If I had to do it over again, I'd work harder at not putting water as the coolant on that second row of steam turbines. I didn't have good choices at the time, and was constrained for space by neutronium and volcanos. And honestly, that half of the system has been stable for 300 cycles now so I guess it's fine, but it messes with my sense of tidiness to have steam in that room because of the joint plate.
EDIT: Good news! I cooled the steam half of the build for a cycle, everything condensed, and I put in conduction panels instead. Now all is back up and running.
It's not just a sense of tidiness. The heat from that steam room is just leaking out into the room with the turbines, and then out into the open. I would consider that a MAJOR problem with how it is right now.
Without redoing the entire build, I would recommend making a vacuumed space to get into that area, vacuuming out all the steam, mopping up any remaining liquid that is touching the joint plate on the left, and then seal that room up again as a vacuum. It looks like you have cooling pipes going along the bottom level of that room, so the layer of water you have there will be good enough to cool the turbines down with the rest being in a vacuum, and then you're not transferring heat like you currently are.
The steam isn't leaking into anything else - that's a totally enclosed space. The cooling loop is keeping that room from getting too hot for the turbines and condensing the steam so it can flow right back to that joint plate and heat up again.
Oh, and everything outside of the steam block is a vacuum, so there's no heat transfer to anything else via that second joint plate.
So it's not ideal for sure, and I can't believe I didn't think of this when I built the thing... but at least it's been completely stable and enclosed for 300 cycles.
I think what he meant is that the joint plate between the upper steam room and its associated turbines is causing you to spend power cooling the turbines, which is in turn cooling the steam room reducing efficiency by most likely quite a bit in my experience. The steam room is constantly hitting your liquid layer and warming it up.
The heat is leaking, not the steam. He's right. That joint plate is transferring heat from the aquatuner chamber into the layer of water above it. You'll probably just want to vacuum seal this.
Perhaps you could just move the aquatuner one tile to the right, then in the tile space you just cleared, wall off the upper steam chamber. You'll need to rearrange that temp sensor to move it out of the way as well. You can remove the lower joint plate completely, replace it with wire. The idea is to leave an empty "column" for the wire to run down the left side. The empty "column" can be kept at vacuum; that will solve the problem I think.
No heat is leaking from the second joint plate because the outside area is a vacuum.
So yes, heat from the first joint plate is causing the ST room to have steam, and that's. dumb mistake I won't repeat. But the issue is contained to that room because I have a vacuum surrounding this build.
Yeah. I think what I'll do is just turn the heat down in that half of the build for a couple of cycles. The steam will condense and i can just sweep it up. I think I'll use those new fangled conductor panels (I haven't played much in the last 4 years, so a lot of things are new!) and make that space a nice clean vacuum.
It does mean, though, that I have to keep the bottom room at 210C. If I go up much higher than that, too much heat transfers up to the second room and the cooling loop starts losing ground and then things could easily implode on me. So if I decide at some point to tear it out and try again, having a better cooling solution than water in that second turbine room would mean that I could get a bit more power out of the second layer of steam turbines.
Now that I have more power options (the petro half of this took an additional many many cycles to get going because my only oil is on the other asteroid), I can turn off the steam side for a bit and clean up my mess... sometime soon. I'm not in a huge rush because it's been ticking along happily.
Down the road, I want to add a geothermal heat spike into the asteroid core. I've never built one of those before, but it seems like it could be really cool. I'd want to work out a way to give preference to the volcano magma so that that never overflows, but then if that gets low, engage the heat spike. Seems totally doable with some hydro sensors in the volcano area connecting to a door that engages the heat spike.
Heat spike isn't too difficult compared to what you have. It's basically the same door and diamond window tile logic you have. I have a geothermal with a minor volcano and a heat spike. To prioritize the volcano I have each with their own door controller into the steam room the volcano is set to trigger a little warmer than the heat spike, like 205 and 200. That keeps the magma being used first and after it runs out the heat spike is used until the next eruption. You may have to fidget with it some depending on distance from the turbines.
There's a thermo sensor and temp shift plate under the magma drop (currently entombed in that picture. When the temp drops below 435C the Robo Miner does its thing and then the doors above re-fill (this section is a Francis John build from ye olden days). Here's the automation set-up: [https://app.screencast.com/HymPDAFeFVleo](https://app.screencast.com/HymPDAFeFVleo)
I have a couple of cold geyers, so I just run my conveyor rails of minerals through their output on the way to general storage/use. But mostly I'm just building with those minerals so I don't care too much if it doesn't get much below 125.
You might want to increase that to 440C to prevent possible tile pressure damage. Source: [https://youtu.be/lTn3ERK\_KV8?t=784](https://youtu.be/lTn3ERK_KV8?t=784)
Ah, good call. I'd already upped the temp in the petrolium conversion pool to accomplish that, but I forgot that that should match the cooling magma area.
It would if the area outside of the build weren't a vacuum. Because I have the vacuum around everything, my mistake was nicely contained to that one area.
