NOTE: I'm playing FTB Ultimate pack.
I'm thinking my quarry is horrible powered and highly inefficient. Currently I'm using an Ender Tank pumping lava in from the Nether to power two Thermal Generators. This is hooked up to a BatBox, keeping it maxed out all the time. I then have an Electrical Engine with a Bronze, Tin, and Iron upgrade powering the Quarry.
After re-reading the wiki on the Quarry, it says it can take up to 100 MJ. I believe my Electrical engine (with it's upgrade) is using 27 EU/t and generating 8 MJ/t (is there an MJ reader?). This equates to (30000 EU / Bucket * 8 MJ / 27 EU/t) 8888 MJ / Bucket of lava.
If I wanted to be more efficient on the Lava side of things, wouldn't it make sense to just use Magmatic Engine engines which are at 18000 MJ / Bucket? And if so, I'd need 25 Magamatic Engines to generate the needed 100 MJ/T?
Best Answer
Based on the numbers yes the magmatic engines would be more efficient in terms of lava used per amount of digging done. However you wouldn't quite get the full 4MJ/t/engine at your quarry because you'll need some sort of power distribution system (e.g. redstone energy conduits) to connect up all the magmatic engines you'd be using, but the loss would be very minor.
The downside of fully powering a quarry with 100MJ/t is that it will run ridiculously fast and your sorting system will need to have been designed (or hurriedly retrofitted) to handle the huge influx of mined materials without clogging up.