Heater
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Heater
A device that converts electricity into heat. It can automatically turn itself on or off to reach a specific target temperature.
Base Stats
- Type
- Building – Temperature
- Market Value
- 131
[Note] - Mass
- 6 kg
- HP
- 100
- Flammability
- 50%
- Path Cost
- 30 (30%)
Building
- Size
- 1 × 1
- Minifiable
- True
- Placeable
- True
- Passability
- pass through only
- Cover Effectiveness
- 40%
- Blocks Wind
- True
- Terrain Affordance
- Light
- Power
- -175 W
- Light Radius
- 1.65
Creation
- Required Research
- Electricity
- Skill Required
- Construction 5
- Work To Make
- 1,000 ticks (16.67 secs)
- Resources to make
50 + 
1- Deconstruct yield
- 25 + 0 - 1
- Destroy yield
- 12 - 13 + 0 - 1
- thingCategories
- BuildingsTemperature
The heater is a device that can be used to raise the temperature in a room.
Acquisition
Constructing a passive cooler requires Electricity to be researched, which New Arrivals start with. It requires 50 Steel, 1 Component and is constructed in 1,000 ticks (16.67 secs).
Summary
Heaters are placed on the floor; unlike most objects, they can't be rotated. If hooked with sufficent power, a heater will start heating the room it's in to the target temperature. Rooms won't change temperature unless they are enclosed and have a mostly complete roof. Heaters require no specific placement within the room: a heater in the corner of a room will heat the space as efficiently as a heater in its center. Heat will naturally spread throughout rooms, sped up by vents. One heater can only warm so much, and factors like room size may make the target unreachable - see Temperature for more details.
Heaters have two states of power consumption: low and high. A heater that is actively heating a room will consume 175W (high power), regardless of the thermostat setting. Once the goal temperature is reached, the heater will transition to its low power state where it only uses 18W. If the room's surroundings are colder, then the room will constantly be spreading heat (and low power mode won't be sustained). If you have multiple heaters in a room, you can exploit this by having each one be 1 degree higher than the last - one will actively cool the room, while the others will be in low power state.
Heaters can theoretically warm up to 1800 degrees, total - 1 tile by 1800 degrees, 50 tiles by 36 degrees - but this is before considering heat leakage. Simple testing reveals that with an exterior temperature of -17 °C (1.4 °F), a single heater with a target temperature of about 20 °C (68 °F) can maintain a room with a 9x9 exterior. A single heater with a target temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) can maintain a room with an 11x11 exterior.
In addition to providing heat, the heater will illuminate each tile surrounding it with ~50% light level (Lit), dropping to <10% light level (Dark) at two tiles.
Analysis
Heaters are very helpful in cold biomes, and useful in temperate biomes during winter or a cold snap. If a pawn is too far below their Minimum Comfortable Temperature, they are vulnerable to the potentially lethal Hypothermia and Frostbite, and recieve the Cold negative moodlet. Warm clothing like parkas instead increase the comfortable temperature range, but clothes must be fitted for every pawn. A colonist sleeping under 6 °C (42.8 °F) gives them the -4 Slept in the cold moodlet, regardless of warm clothing.
Heating is necessary to grow crops outside of their growing season. As heaters require an enclosed and roofed room to function, a sun lamp must be used to provide light. This is the only way to grow crops in extreme biomes like an ice sheet. Hydroponics, combined with a heater and sun lamp, may be used to grow crops where there is no soil.
If resources and/or electricity is unavailable, a campfire may be used instead. They are much less efficent than a heater and wood-fired generator, and their temperature can't be controlled - pawns may instead be disgruntled by the heat.
Version history
- 0.8.657 - Added