A/C unit

[bond069wr]

The A/C unit ( atmosphere kit ),.... for the most part is a totally useless A/C, the ratio's (math) is all wrong on this unit, doesn't work at all like a real A/C unit. Exhaust heat can go as high and beyond 900 C , that is nuts. takes FOREVER to cool down a small area, drastically reduces room pressure above what could be considered " normal" . I really hope the Dev's can improve this A/C unit to work more efficiently. After many, many trials and configurations I have given up on this A/C unit.

Therefore, I have made my own A/C unit that works VERY well using 2 water tanks connected together, with pipes and several radiators, all enclosed and sealed in a very small room with air pipes going into the room that also have radiators attached to it facing the water radiators, I made it so that water is at minus -90 C. So that small room will remain very cold for a very LONG time. The air running through the pipes inside is cooled and runs back into my base controlled with a electronic valve and passive vents attached, this is all controlled with logic chips (basically an electronic thermostat ) my large base on Vulcan remains at a nice 20C. Maybe this idea will help some of you that are fed up with the inadequate A/C in game and want to try my method mentioned here, happy building.

[EstebanLB01]

the wall cooler is also a good option

[tripodalt]

i dont understand how you get -90celcius water
on moon i get +400celcius water with the h2 combustor and it slowly cool down in a week at -100celcius but no way to use it for cooling the fuel generator even using massive amount of radiator it will transfert heat to them in few time
about real A/C unit i tested the peliter element that from electric make a face -40celcius and the other +100celcius or such what requiert a mass with fans or a water circuit for not melting the device
maybe you made reference at the portable A/C what magically store heat by little pressure drain without sens
tought the normal A/C seemed not so fantasist from the other gameplay

[Harbingerman]

I tried a wall cooler ... kills batteries ... back to the portable for me ... havnt really tried that unit yet.

[EstebanLB01]

Originally posted by Harbingerman:

I tried a wall cooler ... kills batteries ... back to the portable for me ... havnt really tried that unit yet.

right now the wall cooler is the most energy efficient way of cooling a room. You just need enough temp difference between the room and the coolant gas, and pressure in the pipes.
Portable is not for long term and it cannot be automated nor controled to a set temperature.

[tripodalt]

with the portable you have to use it in reverse so or exemple heating a room for release pressure stored since it work by magical system who capture heat in form of pressure
the wall cooler and the A/C unit work the same they transfert the heat of the input to the waste but the limit is 100celcius diference and reduced eficiency work up to 200celcius diference
seem the waste is more eficient with hightest pressure in waste pipe named output 2 or side port
it the worste drain on electric with up to 7kw

[pryt]

Playing on Venus I am pretty happy with how the A/C units work, they are just a bit power hungry, but this somewhat depends on the pressure of the input pipe. The higher the pressure, the more power is used.

I got a huge insulated tank with all my waste gases from smelting, it's at around 215°C - 230°C, depending on if something got smelted or not recently. It has lots of gases inside, so it takes forever to heat up more. From there an insulated pipe (all my pipe are insulated, so I will use "pipe" only) goes through a volume pump which is controlled by some simple logic to keep the pressure before the first A/C unit at around 35-45MPa. This first A/C unit cools the gases down to 80°C, then one pipe unit further is the next one, cooling it down to 40°C, then the next to 20°C and the final one to 0°C. It's overkill, I know, but it's fine.

After that the filtration comes, first oxygen, then hydrogen, then nitrogen, then CO2, then X. Right after the filter unit is another A/C unit, cooling the filtered gas down to -40°C, except for X, this is cooled down to -60°C.

The important part is: make sure your waste output is connected to some other (not necessarily insulated) tank (or if you want to cheese physics -> put a normal tank in a vacuum, this will cool it down by some strange magic). But, back to the important part: make sure this tank and the pipes also have a very high amount of gas inside, 5+ MPa is good, 10-15MPa are perfect in the pipes. This makes it so that it takes literally forever to heat up the waste pipe's gases, since it's a lot of heat that is required to heat all the gas.

