can just put some sort of energy storage device in between your generator and your machines.

Or if you are using tekkit and want to be really fancy, you can change the redstone behaviour of the storage device to 'emit when empty'. Then have redstone wire leading to a chest, containing coal with a pipe connecting to it leading to the generator. So coal will then be pumped into the generator whenever you run out so you will always have energy!

CrafterOfMines57 · Aug 12th 2012

Quote

Or if you are using tekkit and want to be really fancy, you can change
the redstone behaviour of the storage device to 'emit when empty'. Then
have redstone wire leading to a chest, containing coal with a pipe
connecting to it leading to the generator. So coal will then be pumped
into the generator whenever you run out so you will always have energy!

You do realize that's completely possible to do both without Tekkit and with Redpower transposers right? Most people here use Redpower and I personally hate when a reference to Tekkit is thrown in without any logical reason for it

bbqroast · Aug 13th 2012

Quote from CrafterOfMines57

You do realize that's completely possible to do both without Tekkit and with Redpower transposers right? Most people here use Redpower and I personally hate when a reference to Tekkit is thrown in without any logical reason for it

Yeah, I swear most of the people these days don't even know how to spell the mods they use, the just go and download a mod pack. Poor mod authors :(.

Really, you should be moving to geothermal/solar as soon as you can.

jppk1 · Aug 13th 2012

Quote from bbqroast

Yeah, I swear most of the people these days don't even know how to spell the mods they use, the just go and download a mod pack. Poor mod authors :(.

Really, you should be moving to geothermal/solar as soon as you can.

Or wind or nuclear if you want cheaper energy. Solar power has a terrible output/resource ratio IMO.

huldu · Aug 13th 2012

Holy cow, I had no idea about that redstone transmit thingy on the batbox. That was just brilliant!

I really don't know much about redpower2, I have it however. I've used the deployer a few times for my geothermal generator, basically filling buckets with lava from a tank then push them towards a lava cell factory.

<edit> Any device that you can tell how much coal or whatever material to pick out of a chest?

GregoriusT · Aug 14th 2012

Quote from jppk1

Or wind or nuclear if you want cheaper energy. Solar power has a terrible output/resource ratio IMO.

Or Generators, or manned Watermills. Oh moment, these were all the vanilly IC²-Energysources. Well, everything has pros and cons in Energyproduction. Even my Lightningrods (terribly expensive).

Quote from huldu

I really don't know much about redpower2, I have it however.

WHAT??? You *beeep* *bleeep* *beep* *beeep* *bleep* *beeeeeep*! [/just kidding]

Quote from huldu

I've used the deployer a few times for my geothermal generator, basically filling buckets with lava from a tank then push them towards a lava cell factory.

Any device that you can tell how much coal or whatever material to pick out of a chest?

I think its name is "Item Detector". It does what it's named for: Item detecting.

bbqroast · Aug 16th 2012

Quote from jppk1

Or wind or nuclear if you want cheaper energy. Solar power has a terrible output/resource ratio IMO.

Manned water is disabled on my server. I have about 30 panels, getting the same output from windmills without risking them exploding would be a pain, nuclear energy needs refueling (I'm on SMP with loaded chunks). I do plan to build a nuclear reactor now I have the resources to afford the shielding.

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