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[ThatAussieGuy]

I'd like to start by noting that I didn't come up with this.  I discovered it on my own, but I've noticed a few others that also know this trick.  This is mostly a tutorial for the beginners and anyone that doesn't know.


Aquifers are something of a contentious topic amongst dwarfers.  Some hate them, some love them.  I'm going to show you all how to make one into the heart of your fort's mechanical power by breaking a few laws of physics and thermodynamics.  How we do this is by exploiting a very simple property of an aquifer tile;  They generate AND absorb water.  You can abuse this delightfully by digging out a pit that breaches the aquifer at several points and then use a screw pump to set water flowing between the aquifer tiles.  Slap some waterwheels over the flowing water and Urist's your uncle; constant power.  BE WARNED: once it starts, you can't stop it without involving !!Fun!! of some sort.

First, clear out a chamber that sits directly over an Aquifer. 'Dousing' with dug channels will do the trick if you're not quite sure where it is.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The single-square spaces on the left-hand wall are where you'll sit the gearboxes that hold the waterwheels

Once the chamber's dug out, channel down into the aquifer.  I recommend doing it by rows from the north-most wall so you can build an entire row of wheels at once

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I originally started going from left-to-right with all five rows due to the room's position, but then I realised it was far quicker to go north-to-south as I described above

Once the chamber's finished and filled with your rows of wheels, build a screwpump on the side that pumps from and to the water tank

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The screwpump is the two barrel shapes on the north side

All that's left to do is start the pump manually. Don't hook it up to the waterwheels as all it will do is make a mess.  If you can, order the pump to stop as soon as it's pumped once.  That's all it takes to start it and it might wash the dwarf into the water tank otherwise.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That number there?  That's all of the wheels generating power.  Permanently.  The value does not shift or stop, it just keeps going forever.

Hope this is of use to some of you, or at least provides a little entertainment.

edit:
Before anyone asks, the waterwheels are connected to a horizontal axle on the level above the one shown.  You can do it on the same level, I just did it for tidiness. 

[Nil Eyeglazed]

You don't have to decide how many waterwheels you need beforehand, either.  If you need a new wheel, just channel three new tiles adjacent to the others, run the pump for an instant, viola, your new tiles count as flowing as well.

[Garath]

dwarven reactor, known exploit dwarven science project

[ThatAussieGuy]

dwarven reactor, known exploit dwarven science project

A dwarven reactor relies on water forcibly pumped by screwpumps connected to waterwheels.  With this the water cycles on its own and doesn't eventually spin down to the point it stops due to water loss via mist.

[Garath]

I'm very sure it's been set up using aquifers before, pumpin it up from a channeled aquifer to run it past some water wheels to an end channeled aquifer to drain off again and similar methods. I don't think where the water comes from or where it goes are the most important features of a reactor, the pinciple stays the same after all. Recyclable water or infinite water to generate more power than it costs power to generate.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Yes, this has been set up before.  Aussie said so in his post-- it's not new, but it's cool.  If you've both set this style of reactor up, and set up a perpetual-motion style one, and don't see the difference, then scoff and such.  But-- well-- they're really, really different, and what Aussie is talking about is much, much better.

[Garath]

Yes, this has been set up before.  Aussie said so in his post-- it's not new, but it's cool.  If you've both set this style of reactor up, and set up a perpetual-motion style one, and don't see the difference, then scoff and such.  But-- well-- they're really, really different, and what Aussie is talking about is much, much better.

yeah, hadn't really read the starting bit of his first post that well. Back to the drawing board to see if I can improve on this! Probably not though.

[fluffhead]

I think the main advantage of this is the huge potential power output, but also the fact that water isn't actually flowing.  Thus it doesn't cause a FPS drain like the dwarven water reactor would.  The only time water actually flows over the squares is when the pump is pumped manually for 1 pump.  After that, there is not active water flowing.  Please correct me if I mis-understood this.

[ThatAussieGuy]

I think the main advantage of this is the huge potential power output, but also the fact that water isn't actually flowing.  Thus it doesn't cause a FPS drain like the dwarven water reactor would.  The only time water actually flows over the squares is when the pump is pumped manually for 1 pump.  After that, there is not active water flowing.  Please correct me if I mis-understood this.

Water is actively flowing, otherwise it wouldn't work at all. Aquifers generate AND absorb water.  You could drain an ocean into a single aquifer tile (relatively speaking).  How this works is the pool has multiple aquifer tiles.  Generally they sit as one big aquifer tile and you get a still pool.  By pumping it, it breaks it into the single aquifer tiles generating water and absorbing water that is created by the others.

[GavJ]

I do not view this as an exploit, whereas the dwarven water reactor clearly is.

Aquifers in real life WOULD be constantly flowing, and this would actually work (if aquifers were as physically high-volume in real life).

The constant flow is not "magic."  It is supposedly draining from rainfall at higher elevations outside of the map, constantly filtering through in one direction.  Thus, it should realistically be able to generate infinite power, and it all makes perfect sense.  I don't see how that's exploitative.

[miauw62]

Arr, a generator that wont be eventually fixed.
Thanks

[Marshall Burns]

Thanks, Aussie Guy, I've been trying to figure out how to get constant flow out of an aquifer for ages now. Hadn't been able to get it to stay consistent.

[slothen]

after you fire the pump once, do the 7/7 tiles break up and keep varying?  or do they stay at 7/7 ?

[Nil Eyeglazed]

after you fire the pump once, do the 7/7 tiles break up and keep varying?  or do they stay at 7/7 ?

They stay at 7/7.  The water counts somehow as 'flowing' for purposes of the wheels, but no water actually moves.  (Unless it moves, somehow, in the middle of each tick, starting and ending at all 7/7s.)

[ThatAussieGuy]

after you fire the pump once, do the 7/7 tiles break up and keep varying?  or do they stay at 7/7 ?

They stay at 7/7.  The water counts somehow as 'flowing' for purposes of the wheels, but no water actually moves.  (Unless it moves, somehow, in the middle of each tick, starting and ending at all 7/7s.)

I think the water IS moving each tick, but because that tick also contains water being generated/absorbed it looks like nothing's happened.