Thermo Aquatuner

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Thermo Aquatuner
Thermo Aquatuner.png
Cools the Liquid piped through it, but outputs Heat in its immediate vicinity.
A thermo aquatuner cools liquid and outputs the heat elsewhere.
Dimensions
2×2 tiles
Rotation
Mirrored
Category
-1.2 kW
125 °C / 257 °F
Input: Liquid
Output: Liquid
Effects
Heat: Varies
Cooling factor: -14 °C
Green: Enable
Red: Disable
Materials
1,200 kg

Thermo Aquatuner cools the liquid piped through it and absorbs the Heat itself.

If the environment around the Thermo Aquatuner cannot absorb its heat, it will quickly overheat. Due to its high heat output it is recommended to submerge it in a liquid, as gasses cannot exchange temperatures with it fast enough when the machine is working full time.

Use of Steel or Thermium

Due to the massive amounts of heat that this device can take away and invest into itself, the choices of materials for this device is very limited if Overheating is to be avoided. In the early and mid-game, the most reliable material is Steel.pngSteel Molten Steel.png. In the late game, Thermium.pngThermium Molten Niobium.png Tungsten.png is the best choice.

Use of Thermo Sensor

A Thermo Sensor is also very much recommended - indeed, required - for efficient use and control of this device. Setting the sensor close or next to the Aquatuner is wise; this can give a measure of both the temperature of the Aquatuner and the fluids that it is immersed in. If the Aquatuner is made of Steel.pngSteel Molten Steel.png or Thermium.pngThermium Molten Niobium.png Tungsten.png, the heat transfer will be fast enough to reliably control the temperature of the Aquatuner and the fluids that are soaking heat from it.

Mechanics

The Thermo Aquatuner (as well as the Thermo Regulator) works by taking heat from anything piped into it and applying that heat to itself, and does not produce its own heat. As this is heat-neutral, cooling it with its own output will cause it to maintain its temperature, assuming no other heat sources or sinks are present.

The amount of heat moved depends on the type and amount of liquid piped in. Each packet of liquid has 14 °C removed from it, regardless of the Specific Heat Capacity (SHC) of the fluid or the amount. It is therefore best to use liquids with a high SHC (Water.pngWater Steam.png Ice.png, Polluted Water.pngPolluted Water Steam.png Resource Dirt.png Polluted Ice.png, Super Coolant.pngSuper Coolant Super Coolant Gas.png Solid Super Coolant.png) and to ensure all packets sent in are 10 kg (it consumes 1.2 kJ per packet, not per 10 kg), in order to make the most of the 1.2 kW power requirement.

The Aquatuner does not respect freezing temperatures of liquids, and will damage the output pipe if liquids are cooled below their freezing temperature.

The Aquatuner is the only building capable of reliably producing liquid oxygen and hydrogen as it has a minimum output temperature of -272 °C / -457.6 °F. The Thermo Regulator also has the same minimum temperature, but there is no gas suitable for cooling hydrogen to the necessary temperatures.

Common liquids used as coolant (assumes 10 kg packets)
Name SHC
(DTU/°C)/g
TC
DTU/m/s/°C
Heat moved
DTU/s
Energy Efficiency
DTU/W
Self heating
°C/s for Steel.pngSteel Molten Steel.png
Freezing
point
Vaporization
point
Crude Oil.pngCrude Oil Petroleum.png Solid Crude Oil.png 1.690 2.000 236,600 197.17 2.012 -40.15 °C / -40.27 °F 399.85 °C / 751.73 °F
Petroleum.pngPetroleum Sour Gas.png Solid Petroleum.png 1.760 2.000 246,400 205.33 2.095 -57.15 °C / -70.87 °F 538.85 °C / 1001.93 °F
Liquid Naphtha.pngNaphtha Sour Gas.png Solid Naphtha.png 2.191 0.200 306,740 255.62 2.608 -50.15 °C / -58.27 °F 538.85 °C / 1001.93 °F
Ethanol.pngEthanol Ethanol Gas.png Solid Ethanol.png 2.460 0.171 344,400 287.00 2.928 -114.05 °C / -173.29 °F 78.35 °C / 173.03 °F
Brine.pngBrine Steam.png Salt.png Brine Ice.png 3.400 0.609 476,000 396.67 4.048 -22.5 °C / -8.5 °F 102.75 °C / 216.95 °F
Salt Water.pngSalt Water Steam.png Salt.png Brine.png Ice.png 4.100 0.609 574,000 478.33 4.881 -7.5 °C / 18.5 °F 99.69 °C / 211.44 °F
Nectar.pngNectar Steam.png Sucrose (Spaced Out).png Ice.png Sucrose (Spaced Out).png The Frosty Planet Pack is needed to unlock this content 4.100 0.609 574,000 478.33 4.881 -82.5 °C / -116.5 °F 160 °C / 320 °F
Water.pngWater Steam.png Ice.png 4.179 0.609 585,060 487.55 4.975 -0.65 °C / 30.83 °F 99.35 °C / 210.83 °F
Polluted Water.pngPolluted Water Steam.png Resource Dirt.png Polluted Ice.png 4.179 0.580 585,060 487.55 4.975 -20.65 °C / -5.17 °F 119.35 °C / 246.83 °F
Liquid Nuclear Waste.pngNuclear Waste Nuclear Fallout.png Uranium Ore.png Spaced Out is needed to unlock this content 7.440 6.000 1,041,600 868.00 8.857 26.85 °C / 80.33 °F 526.85 °C / 980.33 °F
Super Coolant.pngSuper Coolant Super Coolant Gas.png Solid Super Coolant.png 8.440 9.460 1,181,600 984.67 10.048 -271.15 °C / -456.07 °F 436.85 °C / 818.33 °F

