Am I using vents incorrectly?

[RazorHed]

They seem to be completely useless

I have a 2x2 room with a heater and a cooler in it and on either side a 2x1 room with a vent to the center room . All 3 have small wooden beds .  The 2 small rooms show hardly any effect from the center room ever, especially during a heat wave or cold snap.

From what I've heard and seems to work for me is that a cooler can cool a room up to 60 squares big before you need a second one. I assume heaters are similar to that. So if the vents were working , shouldn't thos 3 rooms , 8 total squares be easily heated or cooled by 1 cooler or heater?

I have to be doing something wrong , or these things are just useless

[nverbe]

short answer, yes, you're using them incorrectly.

Vents work best by transferring heat from a larger "reservoir" room to a smaller room. 

They have almost no effect going from a small room to a larger room. 

[JimmyAgnt007]

I usually put my heaters in my bedrooms and have the vents leading into the hallways.  Then AC units leading outside from the hallways.  Check out my mountain fort, link in my sig for the layout.  It seemed to work rather well, I devmode a few cold snaps all at once to test it.

[SadisticNemesis]

Just place a few in your hallways and have a vent at each room, sorted. I do tend to give My hydroponic rooms a heater each. tends to all work fine depending on the map depends on how many you'll need.

[RazorHed]

I might as well just go back to building larger rooms with a heater and cooler for each

[nuschler22]

Here is my setup. 

At the front door I have the A/C (so it blows warm outside) and heater.  As the base grows, I'll put heaters in hallways at the other side of the base. 

The vents go in each bedroom next to each door.

[NephilimNexus]

Problem with vents is that you can't close them (without mods).

Ideally they'd have their own temperature settings, opening and closing as needed to maintain that level.

[Mathenaut]

Vents allow the free flow of heat, normally restricted by doorways and walls.

The actual temperature is a function of heat and volume. So larger spaces need more heat.