Electric Blast Furnace

Before you Begin
The Electric Blast Furnace is a Multiblock structure. It is 3x3x4 blocks (3 long, 3 wide, and 4 high)

When building your first EBF, you will need:


 * The controller block ("Electric Blast Furnace" in NEI)
 * 16x heating coils ("Cupronickel Coil Block" in NEI, can be upgraded later with better coils)
 * 1x input bus (For inputting items and the optional control circuit - you'll need at least an LV one, otherwise you won't be able to do most recipes)
 * 1x input hatch (For inputting fluids- any tier will work)
 * 1x output bus (For outputting items- you'll need at least an LV one, otherwise a lot of outputs will be automatically voided)
 * 1x maintenance hatch (For doing maintenance. The controller will tell you what maintenance needs done. 5 of the 6 maintenance items are done with basic tools, while the 6th requires a soldering iron. Alternatively, duct tape can be used to fix all of them at once. If you do not have a soldering iron, you can run the EBF with one maintenance problem not fixed, but will need 3 energy hatches.)
 * 2x or 3x LV energy hatch (Each hatch accepts 2 amps. Since most EBF recipes require 120 EU/t, you will need to supply 4 amps of LV to reach MV. If you do not have a soldering iron, you will need 3 LV hatches accepting a total of 5 amps of LV.)
 * 1x muffler hatch (This affects your pollution output. It also spews smoke and looks cool while the EBF is running.)
 * 1x output hatch (OPTIONAL. This will allow you to get CO2, CO or SO2 from certain recipes, mostly from processing certain ore dusts in the EBF. The muffler hatch controls what percentage of the fluid is returned.)
 * 9-11x heat proof machine casings (number depends on whether you have 2 or 3 energy hatches, and whether or not you have an output hatch)
 * 4x or 5x LV generator of choice (Keep in mind that the EBF consumes a LOT of power, and will need to run for hours at a time. Make sure you have enough infrastructure set up!)

Building your EBF
Once you have all your materials, you can start building!

Keep in mind that while the EBF can survive rain just fine, the generators or battery buffers that power it DO NOT and will explode in the rain.

DO NOT build your EBF over chunk borders. Press F9 twice to display the chunk borders in a green wireframe. Multiblocks built over chunk borders are prone to deforming or exploding.

The total size of the EBF is 3x4x3 (3 wide, 3 long, 4 tall)

Bottom Layer

Start by placing down your controller. It goes in the front middle of the bottom layer.

After that, your input hatch, input bus, output bus(but NOT your output hatch, if you use one), your maintenance hatch, and your energy hatches can go anywhere on the bottom layer.

Finally, fill in any gaps with heat proof machine casings.

Middle Layers

The second and third layers of the EBF are for your 16 cupronickel coils. The inside of the 3x3 should be hollow.

Top Layer

The muffler goes on the very middle of the top layer, facing upwards and must have one air block above it.

The output hatch, if you choose to use one, goes in any of the other 8 positions.

Finally, fill in the rest with heat proof machine casings.

Making Your EBF Work
Congratulations! You've now built your EBF. Next, you will need to perform maintenance, set up your EBF's power sources, set up your inputs and outputs, and then, finally, start it up.

Maintenance To maintain your EBF, tools must be used on the Maintenance Hatch. The controller's GUI will have a list of the maintenance problems. When first built, the EBF will require all maintenance to be done, and maintenance problems will periodically (but rarely) pop up after that. The "Better than Duct Tape" quest has a list of all the maintenance problems and what tools fix them. Open the Maintenance Hatch GUI and click on the slot in the center with the appropriate tool. The IC2 Tool Box can be used to hold multiple tools and use them all at once by right-clicking the Maintenance Hatch.

The "Circuitry burned out" message is the hardest to deal with. It requires a charged Soldering Iron with at least 10k EU and soldering material; tin, lead, or soldering alloy fine wire or rod. Tin fine wire is recommended, as it's easy to produce and commonly available. The rest are easy, and only require a small amount of durability from an appropriate GT tool. Alternatively, duct tape can be used on the Maintenance Hatch to fix all 6 problems at once.

Powering your EBF

The EBF requires 120 EU/t to make aluminium or steel. If you do not have the "Circuitry burnt out" maintenance fixed, it will instead require 132 EU/t.

Each energy hatch can accept a maximum of 2 amps, which is 64 EU/t. Thus, you will need 2 energy hatches, or 3 if you don't have all maintenance problems fixed.

When powering your hatch, use as few cables as possible. If you have more than two blocks of cabling, cable losses will deplete your power to 29 EU/t- 4 amps of that is only 116 EU/t, and your EBF won't run.

Keep in mind that you will need cables that support at least 2 amps.

You can use battery buffers to make life easier. Each buffer needs at least 2 batteries to provide 2 amps. Buffers are HIGHLY recommended for use with steam turbines, due to their inconsistent nature. They are not necessary for combustion generators or gas turbines, but can be useful.

Input and Output

Thankfully, automating an EBF is extremely easy.

Input hatches accept fluids from any pipe, or manually in the GUI using cells.

Input buses accept items from item pipes or hoppers.

Output hatches will automatically output fluids into pipes, but will void them automatically if the hatch is full.

Output buses will automatically output items into any container in front of them, or into an item pipe or hopper, but will void any new outputs if completely full.

