Optimizing pump power usage

[Panthera_Tigris]

I am new to the game and I have noticed that some of my liquid/ gas pumps only need to pump a small amount which is less than their capacity. How do I optimize their usage?

For example, lets say I need 1 kg/s of water continuously and the pump can do 10 kg/s at full power. But the pump still uses full power, right? How do I fix this? Applies for gas as well. 

(Lets assume I dont want to use mini pumps because my usage is higher or lower than the exact capacity of the mini pump)

[mathmanican]

2 minutes ago, Panthera_Tigris said:

For example, lets say I need 1 kg/s of water continuously and the pump can do 10 kg/s at full power. But the pump still uses full power, right? How do I fix this? Applies for gas as well. 

As long as there is 10kg of liquid to pump, the pump works efficiently.  It will fire once every 10 seconds if you only consume 1kg/s.

[Panthera_Tigris]

Wow, thats convenient. Thanks. 

[Yoma_Nosme]

If you have a small pool where you collect liquid with less than 10kg/s automate the pump with hydro sensor to only be active when there's 10+kg liquid so it will wait for the pool to fill again to a reasonable amount before it starts pumping. This way you don't pump small amounts 

[bobucles]

Use sensors to disable pumps until there's enough gas/liquid for a full action. Liquid pumps move 10kg per action, and gas pumps move 500g.

Once a material enters the pipe network, keep it there. The liquid/gas reservoirs are not only useful as storage, they also allow you to keep moving the material without pumping it again.

Take advantage of gravity to move liquids downhill. Build a happy fun slide and let smaller water sources fall into a big tank. Avoid using liquid vents.

When an area gets contaminated, take advantage of free filtering solutions instead of pumping EVERYTHING. Duplicants will seek out pockets of oxygen like pacman. Carbon skimmers will remove CO2 contamination. Deoxidizers, slicksters, pufts and even pitcher pumps will all target specific material and filter it out of the contaminated system. Another reason to use storage is to prevent cross contamination in the first place.

 

[Nightinggale]

When you turn a pump on, the first pumping action doesn't always fill the pipe, meaning if you only get the first pumping action, you might run less efficient. You can however add a start-stop motion like this:

Spoiler

The bridge setup will make the water take the left bridge. However when the water backs up, it will start to fill the right bridge. This means you can use element sensors to detect if the pipe is backing up. You can make a compact version as shown on the top left with 2 bridges, pipes and sensor. Merge them together and you have a 1x4 blocked pipe detector (which is really hard to see what does from a screenshot).

The automation uses a memory toggle. The top sensor detects water, inverts and hence turn the sensor on if there is no water in the pipe. The bottom part turns on reset if there is water in the pipe.

What happens when combined is that the pump starts when both sensors read empty pipes and the pump turns off when both sensors detect water.

The result is a pump, which always fills the pipe, but will not have a much start-stop action.

You need to set the element sensors to whatever liquid you use. Alternatively you can use mass sensors from Sensory Overload, in which case you can set it to above 0, which works reliably even in a mixed liquid system.