[A12d] RedistHeat - Vents/Ducts (Oct 12, v42b) Small heater fix

[Kaballah]

The thermostat setting on active vents, how does that work exactly?  If the room is 40C and outdoors is -10C, and the active vent is set to 21C, what is supposed to happen?  I thought the vent should allow heat in the room to equalize outside until the room is 21C but it occurs to me maybe that fan actually IS directional, and I had it backwards.

[Kaballah]

Looking at active vents for a while and thinking about them, it seems to me the thermostat mechanic HAS to be directional, but there is no way to tell which way to orient it by looking at it (red color on both sides e.g.).  Does this piece actually work?

[Latta]

There is no way except tiny red arrow on top of them now. I'll modify placeworker for active vent to only display to direction of the controlled room.
Also I confirmed that active vent works in a small environment, with just one geothermal generator. Maybe it's industrial cooler's exhaust heat(of 4 ports) being too hot.

[Kaballah]

Ok, yeah I think I understand, modifying how it is shown when placing it for construction would help.  I reconstructed one active vent pointing the opposite direction and it was totally sufficient to pass all the heat outside - actually way, way too much heat throughput.  I set the thermostat to 21C but as soon as I allow the vent to be open, it passes so much heat out of the room (normally around 35C) that it drops to around zero almost immediately, outside is -65C.  This is just with one vent.  If I understand how this piece works (I think I do) then it should probably pass heat at a similar rate to what the powered fan does into ductwork, or maybe a little bit better.  It would also be nice if the heat push rate/transfer rate was visible to the user for all pieces.

[Kaballah]

Basically I'm thinking of something like this, for big constructions:


Basically if you have a big room with tons of heaters/geothermal/cooler exhaust and you need to get rid of excess heat, it should probably take a lot of these.

[Kaballah]

Hey, another little bit of feedback: The completed sections of duct network are highlighted in red when the Power Conduit tool is active, but not when Duct Pipe tool is active.  It would be nice if completed duct pipe network was highlighted with both tools active.

[Latta]

Hey, another little bit of feedback: The completed sections of duct network are highlighted in red when the Power Conduit tool is active, but not when Duct Pipe tool is active.  It would be nice if completed duct pipe network was highlighted with both tools active.

That's a known problem. I couldn't find a method yet which is responsible for displaying overlay.

[Latta]

Updated to 22c. This will be the last update before A10 unless a critical issue presents. Please see Changelog section for details.

Misc balances: All components are a bit slower.
Vents: Every 20 ticks (1/3 sec)
Ducts: Every 30 ticks (0.5 sec)
Doors: Every 50 ticks (0.8 sec) with default door's 250 ticks(closed) / 30 ticks(opened)

[Kaballah]

Awesome, thanks for the update.

e: I enjoy failure, so I am trying an all-nudist colony (even later recruits are relieved of their apparel and all apparel on the ground is left forbidden) so I'll be forced to do both heating and cooling systems pretty much everywhere, I won't post stories this time though 

[Latta]

Update preview.

Finally managed to make a complete overlay system! Now visible too with just duct pipe enabled.
Pipe graphic handling also improved greatly, thanks to mrofa and his multi-texture wall in Clutter. No additional pipe beneath duct components required. Finally, pipe now has a cap at each end.

I'll not release it now. You can check the new code for 23(or 30 maybe) in GitHub though.

EDIT: It turns out that making overlay visible with pipe prevents conduit and pipe built in one cell together. Hardcoded.

[Kaballah]

That all looks wonderful, excellent work.   

[Kaballah]

i also love the duct-work, really adds a new layer to base construction, i now always build hidden corridors to house power cables and duct-work, like proper maintenance corridors.

hers an example;

You know what I am just realizing, if you want to have both hot and cold duct work going to each room, then you kind of have to do something like this unless your hallways are 4 tiles wide, because otherwise you can't route multiple different duct lines to the same rooms.

[Kaballah]

A little feedback on the pipe intersection piece: it does not replace existing ductwork pipe when you construct it, which can be pretty confusing.  Can it be made to replace existing duct pipe?  Not a big deal but it would be nice if so.

[Latta]

I must've forgotten that one. Thanks.

[jefferyharrell]

You know what I am just realizing, if you want to have both hot and cold duct work going to each room, then you kind of have to do something like this unless your hallways are 4 tiles wide, because otherwise you can't route multiple different duct lines to the same rooms.

I've gotten into the habit of using one set of ducts for both hot and cold air. I have a hot room in my base which is heated by industrial heaters that keep my indoor growing rooms at 80�F, and then I put duct intakes in that room. Then I have my cold room which has an industrial cooler that keeps it at -20�F which connects to my walk-in fridges and my morgue which also has duct intakes in it. Both sets of duct intakes are connected to the same duct network, but they're connected to power switches. In the summer I switch on the intakes in the cold room and pipe cold air throughout the base and the smart fans bring the indoor temperatures down to something comfortable. In the winter I switch those intakes off and switch on the intakes in the hot room and the smart fans bring the indoor temperatures UP to something comfortable. I think it's fairly energy-efficient because I'm going to be running those coolers and heaters anyway to cool the freezers and heat the growing rooms anyway; I just use the ductwork to pump extra air around in the appropriate seasons.

One thing I'm going to experiment with on my next base is using the exhaust heat from the cooler to heat the growing room instead of building dedicated heaters for it. I need to do some experiments, though. I'm not sure whether the cooler will put out enough heat in the winter to heat the growing rooms and the base. I suspect it won't so I'll end up needing supplemental heaters anyway.