Talk:Energy Units

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DEMO PAGE, PROBABLY OUTDATED BUT I CANNOT FIND ANY MORE CURRENT INFORMATION. NO EVIDENCE OF PACKETS INGAME.--Max Shen (talk) 09:42, 1 March 2015 (CET)

Oh, and normal talk can just go here for now, I guess. I just didn't want the actual page to be filled with misinformation, in case there is some here (since it is linked in the navbar).--Max Shen (talk) 10:44, 1 March 2015 (CET)




Energy Units, abbreviated to EU, are the standard unit of measure for electricity in IndustrialCraft². EU is produced by using special items, or through a variety of Generators. It is transferred with Category:Cables over an Energynet, and can be stored (or transferred) with Batteries. EU is consumed by many Electric Machines and Electric Tools, which provide the basic utility of this mod.

Mechanics[edit]

see: Energynet
EU is lossless potential energy: it will never dissipate or drain if you store it in Batteries. Even walking around with a Battery, or leaving it on the floor will not cause EU to leak. If you want to really get anywhere with this mod, you will probably stop using portable batteries to power your machines. When you transfer power (even with batteries) the exchange of EU is notated EU/t. Minecraft runs in small "ticks", with twenty ticks to one second (lag can change this ratio). EU/t simply means Energy Units per Tick. The EU Reader is an indispensable tool which measures all sorts of information relevant to EU in machines and cables; see the corresponding page for details.

Packets[edit]

As soon as you connect an EU-producing/transfer block with either another Cable or EU-accepting block, EU will transfer from the producer to the nearest consumer in packets. Packets are like shipping crates: they come in measurable sizes but do not necessarily have to be filled with content. In other words, every packet has a maximum capacity (the "packet size") and current capacity. The packet size is notated EU-p. The current capacity of packets cannot be reliably measured, and must be calculated using EU/t and EU-p. Packet size is producer-specific, eg: a Generator may use 10EU-p while a Geothermal Generator uses 32EU-p. EU-p determines the tier of the transfer, as outlined below.

Tiers[edit]

Tier Voltage Maximum Packet Size
Tier-1 Low Voltage 32EU-p
Tier-2 Medium Voltage 128EU-p
Tier-3 High Voltage 512EU-p
Tier-4 Extreme Voltage 2048EU-p
??? ???

EU is a tiered system, and unless you want your machines to blow up (both disabled by default) you had better memorize these. There are four Tiers in the game, summarized by the chart on the right. Tiers are easily confused with Voltages, the difference is that you use "Voltage" when referring to the transfer of EU itself and "Tier" when referring to an Item or Block's Voltage Limit. The Voltage Limit is either the Maximum Voltage for a Block, or the Minimum Voltage for an Item. Items do not have Maximum Voltages, and Blocks do not have Minimum Voltages.

You can use Transformers to step-up or step-down the Voltage. For more information, see the Transformers page.

Tier-1 / LV[edit]

see: Category:Tier-1
Any transfer of EU in packet sizes of 32 or less is considered Low Voltage, or LV. Historically, this has been the domain of renewable power, and most tools and machines are Tier-1 by default. The corresponding Batteries are the RE-Battery and Batbox. Cables in this tier are Tin. This tier is marked by a brown wooden motif.

Tier-2 / MV[edit]

see: Category:Tier-2
Transfers of 32EU-p exclusive to 128EU-p inclusive (32,128] are Medium Voltage, or MV. The Orebfuscator and a few Machines such as the Thermal Centrifuge belong to this Tier. The corresponding Batteries are the Advanced RE-Battery and CESU. The cables for this tier are Copper. This tier is characteristically Bronze. Features of this tier are largely exclusive to IC2-experimental.

Tier-3 / HV[edit]

see: Category:Tier-3
Anything from 128EU-p exclusive to 512EU-p inclusive carries a High Voltage, or HV. The NanoSuit, Iridium Drill, Mining Laser, and Terraformer as well as Mid-Level Nuclear Reactors and high-end Kinetic Wind Generators belong to this tier. The corresponding Batteries are Energy Crystals and MFEs. Cables are Gold, and this tier tends to look like iron plating. Tier-3 is what IndustrialCrafters mean when they say "midgame".

Tier-4 / EV[edit]

see: Category:Tier-4
Tier-4 is the endgame. From 512EU-p exclusive to 2048EU-p inclusive, the current is appropriately labelled Extreme Voltage, or EV. The QuantumSuit and Replicator are Tier-4. Tier-4 Batteries are Lapotron Crystals and MFSUs. Cables are HV Cables, despite the misleading name. This tier relies on the capacity of Lapis Lazuli.

??? / HAYO[edit]

The best of our researchers have suggested there may be a way to produce EVEN MOAR than the already extreme voltages of an MFSU. In case we come across such a quantity of energy that may melt the HV Cable, we devised Glass Fibre Cable, which surprisingly is better than any other cables for long distances, HAYO! The CEO thinks there might be potential applications for this much energy, but unfortunately after one of his private conferences with the researchers, the researchers all disappeared! So for now, we can only use the EV Transformer to step down such an Insane Voltage.

Loss[edit]

see: Energynet#Loss
Currently not implemented highly experimental, disabled by default (to enable, set useLinearTransferModel to true in the .ini). Doing so may render much of the information on this page irrelevant.

Production[edit]

There are two ways to produce EU: either you use a Generator or a consumable item.

EU Consumables[edit]

The most common way to produce EU is with a Generator, but for the early-game there are special items which can be consumed to produce EU. In an Electric Machine or Battery Block, the items will only be consumed if there is enough EU demand to accommodate for the consumable. The entirety of a consumable is converted to EU in one tick, but this bypasses the Tier system and will never cause a machine to explode or cables to melt (though neither of these features are implemented yet, anyways).

EU Consumables
Item EU Notes
Redstone Dust 800 EU Can be placed in Electric Machines or Battery Blocks.
Stacks to 64 (51200 EU)
Single-Use Battery 1200 EU Can be placed in Electric Machines, Battery Blocks, or used in hand as a consumable Tier-1 Battery.
If used in hand, any excess EU is lost.
Stacks to 64 (768000 EU), unlike other Batteries.

Generators[edit]

see: Category:Generators
The mainstream way to produce power is with some variation of the Generator. Most Generators convert a specific type of input (such as Solid Fuel for the normal Generator, or Lava for the Geothermal Generator) into EU. Each Generator has its own detailed mechanics, see the respective page for more information.

Energy in Real Life[edit]

EU is most similar to Electric Potential Energy, measured in SI derived Joules, and EU/t is similar to the Watt. It is appropriately named "Energy Unit" rather than "Electrical Unit" because EU is not an accurate representation of electricity, but of some lossless, magical energy which is superficially similar to electricity (conductors and such). The magic can probably be attributed to Redstone.