Difference between revisions of "Sun lamp"

Revision as of 06:13, 21 November 2022

Acquisition

It is constructed with 40 Steel in 330 ticks (5.5 secs) after Electricity has been researched.

Summary

A sun lamp consumes 2900 W of power from 06:00 to 19:12, consuming an average of -1595 W⋅Days. While online, it provides 100% light within a 5-tile radius. This allows crops like rice plant to grow in a roofed room. Due to RimWorld's temperature mechanics, an enclosed room is required to actually heat or cool an area. As the sun doesn't always provide 100% light at day, a sun lamp causes plants to grow somewhat faster.

Powered lamps provide 30% light in a 13-tile radius, which is enough to prevent penalties for being in darkness. They also heat a room by 3 °C (37.4 °F) per second, which is spread between each tile.

Rain or snow on a powered sun lamp will cause short circuits and fires. A roof will prevent this.

Analysis

An efficient pattern to fit multiple sun lamps together. There are 10 empty tiles per sun lamp, half as many as in a simple grid pattern.

A sun lamp's main purpose is to create growing zones indoors, often called greenhouses. This allows plants to grow in the winter, when used with a heater. In extremely hot biomes, you might need coolers to grow during in the summer. Even in an "year-round" growing season, unpredictable events such as toxic fallout and volcanic winters can disrupt plant growth. Double-width walls provide more insulation against temperature changes, and potentially save on heater/cooler costs.

Solar flares will cut the power, so prepare a shelf with emergency wood to build campfires to keep the room temperature above -10°C/14°F (below which most plants will rapidly die).

As they cannot be grown under roofs, trees such as pine, birch, saguaro or cocoa trees may not be grown in completely closed greenhouses. They may only be grown in greenhouses with roofs open in a grid pattern, and those leak a lot of temperature-controlled air.

Power

If you have biofuel refineries available, you can use food produced by hydroponics to fuel chemfuel generators to help power the greenhouse array. This is so efficient that it violates thermodynamics, and leaves you with spare food for your colonists as well.

Otherwise, 2 solar generators are roughly enough to power a single sun lamp, not counting any hydroponics basins.

Hydroponics

Sun lamps can be used in ordinary soil. But as the power cost of a sun lamp of very high, building a room of hydroponics basins helps with making the most of the limited growing area per lamp. Hydroponics will boost soil fertility to 280%, twice that of rich soil. However, each basin costs 100 W and only covers 4 tiles. Due to the how light works, only 96% of a lamp's area can be used in hydroponics at a time; see below for an arrangement.

96% hydroponics, tightly nested together.

Version history

0.17.1546 - Now turn themselves off when plants are resting.

Architect

Furniture: Animal bed • Animal sleeping box • Animal sleeping spot • Bedroll (Double) • Plant pot • Sculptures (Small, Large, Grand, Terror ) • Sleeping spot (Double, Baby ) • Stool • Table (1x2, 2x2, 2x4, 3x3) • Torch lamp • Wall torch lamp • Wall lamp • Animus stone • Darktorch • Fungus darktorch • Crib
Complex Furniture: Armchair • Bed (Double) • Bookcase (Small) • Couch • Dining chair • Dresser • End table • Royal bed • Shelf (Small) • Brazier (Darklight ) • Drape • Grand meditation throne • Meditation throne • Slab bed (Double) • Baby decoration • Blackboard • School desk • Toy box
(research): Flood light • Hospital bed • Standing lamp • Sun lamp • Bonsai pot
(uncraftable): Urn • Blood torch