And as addition, just some screenshots:

Cooled down ...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804791

The waste input pipe:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804824

Cold CO2.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804852

Even colder X.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804884

The heat output pipe from the A/C units. (Has yet to be put into a huge radiator system to use Venus nights to cool it down.)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804907

Pressure, Temp and Mols in the tank per Gas.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804930

Yes, it's VERY power hungry. And slow too, but such things take time anyways.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415804961


I'm pretty sure I'm using it wrong, and it could be made faster, since once I had around 50MPa in the pipe before the cooling unit for the X, since the A/C was somehow switched off, and after switching on the A/C again the pipe was emptied in almost no time. But for now it works.

[tripodalt]

what the global powker requirement of this system
i guess its like 100kw

[pryt]

Nah, the global power requirement is around 35k, and the two transformers (one for cooling, one for filtration and cooling) are capped at 30KW and 20KW. I could bring it down to 4KW total usage by using only a very low input flow into the first A/C unit. But then it takes forever and I want to start pressuring all the base soon. It's a balance between power and time required to cool it all down.

I just need to add a few more batteries and setup 10 big wind turbines for this one alone, then it's self sufficient due to the storms on Venus, which bring in 100KW with 10 wind turbines every couple of days, enough to keep it running constantly. It's as in real life: cooling stuff is very power hungry, due to heat disposal required. The faster and the more you want something cooled, the more power is required.

[Ele]

I'm actually using the portable AC on Venus. Once I got some steel made, made two large batteries and keep them charged and cooled off my 7x3 room in about a day and a half down to 25C. Just pop one in at night to cool it back down to 25 and can grow plants in there now. Hooked up to a tank connector, with a passive vent to keep it working. Takes some babysitting, but once you know just to pop in a new battery overnight, while you go mining or whatever, it's back to a reasonable temp by morning. It was also cooling my 4x4 workshop but I airlocked that area so I could start gas trapping.

[tripodalt]

do you use the medium suit battery for the portable a/c because me it drain a little in 30sec

[Ele]

No, when you land, you have one large battery and one small battery as spare. After I made steel, I made 2 more large batteries. One for suit exchange, and one for my other APC running my 6 solar panels. Here's a screenshot of my setup, connected into the waste output of my oxygen atmo for my waste tanks.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2416563397

[tripodalt]

being in vacum outside i noticed all electrical system are warming my green house than i have to cold it despit it tend to get at a -100celcius in my external tanks
so im surprised you stacked all the machine inside a room that must stay under 50celcius in an external +200celcius planet

[Ele]

On Venus, your average nightly temperature is about 100C. So once I got my solar set, got my ice crusher running for water and my refiller, I then focused on making the room habitable temperature wise. Portable AC, connected as it is, to my one atmo (which I only run when I empty a waste tank) keeps it cool. During the day, the sun will take it up to 33 or so, but I use a battery and if I'm out all night, I will come back to 13Celsius in the room.

Machinery wise, there is the Filtration (off when not in use), the back pressure regulator, the ice crusher (off when not in use), the Large battery for my Solar Power, APC, small battery charger, logic chips for my satellite and landing pad to run remotely, Computer (turned off when not in use) for satellite and my chutes to go into the workshop Arc Furnace. Oh and the logic for the Arc Furnace button and activation.

The sun does more to heat up my little space there, than the electronics do. And the portable AC handles it just fine. Once you get it down to 20 celsius, you can start growing plants. Then just keep it down there from the days heat, and it saves your waste tank, your oxygen and your battery.

In my tiny workshop, the temperature will change 2 degrees as it has no windows and nothing running in it at all currently. And that's all just sun beating on the steel frames.

[tripodalt]

ok now i just wonder how you survived until your bootle refiller was crafted
is the thrist or power of the battery suit impacted by the sun heat during the starting phase

[Joanna Hammond]

I'm using A/C on venus with no issues, you just need enough radiators. It's all about temperature gradients to dump heat. After all an A/C is just a heat pump.