Do vents work?

[TheSiegeTech]

Built 4 4x5 wood rooms side by side with vents between rooms, heater in one room didn't seem to raise the temp in adjoining rooms during winter. Anyone else notice this?

[Jaggid Edje]

yes, they work, but heat sources are not good at heating a large area. So if the rooms are big, there is no point in having vents, especially if you also haven't built the structure out of materials with good insulation rating. But they do work.

I built a motel-like structure for my survivors in my second game, with a 'row' of 8 rooms, 5 tiles deep, 4 tiles wide for each room. Vents connecting all of them. Then I put heaters in every 2nd room. With the vents open, the rooms in the middle did get notably warmer when the heaters were on when the structure was made out of brick (floor, walls and ceiling). Brick is a decent insulator. (Carbon is even better).

With the vents closed, those rooms without heaters dropped down to outside-temperature. So, definitely the vents work.

They did not get as warm as we would want things indoors irl though. So if that's what you are expecting, then no, they don't work.

Also, might as well say it, your survivors don't even need heaters. If you have them wearing clothing good enough to keep them warm outside, then they will be fine inside without heaters. If the night-temperature drop concerns you with what clothes you have available, just build heaters right next ot their beds.
All of the heat sources work most effectively in a radius directly around the heater (i.e. the heating system is not coded with a very good, if any, convection/radiant system beyond that radius.

Disclaimer: I still build heaters despite not needing them. On principle. I made a mod (which is on the workshop), which improves the heaters so they throw a larger radius of heat, if that's something you are interested in.

[Bjørn]

It's best to use AC units for heating / cooling.

You can of course skip the heating like Jaggid Edje says, since your people need warm enough clothes for the cold anyway, and putting on pajamas before bed is not a game feature.

Originally posted by TheSiegeTech:

Built 4 4x5 wood rooms side by side with vents between rooms, heater in one room didn't seem to raise the temp in adjoining rooms during winter. Anyone else notice this?

I've also built rooms in about that size in this game. Or now I have 2 rooms opposite each other, divided by a corridor of 2 tiles, so 10x10 tiles. Stone floor, brick walls and roof. Wood and stone has weaker insulation than brick. All indoor walls are stick walls (this is important for heat exchange), and a few vents scattered on them.

Open doorways between all rooms / corridors for additional airflow. They work as closed doors when it comes to sound, so there is no risk of disturbed sleep from someone walking in the corridors.

With this setup, you can keep it temperate all year around using 2 AC units, placed on opposing walls or similar. Can also keep a larger area temperate this way. I didn't start using heating in this game until I could build AC units.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

With this setup, you can keep it temperate all year around using 2 AC units, placed on opposing walls or similar. Can also keep a larger area temperate this way. I didn't start using heating in this game until I could build AC units.

That's what I do too once I get those researched.

My assumption was the OP hasn't gotten to AC's being available yet. In my personal experience, I reacted to how heat and vents work as soon as I unlocked vents. By the time I got to AC, I had it figured out. So I assumed the OP was in that same, earlier, place in the game.
Maybe an incorrect assumption though, I suppose.

[starlight78sso]

I thought that the AC's were like in real life and only cooled a place, I guess now I'll start getting them in when I can.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by starlight78sso:

I thought that the AC's were like in real life and only cooled a place, I guess now I'll start getting them in when I can.

The research for them is called 'heat pumping', and in Norway it's popular to use something we call 'heat pumps' here, directly translated. They have replaced most older forms of heating now, since they control such a large area, and can also be used for cooling.

But they are a bit more advanced than the AC units we see in the game, and in movies, for example, with just an air intake on one side, and the 'exhaust' on the other at the same height.

On these heat pumps, the exterior air intake is a few meters lower than the interior fan / blower (might be the opposite in countries where they're mostly used for cooling, but not sure). The difference in height / air pressure is an important factor for them, I think. They're very quiet and use less power than other forms of heating / cooling.

[Ygs]

Doesn't seem that air vents work tho...
I have concrete rooms (2x4). All connected by air vents.
For testing put heaters only in two of them.
Two rooms sometimes were 25c while other rooms were just 10c WHEN air vent is literally next "blocK'

[Flin Fredstone]

iirc heaters don't have a significant range when heating.
In all honesty though, the interior heating is a players choice, not really a necessity once you have the clothing sorted.
If they wear clothing to deal with the outside temperature then equal inside temperature wont harm.
It's us, the players, that want cosy indoor temperatures.

[Sabaithal]

They do work, it just depends on a lot of factors. Namely the insulating material.
- If you plan to heat multiple rooms the external most walls need to be made out of concrete or brick. Floor too will help. While inner walls should be made out of something less insulating like wood, or metal.
- Make sure external windows are closed.
- Heating needs to be powerful. One heating stove won't warm multiple rooms. A fireplace might do a better job.