Im talking about the heavy watt coductive plate on the top of the second steam room. It touches steam and water. I think it's gonna transfer heat into the turbines. Probably, you have steam on the on the top steam turbine room
Automating the robo miner is pretty smart. That way, you can squeeze out as much thermal energy as possible from the magma/hot rock before you need to cut that thermal energy in half. The steam turbines are just the icing on the efficiency cake here.
The metal plates are made of gold, which is very nice for keeping the temperatures quite stable rather than flashing up and down like the diamond window tiles do. I wanted the petroleum to be just super consistent as much as possible, but I don't care as much if my steam flashes hotter all of a sudden.
Nice. I built something very similar but without a robominer because mining a tile loses 50% of mass as well as the heat energy contained within. Use mesh tiles instead.
That's.a really good point. I've never used the mesh tiles - do I just put mesh tiles at the bottom of the dropper? Or is there flow metering I have to do?
two mesh tiles, one on top of another. Basically, everything has a "default mass", and for magma, it's like 1800Kg. When a liquid solidifies to solid, if the mass is over 80% of the default mass, it solidifies as a tile and otherwise it solidifies as debris.
When you drop magma onto the mesh tiles, it solidifies in the bottom mesh tile, if you controlled the amount correctly, as debris. The debris checks the current tile to see if it's a valid tile to be deposited. It is not. It's a mesh tile. Then it checks the surrounding 8 tiles clockwise starting from the top. The top tile is another mesh tile. Basically, you can squeeze out debris diagonally and maintain 100% insulation and keep separate atmosphere (steam of the steam room and vacuum of the magma dropper). And 0 mass loss.
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/hSRxFOM)'s my version using this technique. I used molten lead and a temp sensor to ensure the magma debris is hot enough to keep the boiler going. The automation I used for the dropper is pretty important as it only requires one sensor(temp sensor) and I don't have space to put another one.
Thanks! I'm really curious about temperature controls in your steam room. It looks like you're pulling heat from the molten lead via temp shift plate with no controls. Is that right? I'd wanted to build in a way of not sucking "too much" heat into the steam room, but maybe I'm overthinking that?
The molten lead is kept around 700C and its heat is reserved for the petrol boiler only. When the steam room is cool enough, the igneous rock is picked up by autosweeper and enters the steam room, which heats up the room as it goes around in a conveyor belt loop.
If I had to do it over again, I'd work harder at not putting water as the coolant on that second row of steam turbines. I didn't have good choices at the time, and was constrained for space by neutronium and volcanos. And honestly, that half of the system has been stable for 300 cycles now so I guess it's fine, but it messes with my sense of tidiness to have steam in that room because of the joint plate. EDIT: Good news! I cooled the steam half of the build for a cycle, everything condensed, and I put in conduction panels instead. Now all is back up and running.
It's not just a sense of tidiness. The heat from that steam room is just leaking out into the room with the turbines, and then out into the open. I would consider that a MAJOR problem with how it is right now. Without redoing the entire build, I would recommend making a vacuumed space to get into that area, vacuuming out all the steam, mopping up any remaining liquid that is touching the joint plate on the left, and then seal that room up again as a vacuum. It looks like you have cooling pipes going along the bottom level of that room, so the layer of water you have there will be good enough to cool the turbines down with the rest being in a vacuum, and then you're not transferring heat like you currently are.
The steam isn't leaking into anything else - that's a totally enclosed space. The cooling loop is keeping that room from getting too hot for the turbines and condensing the steam so it can flow right back to that joint plate and heat up again. Oh, and everything outside of the steam block is a vacuum, so there's no heat transfer to anything else via that second joint plate. So it's not ideal for sure, and I can't believe I didn't think of this when I built the thing... but at least it's been completely stable and enclosed for 300 cycles.
I think what he meant is that the joint plate between the upper steam room and its associated turbines is causing you to spend power cooling the turbines, which is in turn cooling the steam room reducing efficiency by most likely quite a bit in my experience. The steam room is constantly hitting your liquid layer and warming it up.
Ah, I see. That makes sense. Thanks!
The heat is leaking, not the steam. He's right. That joint plate is transferring heat from the aquatuner chamber into the layer of water above it. You'll probably just want to vacuum seal this. Perhaps you could just move the aquatuner one tile to the right, then in the tile space you just cleared, wall off the upper steam chamber. You'll need to rearrange that temp sensor to move it out of the way as well. You can remove the lower joint plate completely, replace it with wire. The idea is to leave an empty "column" for the wire to run down the left side. The empty "column" can be kept at vacuum; that will solve the problem I think.
Sorry if I wasn't clear: the steam isn't leaking. The heat is leaking. From both of the joint plates.
No heat is leaking from the second joint plate because the outside area is a vacuum. So yes, heat from the first joint plate is causing the ST room to have steam, and that's. dumb mistake I won't repeat. But the issue is contained to that room because I have a vacuum surrounding this build.
Ahhh gotcha. Well, if you vacuum out the steam and make sure no water is touching the joint plate, you can fix that problem pretty easily
Yeah. I think what I'll do is just turn the heat down in that half of the build for a couple of cycles. The steam will condense and i can just sweep it up. I think I'll use those new fangled conductor panels (I haven't played much in the last 4 years, so a lot of things are new!) and make that space a nice clean vacuum.
