Pipe Convection Radiator

The pipe convection radiator is placed on a gas line and enlarges its surface towards the surroundings. It needs no power and has no controls. What it does depends only on temperatures:

• If the gas in the network is warmer than the surroundings, it gives off heat – it cools the network.
• If it is colder, it takes in heat – it then acts as a heater for the network.

How strongly is shown by the heat values in the game data. Its convection – the exchange with the surrounding air – is 1.05, while a straight pipe piece only reaches 0.005. So one radiator does about as much as 200 pipe pieces. Its radiation value is 0.79.

Convection needs air. In vacuum, i.e. on the Moon, Mimas or in space, only radiation remains. There the flat version, the Pipe Radiator, suits better: it is the other way round, radiation 3.46, convection 0.23. Both come from the same Kit (Pipe Radiator) from the Hydraulic Pipe Bender and are removed with the wrench.

In practice that means: many small radiators on a waste-heat loop outdoors. Make sure the loop stays warmer than the outside air – on Vulcan, where nights do not drop below about 127 °C, a cooler loop would otherwise pull heat in. For more capacity there is the Medium Convection Radiator, for liquid the Liquid Pipe Convection Radiator. More in Heat exchangers and heat transport: pipe to pipe, gas to liquid.