Why is the freezer not working?

[Squirting Elephant]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1139668080

Also I'm running out of food :/. The rice outside takes ages and ages to grow and the rice inside won't be in time I fear. It seems they changed sunlamps and they now turn off sometimes during the day to slow the growth.

EDIT: Note that this is in an extreme desert with 50+ degrees or hotter outside. Even during the nights it's usually around that temperature outside.

Update: Got it to work with cooler-spam and more walls and smaller freezer.

[RetroTekGuy]

If your target temp is -5 for all 3 units that's not cold enough for a room of that size. Turn all 3 to -30 to start. Try that to begin with. Also if your crops are taking a very long time make sure you're in the growing time period of your region. Clicking on the crop will tell you.

Oh you're using Hydroponics, Never mind. I guess they just take their time to grow. And yeah sun lamps now have a grace period where they turn off.

[kevinshow]

Yea I feel like 2 freezer objects is OK for that size, too, with the caveat of depending on how hot it is outside. Make sure all 3 have been set to cool down, in case it's not going down fast enough.

Though I don't know the temperature outdoors, since the screen shot only shows indoors 12 C for one of your rooms,. It's possible you're playing at a very hot time, so it may need a bit to work itself out.

Also, some plants need a higher temperature to grow optimally. You can hover over the plant or click on them, and it will say "not optimum temperature" or "optimum temperature' and see the % growth rate. Hydroponics usually gave about 200% in optimum growth conditions. In other words, it should be even double the growth rate and you can harvest faster than growing in soil.

I have also recently learned about "indoor gardening" or "greenhouses". Basically, if the ground is normally able to grow something, then you don't even need the hydroponics containers. Just plant directly into the ground and surround it as you would a room. The sun lamp provides the same intensity as for a hydroponics setup and the plants will grow faster for the same reason.

So your spot looks fine for hydro containers but if you decide to live or garden on top of good soil, you can grow directly in that soil indoors.

[Aries]

Also your hydro farm set up is wrong. Look up pics how to build it. You place a lamp, then first 4 hydro bins in a + set up and go clock wise with 4 more from each original 4

[Jamaican Castle]

Sunlamps do turn off, but only at night. Plants haven't grown at night for several versions, so this way they aren't using up all your power.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by Jamaican Castle:

Sunlamps do turn off, but only at night. Plants haven't grown at night for several versions, so this way they aren't using up all your power.

Have they ever grown at night without a mod making it that way? Hasn't worked that way since at least A12, not sure about before that.

[Squirting Elephant]

There is no heatwave. But this is extreme desert and that means virtually non-stop 50 degrees or hotter outside.

Yes they grow and the plants work as intended, I just got them too late so I will die I think.
The freezer is the problem that I do not understand. Double walls, 3 units and setting them all 3 to -100 (and all 3 powered) still leaves the room at 5 to 10 degrees ABOVE zero... At the best point during a cold night I achieved 2 degrees above zero.
Also when pawns go through the door, the temperature instantly rises. Double doors is still not enough :/... How to make a freezer in extreme desert?

So.... Is there any way to insulate better? I mean, resorting to like 6-7 airco's for that tiny room is gonna be so expensive power-wise... I don't know how to sustain that. Not to mention later for bigger rooms.

Also I probably need a tiny frozen hallway as an entrance to the freezer to stop increasing the temp when entering/leaving the freezer by so much.

[RetroTekGuy]

Tell ya the truth that sounds like a glitch tbh. I mean 3 coolers all on -100 and you still can't get below 0? That's not normal, Just based purely off that screenshot, Nothing seems wrong...So strange

[Spooky]

key is to just keep adding more till it starts to work :P

power wise they shouldnt add much if you can afford the components.. just remember to set one to say -5, next to -4, next to -3 etc.. [probably not the ideal way to do it but saves having to work it out and will use less power :)

No idea why people are mentioning lower temps... just ignore :)

Edit: I mean it is obviously working since you have it down to 12 when you say outer is 50+... add another and it will go down to 5, add another and it will go down to -5 if you want.

5 seems to be the magic number usuallly in that kinda temps.. guess each one has 10 deg or so of cooling in them :)... I usually end up with 5 per room even just in places that get up to 45deg in heat waves

[bonesbro]

That's a big freezer and if it's 50C outside then you'll need more coolers. If you dug into a mountain (so that some squares have roofs that are "overhead mountain") it would insulate much better.

You can reduce the power use by staggering the freezer temperatures: -20 on one, -16 on the next, -12 on the next, etc. That way they won't all go to high use when they aren't needed.

