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Codex Energy Thermoelectric Generator
The Thermoelectric Generator window: 5 energy and tank bars, 6 value, status and redstone lines.
The Thermoelectric Generator makes energy from a temperature difference: something hot on one side, something cold on another. It burns nothing and runs forever once it is placed between lava and ice. It is a tier I block and a good second generator next to the Basic Dynamo.
Every 20 ticks the generator looks at its six neighbours. Each neighbour is hot, cold or neither, and counts with a weight:
| Neighbour | Counts as | Weight |
|---|---|---|
Lava (source or flowing), blocks in the tag qnet:thermoelectric/hot_strong
|
hot | 3 |
Magma Block, fire, soul fire, campfire, soul campfire (tag qnet:thermoelectric/hot) |
hot | 1 |
Packed Ice, Blue Ice (tag qnet:thermoelectric/cold_strong) |
cold | 3 |
Water (source or flowing), Ice, Snow Block, Powder Snow, Frosted Ice (tag qnet:thermoelectric/cold) |
cold | 1 |
The output is 6 E/t for every unit of hot weight that has a matching unit of cold weight: output = smaller of (hot, cold) × 6. Hot sides alone or cold sides alone give nothing.
- Best case: three lava sides and three Blue Ice sides make 9 hot and 9 cold, which gives nine times 6 E/t.
- A simple start: one lava side and one Packed Ice side give 3 and 3, which is three times 6 E/t.
- Shared sources: a hot or cold block that touches several Thermoelectric Generators is split evenly between them. Packing generators around one lava block therefore gives no extra energy.
- The server's
volt.generatorOutputMultiplier(default 1.0, allowed 0.01–100.0) scales the output.
Tip
Data packs
A data pack can add blocks to the four tags qnet:thermoelectric/hot, hot_strong, cold and cold_strong. The tag hot_strong is empty by default; lava counts as strong anyway. The Stirling Generator reads the same tags for its cooling.
The generator pushes its energy into all six neighbours (a Pipster cable or a machine) and can be pulled from on every side. Its buffer holds 20,000 E. Since most sides are taken by hot and cold blocks, leave at least one side free for a cable.
- Energy: the bar of the buffer.
- Hot sides (weighted) and Cold sides (weighted): the summed weights of the neighbours, as listed above (before sharing).
- Output: the energy it made in the last tick.
The generator has no status line and no buttons. The block shows when it produces.
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| Nether Quartz | Redstone Dust | Nether Quartz | → Thermoelectric Generator |
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When you break it, the generator keeps its stored energy and gets it back when placed again.
While it produces, its moving parts run; they stop when it makes nothing, for example when a hot or a cold side is missing.
Note
Campfires A campfire (and any heat source of another mod that can go out) only counts as hot while it burns, the same as for the Stirling Generator.
Tip
A compact lava-and-ice cell Lava flowing over the top and sides counts as well as a source. Place the generator in a lava channel with Packed Ice or Blue Ice on the other sides and one side for the cable. Water is the cheapest cold side but gives only 1 per side; for larger amounts of energy the Stirling Generator uses heat far better.