Insulated Tile
Insulated Tiles (not to be confused with the resource 
Insulite 
) are used as wall and floor tile to build rooms and manage heat at the cost of -5 Decor and double the materials compared to normal Tiles. Specifically, it reduces the Thermal Conductivity of the material used in its construction to 1/16256th (e.g. Igneous Rock has thermal conductivity of 2, but 0.000123 when built as an Insulated Tile), however for some reason the game displays the thermal conductivity as being reduced to 1/100th.
Usage
Reduces Heat transfer with adjacent tiles, liquids, and gas. Use it to keep heat from leaking in/out.
You'll want to cover the near or outer edges of the Temperate Biome to keep away heat from nearby biomes.
Generally, the material with the lowest Thermal Conductivity (TC) and the highest Specific Heat Capacity (SHC) possible is the most preferable. TC takes care of heat transfer, while SHC prevents sudden temperature shifts.
- Using
Igneous Rock 
is a staple due to abundance and the highest SHC among Raw Minerals. - Alternatively,
Mafic Rock can be sourced from Rust Biomes or Space Biomes, it has a half of TC of Igneous Rock , but only fifth of SHC. 
Ceramic is the more advanced material, made in the Kiln using 
Coal 
and 
Clay . It has TC of 0.62 and SHC of 0.84.- Space materials allow to produce the best possible solid insulator in the Molecular Forge.
Insulated Tile Materials
| Material | Thermal Conductivity | Specific Heat Capacity | Melting Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic
|
0.620 | 0.840 | 1849.85 °C3361.73 °F |
 Fossil
|
2.000 | 0.910 | 1338.85 °C2441.93 °F |
 Granite
|
3.390 | 0.790 | 668.85 °C1235.93 °F |
 Graphite
|
8.000 | 0.710 | 276.9 °C530.42 °F |
| Igneous Rock
|
2.000 | 1.000 | 1409.85 °C2569.73 °F |
| Insulite
|
0.00001 | 5.570 | 3621.85 °C6551.33 °F |
 Isosap 
|
0.170 | 1.300 | 200 °C392 °F |
| Mafic Rock
|
1.000 | 0.200 | 1409.85 °C2569.73 °F |
 Obsidian
|
2.000 | 0.200 | 2726.85 °C4940.33 °F |
 Sandstone
|
2.900 | 0.800 | 926.85 °C1700.33 °F |
 Sedimentary Rock
|
2.000 | 0.200 | 926.85 °C1700.33 °F |
Minimum temperature delta for heat exchange
Due to the limited precision of the floating point numbers used to represent temperatures, a certain minimum temperature is required for temperature change and thus heat exchange to happen at all, this is not a designed game mechanic and could even be regarded as a bug, but can nevertheless have important implications, for example a temperature delta of roughly 250 °C482 °F is required to exchange heat with an Igneous Rock Insulated Tile, but for gas this is reduced to 10 °C50 °F, because gas:solid has a 25x multiplier.
In this table the ΔT is the minimum temperature delta in °C for heat exchange with an Insulated Tile which is at precisely 20 °C68 °F.
| Material | ΔT (solid/liquid) | ΔT (gas) |
|---|---|---|
| Ceramic
|
672 | 26.9 |
| Fossil
|
226 | 9.0 |
| Granite
|
116 | 4.6 |
| Graphite
|
44.0 | 1.8 |
| Igneous Rock
|
248 | 9.9 |
| Insulite
|
∞ | ∞ |
| Isosap
|
3791 | 152 |
| Mafic Rock
|
99.2 | 4.0 |
| Obsidian
|
49.6 | 2.0 |
| Sandstone
|
137 | 5.5 |
| Sedimentary Rock
|
49.6 | 2.0 |
Advanced details of required ΔT
The details in the table are pretty good as a rule of thumb, for example remembering roughly 250 °C482 °F (10 °C50 °F) for Igneous, 100 °C212 °F (4 °C39.2 °F) for Mafic and 670 °C1238 °F (27 °C80.6 °F) for Ceramic, but sometimes there will be meaningful deviations
The ΔT is directly proportional to the thermal mass of the tile, and inversely proportional to the Thermal Conductivity of the Insulated Tile. If the other cell has a higher thermal mass than the Insulated Tile, then the thermal mass of the other cell determines the required ΔT. For example a Mafic Insulated Tile has a thermal mass of 80 (400 x 0.2), while a full Magma tile has a thermal mass of 1840 (1840 x 1), so the required ΔT increases 23x, between 99.3 °C ↔ 2283.9 °C210.74 °F ↔ 4143.02 °F. Paradoxically this means that Mafic Insulated Tile will not exchange heat with full magma tiles, however half full magma tiles or obsidian tiles at magma temperature have a lower thermal mass and thus can exchange heat.
The required ΔT is also directly proportional to the temperature of the Insulated Tile in kelvin, the table gives the ΔT for 293.15 K, if for instance an Igneous Insulated Tile was only 90 K - the boiling point of liquid oxygen - the ΔT would be only 76.1 °C168.98 °F. Given that liquid oxygen will aggressively exchange heat with Insulated Tiles via the partial evaporation mechanism, this will cool down the Insulated Tile to such a temperature that it readily exchanges heat with the warm outside environment. However if the liquid oxygen were isolated using a lining of metal tiles, then the warm Insulated Tiles would maintain sufficient ΔT to not exchange heat at all with the cryogenic inner lining.
Tips
- Although
Natural Abyssalite Tiles separating biomes have a Thermal Conductivity of 0.00001 (DTU/(m*s))/°C, which is lower than most Insulated Tiles, in most cases Insulated Tiles provide better insulation due to their property of using the "lowest thermal conductivity" rather than the geometric mean of the two thermal conductivities. Abyssalite tiles exchange less heat with other Abyssalite Tiles, Insulated Tiles, Debris and in some cases Buildings (practically only the Steam Turbine and Tempshift Plate can overlap Abyssalite), but Insulated Tiles exchange less heat with gas, liquid, solid (excluding Insulated, Abyssalite) tiles, for example Abyssalite exchanges roughly 11x more heat with Steam than an Igneous Rock Insulated Tile, and 36x more than a Ceramic Insulated Tile would.
- Incidentally, Insulite is made from Abyssalite in the Molecular Forge.
- Incidentally,
