Battery Box

alaindustrial:battery_box

Energy StorageLVImplementedtier-lvstorageenergy

Summary

The Battery Box is the mod's first storage block: it banks EU/FE from your generators and feeds it back to your machines. It's what lets a solar panel's daytime output keep your machines running through the night.

Mini-example: solar panels by day fill the box; at night the box powers the Macerator. Without it, your machines go dark the moment the sun sets.

It's a buffer, not a source — on its own it produces no EU/FE. Both its input and output are LV, so it can never overload the LV machines connected to it.

Energy

What	Value
Capacity	20 000 EU/FE
Max input	32 EU/FE/t (LV)
Max output	32 EU/FE/t (LV)

Both sides are LV. Under a larger inflow it only takes its own limit — the surplus doesn't pass through, nothing breaks. The output is always LV, so it's safe for any LV machine.

It connects through two opposite faces only: one accepts energy (point it at your generator), the other emits it. The four side faces don't connect.

You can wire the same network into both its input and its output face — it won't circle energy around and burn it on cable loss. While the machines need more than the generators produce, the storage only gives; it starts charging once the machines are satisfied or the generators cover their appetite. That's the same "machines before storage" priority the network uses to hand out energy.

Cascade: several boxes on one network

Extending the bank is simple — place another box and wire it to the same network. The fuller box tops up the emptier one until their fill fractions match. They level out together rather than "fill the first to the brim, then start the second": two 20,000 EU/FE boxes holding 10,000 and nothing settle at roughly 5,000 each.

The cascade only runs once the machines are covered — a working machine is always served before a neighbouring store. It stops on its own at level: each tick moves half of the difference, and very small gaps are ignored, so boxes never slosh energy back and forth.

A cost worth knowing about. The transfer travels by cable and pays the usual distance loss. It is a one-off price for levelling, not a constant leak — once the fractions meet, the flow stops. On a long run it is noticeable, though: across 30 blocks of copper only about half of what is sent arrives. If your bank is spread across a large base, keeping the boxes next to each other is cheaper.

The same rule applies without cable: two boxes placed flush, output face to input face, behave identically. It is one behaviour, not two.

Only battery boxes take part. The Teleporter is a store as well, but it banks energy from a surplus on its own and is never filled from a box automatically — so a full box cannot drain into it behind your back.

Inventory

One slot for portable EU/FE items (battery pouch, energy pack):

Slot	Does
Charge	fills a portable EU/FE item from the buffer

The slot only charges — you can't drain a charge back into the box through it. Hoppers don't use it: it's a manual, GUI-only slot.

Interface

One screen: energy storage, in/out rate, charge slot.

Block Properties

An ordinary solid block. Any pickaxe breaks it, and it keeps its charge when broken — you don't lose energy by moving the box around.

What	Value
Tool	pickaxe
Keeps charge on break	yes

Recipes

Crafted at a workbench from oak planks, two batteries, copper cable and redstone: batteries go in the middle of the top and bottom rows, planks in the corners, cable on either side of the centre, redstone in the centre. It's a storage block, not a processor — no processing recipes.