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+'''Sun lamps''' provide artificial light in the absence of sunlight, such as an indoor growing zone.
-'''Sun lamps''' provide artificial light to roofed growing zones (greenhouses) at high power expense (2,900 watts). This not only speeds up plant growth, but allows a colony a roofed "indoors" area to temperature-control its growing fields, and protects the crops from unpredictable events such as [[Events#Toxic_fallout|toxic fallout]] and [[Events#Volcanic_winter|volcanic winter]]s. It is constructed with {{Required Resources}} in {{Ticks|{{P|Work To Make}}}} after [[Research#Electricity|Electricity]] has been researched.
+==Acquisition==
+It is constructed with {{Required Resources}} in {{Ticks|{{P|Work To Make}}}} after [[Research#Electricity|Electricity]] has been researched.
-A sun lamp will [[Environment#Light|illuminate]] tiles within a five-tile radius at 100%, enough for any crops to grow, and then another 8 tiles beyond that (13 total) at over 30%, enough for colonists to move and perform any work without penalty. The lamp blueprint will show the outline of its ''plant-growing'' light radius until it is placed. Once the blueprint has been placed, the light radius won't be visible again until the lamp has been built (but you can easily select "Build copy" and place it over the original to renew the visual footprint for quick reference).
+==Summary==
+A sun lamp consumes 2900 W of [[power]] from 06:00 to 19:12, consuming an average of {{#expr: (0.8-0.25)*{{P|Power Consumption #}}}} W⋅Days. While online, it provides 100% [[light]] within a 5-tile radius. This allows [[crop]]s like [[rice|rice plant]] to grow in a [[roof]]ed room. Due to RimWorld's [[temperature]] mechanics, an enclosed room is required to actually heat or cool an area. As the sun doesn't always provide 100% light at day, a sun lamp causes plants to grow somewhat faster.
-Multiple overlapping sunlamps do not add to the speed of crop growth; once crops have the light they need, they don't need any more.
+Powered lamps provide 30% light in a 13-tile radius, which is enough to prevent penalties for being in darkness. They also heat a room by {{temperature|3}} per second, which is spread between each tile.
-Once installed, the lamp menu offers the option to create a growing zone that matches that lit radius (100 tiles in total and excluding the center tile occupied by the lamp itself).
+[[Rain]] or [[snow]] on a powered sun lamp will cause [[short circuit]]s and [[fire]]s. A [[roof]] will prevent this.
-Sun lamps automatically turn themselves on at 06:00, and then off again at 19:12 to save power while the plants are resting. This energy-use pattern means that while they have a peak power draw of {{P|Power Consumption}} W, they only consume {{#expr: (0.8-0.25)*{{P|Power Consumption #}}}} W⋅Days, and that they can be efficiently powered by solar panels.
+==Analysis==
+[[File:Optimal_sunlamps.png|175px|left|thumb|An efficient pattern to fit multiple sun lamps together. There are 10 empty tiles per sun lamp, half as many as in a simple grid pattern.]]
-A sun lamp heats at a rate of 3 heat per second (see [[Sun lamp#Greenhouses|greenhouses]], below). <sup>{{hover title|Provides comparison with other heat sources but doesn't explain how much it actually heats|[Exact mechanic unclear]}}</sup>
+A sun lamp's main purpose is to create growing zones indoors, often called greenhouses. This allows plants to grow in the winter, when used with a [[heater]]. In extremely hot [[biome]]s, you might need coolers to grow during in the summer. Even in an "year-round" growing season, unpredictable events such as [[Events#Toxic_fallout|toxic fallout]] and [[Events#Volcanic_winter|volcanic winter]]s can disrupt plant growth. Double-width walls provide more insulation against temperature changes, and potentially save on heater/cooler costs.
-[[File:SimpleGreenhouse.png|300px|thumb| A sun lamp in a simple greenhouse, with four 1x4 hydroponics basins (in the shape of a "+"). Heaters are in the lower corners. Doubling the outer walls would provide better insulation against the freezing temperatures outside.]]
+[[Events#Solar flare|Solar flares]] will cut the power, so prepare a [[shelf]] with emergency wood to build [[campfire]]s to keep the room temperature above -10°C/14°F (below which most plants will rapidly die).
-=== Short circuits ===
+As they cannot be grown under roofs, trees such as pine, birch, saguaro or cocoa trees may not be grown in completely closed greenhouses.  They may only be grown in greenhouses with roofs open in a grid pattern, and those leak a lot of temperature-controlled air.
-Rain on a powered sun lamp will cause [[short circuit]]s and [[fire]]s. A [[roof]] will prevent this.*
