10kV Wire

10kV Wire
File:Block 10kV Wire.png
Name	10kV Wire
Type	Block
Stackable	Yes (64)
Data Value	751:1281
Mod Included	RedPower 2

The 10kV Wire is an enhanced version of Blue Alloy Wire that allows for the carrying of higher voltages of power. In RedPower 2, Blutricity is measured in volts, amperes and watts. The voltage is the size of the packets heading down a line of wire, the amperes are the quantity of packets heading down the line and the watts are the total quantity of energy heading down the line on average (i.e. amps multiplied by volts) and can be measured and output as such by a Voltmeter. The 10kV Wire will not carry power from RedPower generators normally. It will only carry power that is produced by a Voltage Transformer connected to a Blue Alloy Wire carrying regular-size packets (approximately 107.4 volts maximum.) These ~100-volt packets can then be transformed by the Voltage Transformer into packets with an upward limit of approximately 10,600 volts.

Effects of Voltage, Losses, and Other Quirks

Each 10kV wire/block have a resistance of 2 ohms, compared to the 0.02 ohms of resistance that regular Blue Alloy Wire has. Because of the law of resistive losses (Loss == Current^2 * Resistance), and because Bluetricity is made to (superficially) model real world electrical flow, this means that all current passed over 10kV wires produces 1% of the loss it would have incurred over Blue Alloy Wires (<New Loss> == (Current / 100) ^ 2 * (Resistance * 100)), at least under optimal conditions: In practice, because of the greatly increased voltage, 10kV wire can pass current much faster than regular Blue Alloy Wire would over the same distance, and because losses are relative to both current and resistance, the higher current offsets some (but not all!) of the efficiency gains from using 10kV wire.

One unusual element of the functionality of 10kV wires is the time it takes for current to travel the distance of the wire. Real World electrical wires do not have (a statistically significant amount of) capacitance, but Bluelectric wires do. The immediate consequence of this quirk is that current takes a very long time to travel down newly placed 10kV wires, as the current is used to "fill up" the capacitance of the wires, which takes a very long time (much longer than regular Blue Alloy Wires, which have 1/100 the capacitance). Once 10kV wires have reached near the maximum capacitance, however, they return to normal levels of current flow, except without much of the loss that would occur using regular Blue Alloy Wire.

Recipe