Cold storage system capacities?

[gizmo6023]

I have been building a cold room and using wooden shelving with an AC unit set to 14F for perishable food stuffs.
The thought process is freezers break way too often and require too much to repair for a settlement without component printing capability. Now I am running out of cold storage in year 2 and wondering if a freezer could hold more than a room with 3 rows of storage racks? My 5 x 5 room has 17 racks I think that should provide 5100 of storage capacity, not sure how the code counts meals so my 4.3k raw food items is very close to full or at max with the 88 meals in storage. Can someone post a freezer capacity? I would check but don't have then researched.

[spacedog]

Refrigerators and Freezers both have 20 storage slots. That's a little more than a 3-tile long shelf.

A cold room is totally the way to go. One air conditioner can cool a room that has the capacity of around 10 freezers. If you want a bigger room, just add more air conditioners.

The game calculates room temperatures in terms of how much heat/cold is lost through the surface areas of the floors/walls/cieling/etc., versus how much heat/cold is provided from heating/cooling sources (like air conditioners). Adding more air conditioners just means you can offset a larger surface area.

[Cotaks]

Freezers are better found that out with a solor flare that took a week, AC's will stop working, also AC's can't cool a room in summer, let alone a heatwave of 42c. Freezers have more storage per tile, also works with solar flares, no problems in summer either, downside bit more electronics needed to repair.

[RavensDaemon]

A brick cold room with 1 AC can keep everything at -10C except in a heatwave, then you need 2 ACs. Carbon cold rooms are better though.

[spacedog]

Originally posted by Cotaks:

Freezers are better found that out with a solor flare that took a week, AC's will stop working

This is true, but an all-carbon room will hold the cold in fairly well, and it will take a while before everything thaws. You might incur a few days of reduced shelf life, but that's really nothing given that it happens once or maybe twice a year if you're unlucky. Aside from cooked meals, that amount of "unrefrigerated but under a roof" time won't put a significant dent in the shelf life of anything. It would take like 10+ solar flare events before most things start to spoil.

If you really want to hedge against solar flares, then also have one freezer that is only allowed to be used for storing cooked meals. There are only 17 different meals (including coffee and tea), so you can have a stack of each in a single freezer with room to spare. (Which is way more cooked food than you should realistically have on hand at once anyway.)

Also, if your air conditioner isn't keeping the room at the lowest possible temperature, it just means you need to add another air conditioner until you overcome the heat loss. It's a good idea to have multiple air conditioners anyway, in case one breaks down.

In the long term, a cold room is vastly lower maintenance and power usage, and is equally effective for all practical purposes.

[gizmo6023]

My next upgrade is a second AC in the cold room that is if I ever find another CP. Over a year in game without CPU being found, wont be surprised if next patch they are required for traps and flame throwers too.

[Nith]

Get yourself a freezer, the AC set to -10 is also good idea but when the solar flare hit, you will regret losing all the raw meat and food or meal. because some solar flare take forever to go away.

Edit: i lose all my meal and my Raw meal in my last play, by the time the flare go away its spoil all my food.

[Cotaks]

Originally posted by spacedog:

Originally posted by Cotaks:

Freezers are better found that out with a solor flare that took a week, AC's will stop working

This is true, but an all-carbon room will hold the cold in fairly well,

There are only 17 different meals (including coffee and tea),

Also, if your air conditioner isn't keeping the room at the lowest possible temperature, it just means you need to add another air conditioner until you overcome the heat loss. It's a good idea to have multiple air conditioners anyway, in case one breaks down.

Ok i build it with stone room, never had enough carbon for carbon room so that could be way better. With stone room i used 4 AC's in a 6x10 room, this was not enough, This with the downsides i went over to freezers, solved my headaches lol.

Coffee and tea don't need a freezer, under roof they don't spoil, i have it set on shelves, medicine as well.

[RavensDaemon]

Originally posted by Nith:

Get yourself a freezer, the AC set to -10 is also good idea but when the solar flare hit, you will regret losing all the raw meat and food or meal. because some solar flare take forever to go away.

Edit: i lose all my meal and my Raw meal in my last play, by the time the flare go away its spoil all my food.

Here is the thing though.. I do not lose anything. Why you ask? Because I only use dried meat and pickled veggies in all my cooking and I do not make a lot of extra food. I also did not have chain vomiting fits even before the patch.

[Sam]

yes Cotaks i enjoy to use Freezer method also, and only cook when applicants need fed , a few pots at a time of meat pie etc to keep them going throughout the winter harvest!! :D

[Martin]

Originally posted by Cotaks:

Freezers are better found that out with a solor flare that took a week, AC's will stop working, also AC's can't cool a room in summer, let alone a heatwave of 42c. Freezers have more storage per tile, also works with solar flares, no problems in summer either, downside bit more electronics needed to repair.

Just add fans. Can get neg 20 in an extreme heatwave.. just won't have much space for shelving :D

But yeh during heatwaves the system can flounder abit, but it still takes time for the room to heat up, you can use more ac's you can use better materials, brick, cement, carbon are all great. You can add fans.. Extreme Heatwaves +20 degrees.. you can counter that.

The only real issue I have found using them, is my idiots run in there.. say it's too cold and get unhappy.. well it is a freezer.. supposed to be cold..

[Kadera]

Just as an alternative to mass-refrigeration and freezers: Glittercaps and Sweet Syrup never go bad, ever, as long as they're under a roof. Even if all you grow in terms of vulnerable crops is grain (and of course y'all are) and you turn a fair amount of that into oil, and you do a fair amount of hunting, your peeps can be eatin' fancy with meat and veg stews, or if you care to, sweet meat bites and mushroom croquettes. Animals don't mess with Glittercap or Hept farms, so fences or walls aren't even necessary.

Also that sweet syrup serves well as a kind of natural emergency ration, since it's usually easy to stockpile a ton of it.

[ADLER]

Another useful thing I found with my 'Cold Room' is I point the Air Conditioning units into my living/common area. This keeps them warm & my freezer room cold.

I have found -8 is a decent setting & will keep the room cold even in a heat wave is the room is cement or carbon.

I use a 9x6 room (62 shelves) for cold storage of food that decomposes & cooked meals. It has 3 AC units with the fans pointing into my common space (kitchen/dinning/work benches) 15-20'c & then on the other side of them is the sleeping quarters with air grates which sit at 10-18'c. I farm about every 3 years to fill it up.

[Boo]

so shelves with 3 spots is better then floor storage with 4 spots in a frezer?

[starkmaddness]

Originally posted by Kjeldgaard:

so shelves with 3 spots is better then floor storage with 4 spots in a frezer?

A shelf doesn't take a full square. So if you build a shelf across multiple squares you get more storage. It ends up holding more than floor storage.