So how do these tempshit plates work?

[Gojak_v3]

Say I've got a room I want to cool. The surrounding rooms are a bit cooler, but areas where I have yet to dig are hotter (thus the heat getting through and heating the room). The wiki entry for them really doesn't say much, and neither does the in game help. So how would I use these to cool this room, and what materials are best to use?

I've also got an ice maker and an ice fan, so I'm wondering how to work these in to help. I've been using the ice fan for a couple cycles now and honestly don't see much change in temp even with a dupe operating it most of the cycle. But as I've come to realize equalization can come slowly, so maybe I haven't given it enough time.

I'm also in the process of swapping the floor tiles out with thermal tiles. I think most the heating of the room is coming from the below area where I haven't dug yet. So hopefully changing out the floor tiles will keep some of that heat out. And maybe help the ice fan usage at the same time.

[Monoxide]

I think you may be thinking about tempshifts a little wonky. Can you use them to cool? Yes. Are they specifically for cooling? No.

A tempshift plate will make the area adjust to a standard temperature faster. Imagine this: You have a cool room with a fresh ingot of metal. That metal ingot is super hot, which will slowly (if only slightly) increase the temp of the cool room while decreasing the temp of the ingot. This may take a couple minutes, lets say it takes 5 minutes. If you add a diamond tempshift plate, the equilibrium temp may be reached in 20 seconds (all made up times for example).

If you actually want to use tempshift plates to cool a room, you can. You would just need a colder than the area source, one of the better options is a liquid pipe. If you send a cool/cold liquid pipe through the room with tempshift plates, it will raise the temp of the liquid while reducing the temp of the room (assuming its not a vacuum). You can make this even faster by making the pipe radiant piping.

This is a pretty low key explanation, but it should sum up how to use tempshifts for their basic use.

EDIT - in your example, I would suggest putting in insulated walls around your main base, or even along the "hot" areas you are encountering to hold off the spread of heat.

[Gojak_v3]

I also have an electrolyzer in the room. And that produces 1.25kDTU/s. I have no idea if that's a lot of heat or not. If someone could tell me if that's a lot or not I can place it outside the room and pump the gas it produces in. If it's not a lot I probably won't worry about it. It doesn't seem like that much heat comparing it to other machines. The oxygen diffuser produces 1.5kDTU/s for example.

[Hedning]

A tempshift plate is a background building which can connect thermally to adjacent tiles as well as the tile it is in, unlike other buildings which only* connect to the tiles it is in. Not only that tempshift plates connect diagonally unlike anything else in the game, including tiles. Tempshift plates does not connect to each other however, so you can't chain them to transfer heat across a large vacuum.

Tempshift plates are also quite massive, taking 800kg of material, so they can store quite a bit of energy.

*there are a few exceptions.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Gojak_v3:

I also have an electrolyzer in the room. And that produces 1.25kDTU/s. I have no idea if that's a lot of heat or not. If someone could tell me if that's a lot or not I can place it outside the room and pump the gas it produces in.

It is not a lot of heat. If that was the only heat you shouldn't worry, but unfortunately it produces oxygen at a minimum temperature of 70°C, which is the bigger issue. If you hover your mouse over the output in the info box that pops up when you are building it you can see the temperature of all of its outputs.

[Monoxide]

Being a non-ultra efficient player, I find it easier to "cool" your base opposed to managing each and every heat source. That said, I still put my heavy machinery outside, but I will send a cooling pipe through the main base area to keep it cool. I try to maintain a comfortable temperature for my dupes either by pumping the pipes through a cold biome then through the main base, or even using an aquatuner. Is it the most efficient? No. But it is pretty simple compared to a lot of things I have seen people suggest.

[Gojak_v3]

So if I'm understanding right, tempshift plates just equalize the temperature in an area. Is that right? Or do they absorb heat?

[Bokonon]

They equalize temperature, they will heat or cool depending on the environment. They also take a lot of resources to build so they have high mass and thus they change temperature slowly. Either direction.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Gojak_v3:

So if I'm understanding right, tempshift plates just equalize the temperature in an area. Is that right? Or do they absorb heat?

Everything in the game "absorbs" heat in that they take thermal energy to heat up, depending on their mass and heat capacity. Tempshift plates are unusually good for this since they have high mass, so if you also use a material with high heat capacity they will absorb a lot of heat before increasing one degree in temperature.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Monoxide:

Being a non-ultra efficient player, I find it easier to "cool" your base opposed to managing each and every heat source. That said, I still put my heavy machinery outside, but I will send a cooling pipe through the main base area to keep it cool. I try to maintain a comfortable temperature for my dupes either by pumping the pipes through a cold biome then through the main base, or even using an aquatuner. Is it the most efficient? No. But it is pretty simple compared to a lot of things I have seen people suggest.

It's pretty efficient. Most material get destroyed in one way or another, so better to just insulate and cool the air around what needs to be kept cool. I also have a loop going through my base, keeping it a nice 26° so that all of my decorative plants can stay alive and the thimble reed in the bathroom too.

[believor in Prawn]

you can use ice tempshift plates, they quite quickly transfer the heat from the room into the ice

[Gojak_v3]

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize you got to look at heat in this game as actual thermodynamics. Cold is nothing. It's the absence of heat energy. Heat always flows from hot to cold to equalize, etc, etc. So to help cool a room, I'm not gonna wanna use any of these materials labeled as slow heating to help cool a room. A guide I found recommends using igneous rock to make tempshift plates to help cool a room for early game. Apparently it can absorb a lot of heat and do it quickly.

But I do think I want to use slow heating material to make my insulating tiles to block the heat that's coming from under me. Don't want those heating up quickly cause they'll just transfer the heat into the room.

However, I was unaware I could use my ice maker to make ice tempshift plates. I'm assuming they melt though, so that would make a mess.

[Hedning]

"Slow heating" only refers to its heat capacity. Anything above a certain (i forget what) heat capacity gets the label. It is completely separated from conductivity. It can be a little misleading if you read it literally.

[WillieSea]

Originally posted by Hedning:

"Slow heating" only refers to its heat capacity. Anything above a certain (i forget what) heat capacity gets the label. It is completely separated from conductivity. It can be a little misleading if you read it literally.

Augh! Thanks for that clarification @Hedning. They could really use tool tips on the 'terms' they throw around in the game.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Hedning:

"Slow heating" only refers to its heat capacity. Anything above a certain (i forget what) heat capacity gets the label. It is completely separated from conductivity. It can be a little misleading if you read it literally.

That said, it is correct that Igneous Rock is the ideal early-game material to build Insulated Tiles (and Pipes) with since it has the best thermal properties of stuff available early in the game, and is quite common.

[Hedning]

Igneous is great even late game for insulation. Heat capacity matters for insulation in an indirect way, because the game stops calculating temperature change if the change is too small. Obviously something with high heat capacity reaches this minimum more often.