Atmospheric heater
 | This article relates to content added by Anomaly (DLC). Please note that it will not be present without the DLC enabled. |
Atmospheric heater
A thermal projection device powered by scavenged shards of dark archotechnology. The device burns bioferrite to agitate gas molecules in the atmosphere, raising the local outdoor temperature. The building itself also produces huge amounts of waste heat.
Base Stats
- Type
- Building – Anomaly (Buildings)
- Market Value
- 1385
[Note] - Beauty
- -40
- HP
- 300
- Flammability
- 50%
- Rotatable
- False
- Path Cost
- 50 (21%)
Fuel
- Usable Item(s)
Bioferrite- Capacity
- 80.0
- Consumption Rate
- 8
Building
- Size
- 3 × 3
- Passability
- pass through only
- Terrain Affordance
- Heavy
- Power
- -1500 W
- Light Radius
- 2.98
- Heat Per Second
- 120
Creation
- Required Research
- Atmospheric heater
- Skill Required
- Construction 6
- Work To Make
- 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins)
- Resources to make
2 + 150 + 
150 + 
8- Deconstruct yield
- 1 + 75 + 75 + 4
- Destroy yield
- 0 - 1 + 37 - 38 + 37 - 38 + 2
- buildingTags
- Anomaly
The atmospheric heater is a building added in the Anomaly DLC that can be used to raise the outdoor temperature of the entire map.
Acquisition
Atmospheric heaters can be constructed once the atmospheric heater research project has been completed. Note that this research requires dark study to unlock. Each requires 2 Shards, 150 Bioferrite, 150 Steel, 8 Components, 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder, and a construction skill of 6.
Summary
The atmospheric heater functions similarly to a normal heater. Once built, it can be selected to set a target temperature (shared by all atmospheric heaters on the same map), and will activate when the outdoor temperature falls below the setting. Each active atmospheric heater can raise the temperature of its world tile by 10 °C (18 °F), completely unaffected by other factors like the colony's biome or its location in the world. The temperature changes at a rate of 1 °C (1.8 °F) every 1,000 ticks (16.67 secs) (unaffected by the amount of atmospheric heaters on the map), both while the temperature is raising (the heaters are active) and lowering (some or all heaters are inactive or destroyed).
Also like the heater and cooler, it has both a High power and Low power consumption. When the outdoor temperature is naturally above the target temperature, it will be at Low power and only consume 75W (5%). During High power, it will consume 1500W of power, as well as 8 Bioferrite per day. It has a fuel capacity of 80 bioferrite, allowing it to run constantly for 10 days before needing to be refueled. It can be toggled to automatically refuel, and flicked on and off to toggle power. The building does not need to be outdoors to function, and will generate a large amount of heat when indoors, outputting 120 units of heat per second, the same as an active Steam geyser.
Analysis
 | This section is a stub. You can help RimWorld Wiki by expanding it. Reason: Practicality of making the map a hotbox as a defensive measure. |
As outdoor temperature is most important for farming, the value of building an Atmospheric Heater is best compared to a farming setup using sun lamps.
A single sun lamp illuminates 100 tiles for an average of 2069W⋅Days, assuming one is using a battery to store excess power at night to use during the day. However, while the actual power required for an Atmospheric Heaters is 1500W, it also consumes bioferrite that could have been used to produce power using a bioferrite generator, which produces 4000W at the cost of 6 bioferrite per day. Thus, the real power consumption for a single Atmospheric Heater running on High is actually roughly 6833W⋅Days, or 3.3 sunlamps. This cost is compounded further in regions where a single heater isn't enough to keep the temperature above freezing during the coldest periods, such as tundra.
On the other hand, crops no longer have to be grown indoors, which allows for farming trees, and makes it easier to grow large fields of crops that cannot be grown with hydroponics, most notably devilstrand. Also, in more temperate climates, a single Atmospheric Heater can potentially be enough to allow for farming during the entire winter, and protect crops from a Cold snap. Since the atmospheric Heater only consumes bioferrite when at High Power, the actual loss in potential power from bioferrite generators will be much lower for a atmospheric Heater that only has to run for one or two quadrums a year.
For colder climates, especially those with permanent winter, the additional heat can melt snow to greatly improve map wide walk speed, and lengthen seasonal or even create year long growing periods.
Cold climates can also necessitate cold weather gear such as tuques and parkas, at the expense of protection. While not often the primary reason for employing an atmospheric heater, allowing the use of better armor is a significant buff to a colony's combat effectiveness that should be considered in colder biomes.
Gallery
Atmospheric heater idle/inactive
Atmosperic heater active
Version history
- Anomaly DLC Release - Added
