Suggestion for more realistic balancing of heaters and lamps

[Shabazza]

Some blocks are a bit strange in power demand in A12d.

Take the heater and the lamp:
A heater in the game uses 100W to heat a room.
When compared to a lamp in the game: A normal lamp uses 150 W but does not contribute to room heat.
If it's more efficient than our todays lamps because SciFi, then a lamp should not need 150W to emit that small amount of light as it currently does.
And if its not more efficient than our todays lamps, it should have a substancial heat emission component.

I'd suggest to change both things. Lowering the power demand of lamps to 50W or so
and to give them a "heat emission" component that's somewhat realisitc.
I'd like to see both as it would need some thinking by the player how many lights he wants to place and how he can get rid
of the extra heat that may be unwanted in case of a base in an already warm environment.

[REMworlder]

That's a good idea, I'd love to see more equipment create heat. Especially workspaces like the smelter and crematorium would make a lot of sense for heat generation. The temperature system offers a lot of possibilities that would be fun to explore further.

[Toggle]

I don't think lights should produce heat. Maybe stuff as REMworlder said such as smetler and crematorium, but the lights would create so little heat it would be useless to add really.

[Regret]

I don't think lights should produce heat. Maybe stuff as REMworlder said such as smetler and crematorium, but the lights would create so little heat it would be useless to add really.

So you agree with Shabazza that the lights' energy requirements are insane.
Good, I agree too.

[REMworlder]

I mean, in terms of the high electricity usage, I like that the overall metal cost of electrical devices has shifted primarily towards energy generation. So the higher electricity requirements are a kind of built-in way of, while having lights that cost little metal, still require more expensive electricity-generating investments. But I guess that's kind of a different topic.

Sun lamps definitely make sense for heating. Regular lights are a little more questionable, but a heat lamp would be a useful tool that might also intuitively fit into situations like winter barns. But that's kind of a different topic; the current lighting setup is pretty shallow and could use some love.

[TLHeart]

I don't think lights should produce heat. Maybe stuff as REMworlder said such as smetler and crematorium, but the lights would create so little heat it would be useless to add really.

the crematorium and smelter do produce heat while in use.

[Fluffy (l2032)]

Also, the old fashioned bulbs produce light by superheating a tungsten/wolfram filament. It's not exactly efficient as far as light sources go, anywhere from 80% upwards of the energy is 'lost' to non-visible radiation, mostly heat.

Multiple bulbs/halogen lamps can actually create quite a bit of heat.

TLDR; agree that lights should either be a lot cheaper in energy cost, or produce heat (or a combination of the two).

[REMworlder]

I don't think lights should produce heat. Maybe stuff as REMworlder said such as smetler and crematorium, but the lights would create so little heat it would be useless to add really.

the crematorium and smelter do produce heat while in use.

Oh cool, I forgot about that entry in the changelog. It'd be nice if the heat generation was constant since they drain so much electricity even when not in use. I don't think the generated heat has ever been enough to make any difference in my play style, especially on ice sheets.

[porcupine]

1 watt = 3.4 BTU's, no matter how it's used.

Maybe that needs to be accounted for, globally...