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gerlocian
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Join Date: Nov 2011
 
2012-09-15, 16:19

More information on IC2 energy.

IndustrialCraft (IC2) - EU (Energy Units)
The energy needed by IC2 machines. A generator block produces it and it's carried to it's destination via cables. It's important to note that EU's travel in packets of varying sizes and that the packet size / distance traveled determines the cable that you should use to transfer the energy. Packets can be defined as amount of EU's per tick.

EU's packets come in 4 flavors:
* Low Voltage (LV) - packets of 32 or less EU's. Produced by Generators, Solar Panels, LV Solar Panels, Geothermal Generators, Water Strainers, Wind Turbines, and Water Turbines or converted using a LV transformer. Carried by Tin Cables (packets up to 5 EU's only), Copper Cables, and any of the higher voltage cables. Can be stored in Batboxes and higher.
* Medium Voltage (MV) - packets of 33 - 128 EU's. Produced by MV Solar Panels or coverted using MV transformer. Carried by Gold Cables (1 and 2 times insulated) or higher voltage cable. Can be stored in MFE's or higher.
* High Voltage (HV) - packets of 129 - 512 EU's. Produced by HV Solar Panels, Nuclear Generators, or using a HV transformer. Carried by HV Cable (1, 2, or 4 times insulated), Glass fiber cable. Can be stored in MFSU's.
* Extreme Voltage (EV) - packets higher than 513 EU's. Produced by Nuclear Generators. Carried only by HV Cables up to 2048 EU packets (any higher and no cable can carry it). Nothing can store it unless stepped down with a HV transformer.

Cables have different rates of EU bleed. You can see them here: http://thetekkit.wikia.com/wiki/Cables#Cable_Efficiency
When reading the chart, it's important to note that the EU loss is per packet. So if you are sending LV packets over Insulated HV cables, you will end up with less energy at the end unless you upconvert multiple LV pakets to HV packets.

Example:
Uninsulated HV cables can carry EU's up to Extreme voltage and bleed one EU per packet every block. Consider the difference between sending 1 HV packet (512 EU's) versus 16 LV packets (32 EU's) over 20 blocks. At the end, you would expect to have the same amount of power, since 16 32 packet EU's equals 1 512 EU packet. However, since the energy loss is per packet, you would lose only 20 EU's in total with the HV packet (1 EU loss * 20 blocks * 1 packet), versus 320 EU's in total with the LV packets (1 EU loss * 20 blocks * 16 packets). In the end with the LV packets, you would end up with 192 EU's. With the HV packets, you would end up with a whopping 492 EU's.

The best cables in my opinion are the glass fiber cables, which can carry HV packets and lose 1 EU per 40 blocks. However, because they require diamonds to make, they can be very prohibitive to build if diamonds are rare where you live.

Finally, there are 3 storage options for storing your unused EU's for a rainy day.
* Batbox - stores up to 40,000 EU's and will accept and release in LV packets.
* MFE - stores up to 600,000 EU's and will accept and release in MV packets.
* MFSU - stores up to 10,000,000 EU's and will accept and release in HV packets.

If you have any questions, ask here or catch me in game. In a week or so, I'm going to forsake the magic and begin living the scientist lifestyle, so if anyone wants to join me and see this in action, let me know.
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