[kevinshow]

So without any extreme conditions going on, it seems like your setup should work but with the extreme region you are in, you just need to adapt it a little more to make it work better. I like this game for that reason. Not all regions, not all temperature range configurations when starting the map, will make the same thing work again and again. You have to adapt a bit more.

That includes starting with a smaller freezer than you normally would, until you have the power/fuel to handle a bigger freezer.

[jojobe]

1 ensure that the room has a roof
2. down load quantum cooling. solved.

[Ashardalon]

considering the outside teperature it might be smart to have your freezer in the middle of your base, only your freezer exhaust directed outside
that way you have slightly cooled rooms surrounding most of your freezer making the outside temp less of a problem and those you dont need to reduce to -0 just 30 is enought to make it managable
so instead of having 3.5walls surrounded by 50c you only have 1 or even less then 1 wall in that temperature
also yes an air vent helps a lot
and ideally dig it into a mountain, overhead mountain helps a lot for keeping a stable temperature, even if you cant fit the entire thing under the mountain

[Geothermal1159]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

considering the outside teperature it might be smart to have your freezer in the middle of your base, only your freezer exhaust directed outside
that way you have slightly cooled rooms surrounding most of your freezer making the outside temp less of a problem and those you dont need to reduce to -0 just 30 is enought to make it managable
so instead of having 3.5walls surrounded by 50c you only have 1 or even less then 1 wall in that temperature
also yes an air vent helps a lot
and ideally dig it into a mountain, overhead mountain helps a lot for keeping a stable temperature, even if you cant fit the entire thing under the mountain

Just to add there is no real danger of infestations if you only have your freezer in the mountains as well since anything at or below -17 makes it impossible for infestations to spawn there.
And since you have the insulation of mountain over head it makes it eaiser to achieve said temp range.

[Squirting Elephant]

It seemed that I simply needed more coolers. But 3 coolers just to freeze a 3x3 square when temperatures outside are 75C and higher is quite nuts (I made a tinier freezer). I hope for 62C but it often goes into 75C+ now. I guess it's getting closer to summer. Meaning that during summer + heatwave would probably be over 100C outside lol

On top of that, I can hardly go outside to mine. Heatstrokes set in almost immediately. The only upside is that raiders arrive all heatstroked at my base lol. But this is really hard... I even sleep during the day and work during the night but it doesn't really help a lot. Even thunderstorms = still 75C outside...

1. virtually no wood. Must make everything out of steel early on.
2. getting steel is really hard because of heatstrokes all the time. Any loot near the end of the map is virtually unobtainable.
3. I also got a heatwave. Which basically means that I must have all of my pawns in the freezer until it's over... Yeah...
4. no caravans visit me, ever. And if they would, they would probably die anyway from the heat s ince I assume that the game does not give them heat protected outfits.
5. I managed to get enough food with hydro. But... running out of components, can't repair anything that breaks. And no caravans and the research for it takes a while. How to get components after mining them out... And every room needs multiple coolers so it costs a lot of components and even more to get enough power + batteries for that on top of it.

I have no idea how to beat this.

Ohyeah apparently I can just wait inside my base lol while the raiders try to get in, they die from the heat really soon.

[kevinshow]

For the desert maps, I depend on stone, instead of steel, to make buildings. There should be enough stone in the form of hills/mountains or stone chunks. Also I start up tree farms so that 2-4 weeks or more later, there would be various trees available to chop down. I try to stagger when I being to sow them so that they'll be ready at different times and don't overwhelm the colonist(s) trying to harvest everything at once.

Or I may grow several varieties that can handle the temperatures as well as be ready to harvest at different times.

Just get the cowboy hats and dusters asap, that will help with the heat. If it still doesn't, then you may need to be even more specific and get a particular kind of leather or cloth to help (kind of your like special case of more than 3 freezer objects are needed).

The caravans may come with the right anti-heat gear so they could survive. Also, if the weather is too bad, you'll get a notice about them leaving immediately, and they don't even bother trading with you.

Some possible solutions to your problem:

1) Get leather to make the cowboy hats and dusters. Research complex clothing if you need it (depending on your starting conditions).

2) With that kind of warm temperatures, you may not even need to grow indoors (ie, no need for hydroponics). That should help conserve some materials. Even if you move to hydroponics later, at least at the beginning, getting enough food to grow the colony means farming outside if at all possible.


3) Get electricity asap so you don't depend on wood-burning workbenches or generators. You can use one for fridge but maybe that's the only one you make, since the food storage is vital.

4) Use the stone to make crafts with, which you can sell to buy components from traders (well...when they eventually visit you).

5) If the raiders are downed by heat stroke, try to unclothe them before they die. That way, your colonists will be more OK with wearing their gear, or you can sell them for higher prices in case you may not have much else to sell yet.