Using and Troubleshooting your EBF
Finally. All the hard work is done. All that's left to do is check NEI for a recipe, put in the necessary items and fluid, then right-click the controller with a soft mallet to turn it on.

Many recipes require a programmed circuit or ghost circuit to be set. When using a programmed circuit item, place it in the input bus along with the other recipe ingredients. It is not consumed in the process. Make sure you have the right one for your recipe.

Troubleshooting
The EBF runs for a while, or for only a second, and then turns off, usually deleting inputs in the process


 * Make sure you are giving it enough power. See "Powering your EBF" for details.

The EBF will not start, or flashes a green light but does nothing when turned on


 * Hit the EBF with a Soft Mallet to enable it.
 * Double check the recipe using NEI. The correct ghost circuit must be set or a programmed integrated circuit provided together with the dust/items inside the input bus. Make sure you have the correct processing gas.
 * Make sure the Muffler Hatch is not blocked by another block.
 * Make sure the Muffler Hatch is facing up.
 * It could also be caused by the EBF not getting any power at all.
 * Make sure you have the proper programmed circuit / ghost circuit set in the input bus.

Upgrading your EBF
Now that you've got your EBF running, it's time to upgrade it to make it run faster and more efficiently!

Power
The Electric Blast Furnace running at 120 EU/t is at its most efficient. Keep in mind that upgrading the voltage will decrease the efficiency, but often shorten processing time.

Cabling

With a functional EBF, redstone alloy cables can be made which are completely lossless. Make a few; the minor efficiency boost will add up when running the EBF for hours at a time.

Using an MV generator

A MV generator can be used to power the EBF instead of 4 LV power sources. If choosing to do so, ensure there is only ONE MV Energy Hatch instead of two, otherwise it will not work. Multiple MV Energy Hatches will cause the EBF to expect overclocking, the same way it did when initially set up with two LV Energy Hatches.

Upgrading the Voltage

120 EU/t is insufficient power to smelt many recipes, the most important one being stainless steel. The EBF must be supplied with 4 amps of MV into two MV Energy Hatches to achieve 480EU/t, the required power for stainless steel. Keep in mind that running 120 EU/t recipes (such as aluminium or steel) will consume TWICE as much power at 480 EU/t. It may be desirable to set up a second EBF dedicated to higher power recipes if resources allow.

Coils
Upgrading the coil blocks provides two main advantages- a higher heat capacity allows for smelting recipes that cannot be performed with cupronickel, and there are two bonuses that will increase the efficiency of your EBF when running lower-heat recipes with higher-heat coils.

Every recipe has a listed "Heating Capacity". This value tells you how much heat you need to perform the recipe, and how much of an efficiency bonus you will get when using coils that exceed the recipe's requirements.

Bonus Heating In GT New Horizons, an extra bonus value will be added to your EBF's heat capacity of 100K * (tier - 2), where LV is tier 1, MV is tier 2, etc. This will allow some items to be smelted more efficiently at certain tiers, as described below.

High-Heat Recipes Some recipes will require more heat than cupronickel coils provide. For instance, Energetic Alloy requires 2200K, while Cupronickel Coils only provide 1800K- thus, a EBF cannot smelt Energetic Alloy until its coils are upgraded.

Efficiency Bonuses

When you are above the heat capacity of a recipe, you will get two separate efficiency bonuses.

Every 900K above the heat capacity gives you a .95x multiplier to the EU/t consumed. This makes your EBF 5% more efficient for every 900K over the minimum for your recipe.

Every 1800K above the heat capacity gives you an "upgraded overclock". This allows you to run a recipe at a higher voltage, while still maintaining max efficiency.

Example- Normally, smelting aluminium with nitrogen consumes 144,000 EU per ingot at 120 EU/t, or 288,000 EU per ingot if at 480 EU/t, with a heat capacity of 1700K. If you use nichrome, you have a heat capacity of 3600- 1900K over aluminium's required heat capacity. Thus, you get two .95x multipliers and one upgraded overclock. Thus, your actual cost for one aluminium ingot would be 129,960 EU per ingot at 108 EU/t, or 129,960 EU per ingot at 433 EU/t.

Useful information
As with all other GregTech multiblock machines:
 * Insufficient energy supply will destroy the currently processed material.
 * When the Output Bus is full, the Electric Blast Furnace will continue to work and will destroy all newly produced items. Put a diamond chest on the output to capture items. Note that the bus checks each slot so later on this may produce some lag.
 * If you add an output hatch to the top layer, you can capture output gases for processing.
 * Do NOT build a multiblock machine over chunk borders. Doing so can lead to unpredictable behavior. If you have NEI installed (which you should), chunk borders can be viewed by pressing F9 (by default).
 * Before using the Electric Blast Furnace for the first time, maintenance must be performed.
 * To activate or deactivate the Electric Blast Furnace, hit its control block with a Soft Hammer.
 * EBFs can share walls, just like the BBF. They can also share input and output hatches. Energy hatches sometimes work if shared, so recommendation is to not share them.
 * There can also be more than one input hatch or bus. This way you can dedicate one hatch per input gas.
 * Large fluid cells (search for large*cell in NEI) can be placed in the input hatches to do large batches of items.
 * Because of the high pollution levels, keep your muffler upgraded to the highest tier available.
 * Do not mix different types of Heating Coils.
 * EBF on FTB Wiki Electric Blast Furnace