TIP: How to conserve power keeping food frozen & base warm in winter

Started by Chibiabos, May 17, 2016, 12:22:50 AM

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Chibiabos

If you play in biomes that can freeze during winter, consider dual-purposing your coolers that keep your food frozen to also serve as heaters for your base by building the coolers into the wall between your freezer and other rooms in your base (generally best for a very large room to reduce the chances of overheating it too much).  This saves power over throwing that heat away by just directing it outside and then building and powering room heaters separately.

If you swing between frozen winters and warm summers that can sometimes go through a heat wave, you can spend a bit more by building extra coolers so you can fully keep your freezer frozen while turning off the coolers that dual-purpose as base heaters (so they won't contribute to heat stroke woes in your base).  That will eat a bit of extra metal and components, but the tradeoff is not having to build and power heaters to keep your base warm in winter and coolers at the same time.

A somewhat simpler alternative to conserve power would be to simply turn off your freezer coolers during winter when the temperature is below freezing ... coolers will still consume power even when not in use if not turned off.  You would still need to power heaters, but at least don't need to run both at the same time ... but you have to remember to turn the coolers back on when the weather rises above freezing.
Proud supporter of Rimworld since α7 (October 2014)!

b0rsuk

You can also base your power on Fuel Generators, which generate substantial amount of heat. It's inconvenient in the warm season, but saves power.

Shabazza

- In always-frozen biomes, and also generally colder biomes, you can build your steam generators into the base, supplementing the conventional heating with the hot air from the geyser. (but don't do this in small rooms, as it can easily overheat it)
- Also, setting heaters to a temperature only slightly above the colonists minimum confort temperature in all rooms except the bedrooms can safe some energy too,
because in sum, you'll have a bit less heat dissipation through walls then, which means the heaters will more often be in "low power" mode.
In bedrooms, you want to heat to be well within their comfort range to avoid risking the "slept in cold" debuff though.
- In biomes that only freeze in winter, unroofing a tile of the freezer in winter or opening a door towards the outside can make coolers unnecessary for that period.
So you only need them in summer (with a closed roof then).
- As b0rsuk said: fuel generators also provide heat. But in cold or always-frozen biomes, wood is usually no option, unless you have a sufficiently large indoor wood plantation.

Chibiabos

Quote from: Shabazza on May 17, 2016, 01:06:49 PM
- In always-frozen biomes, and also generally colder biomes, you can build your steam generators into the base, supplementing the conventional heating with the hot air from the geyser. (but don't do this in small rooms, as it can easily overheat it)
- Also, setting heaters to a temperature only slightly above the colonists minimum confort temperature in all rooms except the bedrooms can safe some energy too,
because in sum, you'll have a bit less heat dissipation through walls then, which means the heaters will more often be in "low power" mode.
In bedrooms, you want to heat to be well within their comfort range to avoid risking the "slept in cold" debuff though.
- In biomes that only freeze in winter, unroofing a tile of the freezer in winter or opening a door towards the outside can make coolers unnecessary for that period.
So you only need them in summer (with a closed roof then).
- As b0rsuk said: fuel generators also provide heat. But in cold or always-frozen biomes, wood is usually no option, unless you have a sufficiently large indoor wood plantation.

Actually you don't need to wait to research Geothermal Power to tap the heat from Geothermal Vents -- those geysers pump out heat with or without a generator on them, so just build a wall around them big enough to eventually house the generator and vent the heat into your base (but be very very careful when building the room because, yeah, it can quickly superheat to the point any colonist entering will pass out from heat stroke and catch fire almost instantly).
Proud supporter of Rimworld since α7 (October 2014)!

Lascer

It's also good to alternate the temperature your coolers (and/or possibly heaters) are set at. If you set one or two a few degrees below the others, the others will go to low power settings more often.

You can also build doors to act as manual vents to either capture the exhaust heat of your coolers or generators, or to vent it out. This makes it less effective to heat the area past that door, even if it's open, but it's much easier to manage (than building or dismantling a wall).

RazorHed

do they put out thesame heat with and without a geothermal power plant attached?

Chibiabos

Quote from: RazorHed on May 18, 2016, 12:20:38 PM
do they put out thesame heat with and without a geothermal power plant attached?

I believe so.
Proud supporter of Rimworld since α7 (October 2014)!

Chibiabos

I neglected to mention one really good extra bonus about indoor farming:  Since its indoors, food won't decay in terms of its HP they way it does outdoors.  Yes it'll have a limited life for being 'fresh' until hauled to a frozen environment, but this life is much longer than its separate tick-down of hitpoints from being outdoors which accelerate during rain and skyrockets during Toxic Fallout.  You can generally (particularly with corn which I think lasts 3 years unfrozen?) just leave it out in the field and not worry about it decaying to nothing.

And /yet another/ great benefit to indoor greenhouse (roofed) farming:  its immune to Toxic Fallout, no need to scramble to cut and salvage what you can, crops grown indoors like this are safe from Toxic Fallout events.

I feel like the 'Sham Wow' salesman here trying to sell you on the amazing benefits of greenhouse farming.  But wait, there's more!  Included at no extra charge with your $19.99 order ... :P
Proud supporter of Rimworld since α7 (October 2014)!

GarettZriwin

Food not losing HP can actually be a drawback... It raises colony wealth and thus can get you in trouble and decreases low wealth buff. If you don't want to sell crops and they are not very important to you it might be better to let them grow simply unroofed.

Chibiabos

Quote from: GarettZriwin on May 18, 2016, 02:12:09 PM
Food not losing HP can actually be a drawback... It raises colony wealth and thus can get you in trouble and decreases low wealth buff. If you don't want to sell crops and they are not very important to you it might be better to let them grow simply unroofed.

I guess there are a lot of idiosyncrasies for players to support a variety of playstyles.  I think I tend to overfarm and despite pushing hard to get harvested crops hauled from the field, I have lost quite a bit from crops hitting 0 HP... and I will actually sell raw food to a trader to help with my excess glut.
Proud supporter of Rimworld since α7 (October 2014)!

milon

Quote from: GarettZriwin on May 18, 2016, 02:12:09 PM
Food not losing HP can actually be a drawback... It raises colony wealth and thus can get you in trouble and decreases low wealth buff. If you don't want to sell crops and they are not very important to you it might be better to let them grow simply unroofed.

This is a really bad rumor that needs to die.  Raid points used to be heavily based on colony wealth.  Colony wealth is now only a minor factor.  The much, much larger factors are number of colonists and colony age.  Colony wealth isn't a big enough factor anymore to let it impact the way you play.  This was changed on September 5, 2014.