Conduction Panel

Conduction panel is a building that exchanges heat with overlapping buildings even in a vacuum.

Heat Exchange

For the purpose of heat exchange, the conduction panel is classified as a building (neither as a cell nor entity).^[1] There are three important heat exchange interactions:

with overlapping cells (all 3 cells)
with overlapping buildings (only on middle cell)
with pipe contents

In addition to interacting with overlapping cells (solid, liquid, gas) as a normal building, the interactions with overlapping buildings and pipe contents are unique to the conduction panel.

Overlapping Cells

For heat exchange with overlapping cells, the conduction panel interacts on all cells similar to any bridge (Liquid Bridge, Gas Bridge, Conveyor Bridge). Due to the Thermal Conductivity between a buildings and the cells it occupies, it is often more efficient to heat or cool conduction panels through an intermediary solid tile at one of its end points instead of through piped liquids.

Overlapping Buildings

For heat exchange with overlapping buildings, the conduction panel only interacts through the radiator in the middle cell. The end points with liquid pipe input and output ports do not exchange heat with overlapping buildings. It is the only building that exchanges heat directly with other buildings; in contrast, other buildings only exchange heat indirectly through a shared atmosphere.

A Conduction Panel will exchange heat with a Thermo Sensor as it would with any other building, but this will not cause the Thermo Sensor to read the temperature of the Conduction Panel. Sensors measure ambient temperature, not their own, so if placed in a vacuum, the sensor will read absolute zero regardless of the Conduction Panel's temperature.

Pipe Contents

For heat exchange with pipe contents, the conduction panel controls liquid flow in pipes as follows:

acquires pipe contents at its input port
exchanges heat with pipe contents
releases pipe liquids at its output port

The heat exchange between the conduction panel and pipe contents is similar to heat exchange between pipes and their stored contents. However, if the heat exchange causes the pipe contents to phase change (i.e. freeze or vaporize), then the output pipe will break and eject the product at the output pipe cell.

Entities

The conduction panel does not exchange heat with entities (e.g. critters, debris, dupes, plants). Currently, there is no building that directly exchanges heat with entities.

Tips

To exchange heat with overlapping buildings, neither pipes nor liquid are necessary
For applications with low uptime (e.g. Robo-Miner, Auto-Sweeper, Conveyor Loader, Telescope in space or vacuum), most materials are sufficient
For many demanding applications with high uptime, Aluminum is necessary:
- self-cooled Steam Turbine with input steam at 135 C
- magma pump with a Mini Liquid Pump in vacuum^[1]

History

U48-567980: Improved Conduction Panel heat transfer algorithm for stronger and more consistent conductivity.
U44-535720: Added Conduction Panel building.