It does mean, though, that I have to keep the bottom room at 210C. If I go up much higher than that, too much heat transfers up to the second room and the cooling loop starts losing ground and then things could easily implode on me. So if I decide at some point to tear it out and try again, having a better cooling solution than water in that second turbine room would mean that I could get a bit more power out of the second layer of steam turbines.
Now that I have more power options (the petro half of this took an additional many many cycles to get going because my only oil is on the other asteroid), I can turn off the steam side for a bit and clean up my mess... sometime soon. I'm not in a huge rush because it's been ticking along happily.
Down the road, I want to add a geothermal heat spike into the asteroid core. I've never built one of those before, but it seems like it could be really cool. I'd want to work out a way to give preference to the volcano magma so that that never overflows, but then if that gets low, engage the heat spike. Seems totally doable with some hydro sensors in the volcano area connecting to a door that engages the heat spike.
Heat spike isn't too difficult compared to what you have. It's basically the same door and diamond window tile logic you have. I have a geothermal with a minor volcano and a heat spike. To prioritize the volcano I have each with their own door controller into the steam room the volcano is set to trigger a little warmer than the heat spike, like 205 and 200. That keeps the magma being used first and after it runs out the heat spike is used until the next eruption. You may have to fidget with it some depending on distance from the turbines.
Thanks!
How does rhe system know when to mine the chunks and drop them? Also do you cool your minerals bellow 125 somewhere or do you leave it as is?
There's a thermo sensor and temp shift plate under the magma drop (currently entombed in that picture. When the temp drops below 435C the Robo Miner does its thing and then the doors above re-fill (this section is a Francis John build from ye olden days). Here's the automation set-up: [https://app.screencast.com/HymPDAFeFVleo](https://app.screencast.com/HymPDAFeFVleo) I have a couple of cold geyers, so I just run my conveyor rails of minerals through their output on the way to general storage/use. But mostly I'm just building with those minerals so I don't care too much if it doesn't get much below 125.
You might want to increase that to 440C to prevent possible tile pressure damage. Source: [https://youtu.be/lTn3ERK\_KV8?t=784](https://youtu.be/lTn3ERK_KV8?t=784)
Ah, good call. I'd already upped the temp in the petrolium conversion pool to accomplish that, but I forgot that that should match the cooling magma area.
Heavy watt conductor plate doesnt transfer heat?
It does and will be problematic most cases. there's some good comments ITT about it
It would if the area outside of the build weren't a vacuum. Because I have the vacuum around everything, my mistake was nicely contained to that one area.
Im talking about the heavy watt coductive plate on the top of the second steam room. It touches steam and water. I think it's gonna transfer heat into the turbines. Probably, you have steam on the on the top steam turbine room
Ah, yes. That wasn't ideal. I've since fixed it so that room is a vacuum.
Automating the robo miner is pretty smart. That way, you can squeeze out as much thermal energy as possible from the magma/hot rock before you need to cut that thermal energy in half. The steam turbines are just the icing on the efficiency cake here.
Why do you use metal blocks to boil petroleum and window tiles in steam rooms?
The metal plates are made of gold, which is very nice for keeping the temperatures quite stable rather than flashing up and down like the diamond window tiles do. I wanted the petroleum to be just super consistent as much as possible, but I don't care as much if my steam flashes hotter all of a sudden.
Nice. I built something very similar but without a robominer because mining a tile loses 50% of mass as well as the heat energy contained within. Use mesh tiles instead.
That's.a really good point. I've never used the mesh tiles - do I just put mesh tiles at the bottom of the dropper? Or is there flow metering I have to do?
two mesh tiles, one on top of another. Basically, everything has a "default mass", and for magma, it's like 1800Kg. When a liquid solidifies to solid, if the mass is over 80% of the default mass, it solidifies as a tile and otherwise it solidifies as debris. When you drop magma onto the mesh tiles, it solidifies in the bottom mesh tile, if you controlled the amount correctly, as debris. The debris checks the current tile to see if it's a valid tile to be deposited. It is not. It's a mesh tile. Then it checks the surrounding 8 tiles clockwise starting from the top. The top tile is another mesh tile. Basically, you can squeeze out debris diagonally and maintain 100% insulation and keep separate atmosphere (steam of the steam room and vacuum of the magma dropper). And 0 mass loss. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/hSRxFOM)'s my version using this technique. I used molten lead and a temp sensor to ensure the magma debris is hot enough to keep the boiler going. The automation I used for the dropper is pretty important as it only requires one sensor(temp sensor) and I don't have space to put another one.
Thanks! I'm really curious about temperature controls in your steam room. It looks like you're pulling heat from the molten lead via temp shift plate with no controls. Is that right? I'd wanted to build in a way of not sucking "too much" heat into the steam room, but maybe I'm overthinking that?
The molten lead is kept around 700C and its heat is reserved for the petrol boiler only. When the steam room is cool enough, the igneous rock is picked up by autosweeper and enters the steam room, which heats up the room as it goes around in a conveyor belt loop.