Formula for Heat Moved (assuming 10kg packets of liquid) is Heat Moved = SHC × 14°C × 10,000g. For example, for Liquid Nuclear Waste.pngNuclear Waste Nuclear Fallout.png Uranium Ore.png, Heat Moved = 7.440 × 14 × 10,000 = 1,041,600 DTU/s.

Heat removed from the liquid will heat up the Aquatuner itself, and if it is not sufficiently cooled down, it will overheat and take damage. The amount of self heat will depend on the liquid used and the metal used to build the Aquatuner. The formula for Self Heating = Heat Moved / (mass of Aquatuner × SHC of metal used / 5). Note the mass of the Aquatuner is fixed at 1,200,000g and as a building it has its thermal mass divided by 5. For example, the formula for Self Heating °C/s for a steel Aquatuner using water: Self Heating = Heat Moved (585,060) / (Mass of Aquatuner (1,200,000) × SHC of steel (0.49) / 5) = 585,060 / 117,600 = 4.975 °C/s.

Any liquid can be used, but these are most common as they have desirable properties; Super Coolant.pngSuper Coolant Super Coolant Gas.png Solid Super Coolant.png has the largest heat capacity. Thermal conductivity is listed above, but has no effect on the operation of the Thermo Aquatuner; it is important only when the coolant exchanges heat with the environment. Notably, buildings that dump heat into a coolant piped into them, such as the Metal Refinery, ignore thermal conductivity.

Note: There is a lower temperature limit of -272.1 °C / -457.78 °F. Super Coolant.pngSuper Coolant Super Coolant Gas.png Solid Super Coolant.png is the only liquid capable of reaching such a temperature without freezing. However, the Thermo Aquatuner will continue to operate, consuming 1200 W and generating no heat in the process.

Caution on the Use of Thermium and Super Coolant

Both high-end manufactured materials vastly increases the Aquatuner's ability and efficiency at exchanging heat - but also vastly changes the amounts of heat involved. Using these materials require more careful control of not just the temperatures of the Aquatuner and the fluids that it is immersed in, but also what the fluids and Aquatuner is drawing heat from. It is very easy to excessively cool a region without this additional care.

Use to melt metal

The Aquatuner takes about 1.25 cycles (750 seconds) to completely become disabled from overheating.

Therefore, if an Aquatuner is used to cool a full pipe of Water.pngWater Steam.png Ice.png or Polluted Water.pngPolluted Water Steam.png Resource Dirt.png Polluted Ice.png continuously while sitting in Vacuum, it will melt before the damage from overheating breaks it. It is recommended to disable auto-repair to avoid wasting metal. Note that since buildings have 1/5 the Specific Heat Capacity of the material they are made of, the heat in the resulting liquid metal will be 5 times what was displaced by the Aquatuner. This trick is particularly useful to melt Steel.pngSteel Molten Steel.png, since Molten Steel.pngLiquid Steel Steel Gas.png Steel.png is used for a wide array of advanced industrial processes.

Tips

Despite the similar SHC, Nectar.pngNectar Steam.png Sucrose (Spaced Out).png Ice.png Sucrose (Spaced Out).png The Frosty Planet Pack is needed to unlock this content and Polluted Water.pngPolluted Water Steam.png Resource Dirt.png Polluted Ice.png should be picked over Water.pngWater Steam.png Ice.png for the -82.5 °C / -116.5 °F and -20.65 °C / -5.17 °F freezing points, respectively. Maintenance on burst pipes tends to be very tricky, so the low freezing point provides much more wiggle room when trying to balance the coolant receiver.

While Liquid Nuclear Waste.pngNuclear Waste Nuclear Fallout.png Uranium Ore.png Spaced Out is needed to unlock this content can be used to move very large amounts of heat, care must be taken as to not let it go below the relatively high freezing point of 26.85 °C / 80.33 °F, and the pipe network doesn't stop. When stops, the nuclear waste becomes "contained" in the Aquatuner, which will make it leak from the Aquatuner.

See also

This content is added by The Frosty Planet Pack.Ice Liquefier.pngIce Liquefier
Ice Maker.pngIce Maker
Liquid Tepidizer.pngLiquid Tepidizer
Oil Well.pngOil Well
Ore Scrubber.pngOre Scrubber
Space Heater.pngSpace Heater
Sweepy Dock.pngSweepy Dock
Tempshift Plate.pngTempshift Plate
Thermo Aquatuner.pngThermo Aquatuner
Thermo Regulator.pngThermo Regulator
This content is added by The Frosty Planet Pack.Wood Heater.pngWood Heater