-If the area is unroofed, you can simply switch the sun lamp off during rain to prevent shorts. In biomes with a growing season, turning off the sun lamp and removing the roof can help save power when the weather is warm.
+=== Power ===
+If you have [[Biofuel refinery|biofuel refineries]] available, you can use food produced by hydroponics to fuel chemfuel generators to help power the greenhouse array. This is so efficient that it violates thermodynamics, and leaves you with spare food for your colonists as well.
-: (* When planning/building a greenhouse larger than the growing area covered by the sun lamp itself (e.g. for stockpiles, multiple sun lamps or other structures), remember that <u>a roof will collapse if further than 6 tiles</u> from a [[wall]] or [[column]], which is only 1 tile further than the sun lamp's effective growing radius. The four unlit "corners" beyond that footprint (see image, below) are safe places to plan for this sort of expansion.)
+Otherwise, 2 [[solar generator]]s are roughly enough to power a single sun lamp, not counting any hydroponics basins.
-[[File:Optimal_sunlamps.png|175px|thumb|An efficient pattern to fit multiple sun lamps together. There are 10 empty tiles per sun lamp, half as many as in a simple grid pattern.]]
+=== Hydroponics ===
+Sun lamps can be used in ordinary soil. But as the power cost of a sun lamp of very high, building a room of [[hydroponics basin]]s helps with making the most of the limited growing area per lamp. Hydroponics will boost soil [[fertility]] to 280%, twice that of rich soil. However, each basin costs 100 W and only covers 4 tiles. Due to the how light works, only 96% of a lamp's area can be used in hydroponics at a time; see below for an arrangement.
-== Greenhouses ==
-Sun lamps allow indoor growing but don't produce significant* heat for an area as large as they light, so [[heater]]s may be required to attain proper conditions for plant growth.  [[Events#Solar flare|Solar flares]] will cut the power, so prepare a [[shelf]] with emergency wood to build [[campfire]]s to keep the room temperature above -10°C/14°F (below which most plants will rapidly die). Double-width walls provide more insulation against temperature changes (and thus save power on [[heater]]s or [[cooler]]s), as well as offering better protection from attacks.
-: (* Experimentation shows that sun lamps can significantly heat a very small space, but not a full "growing area". In a 10°C (50°F) environment (the minimum [[Plants#Temperature|temperature for plants]] to grow), a single sun lamp in a 1x2 space, surrounded by double walls, heated to a final maximum of around 85-90°C (185-190°F). However that same lone sun lamp in an 11x11 double-walled space (a square fitting the growing area lit by the sun lamp, similar to the image above right) only slowly heated to around 18°C (65°F) over the course of a day before it turned back off. So it certainly contributes, but by itself is only a small buffer against dropping temperatures.)
-Sun lamps with crops placed on dirt (as opposed to a complex [[hydroponics]] set up) can allow growth of crops even during a toxic fallout, or in a cold biome with no growing season. If you maintain proper growing temperature, a dirt floor greenhouse will have 100% fertility on normal soil and 140% on fertile soil.
-As they cannot be grown under roofs, trees such as pine, birch, saguaro or cocoa trees may not be grown in completely closed greenhouses.  They may only be grown in greenhouses with roofs open in a grid pattern, and those leak a lot of temperature-controlled air.
-[[File:SunlampHydroponics.png|200px|thumb|left|96% hydroponics, tightly nested together.]]
-[[Hydroponics basin]]s boost plant growth to 280% speed and do not require soil. However, they can only grow certain crops and are ''absolutely'' dependent on electricity. If a hydroponics basin loses power, all plants growing there will die quickly, leaving little time to harvest what can be salvaged. The (optimal?) configuration in the image (left) fits 24 hydroponics basins under a single sun lamp, for a total of 96 hydroponic growing spaces and only 4 grow-lit dirt tiles.
-If you have [[Biofuel refinery|biofuel refineries]] available, you can use food produced by hydroponics to fuel chemfuel generators to help power the greenhouse array. This is so efficient that it violates thermodynamics, and leaves you with spare food for your colonists as well.
-(In 1.0 you need to place the sun lamp's growing zone manually. It can be made as a plus sign (+) in which each line is 5 tiles wide by 11 tiles long, with a 9 by 9 square in the middle. You can use the Planning tool to map this zone before placing your sun lamp.)
+[[File:SunlampHydroponics.png|200px|thumb|center|96% hydroponics, tightly nested together.]]
 == Version history ==