Heat Exchangers – Guide

Heat exchangers with display, data connection, bypass control and IC10. Two circuits exchange heat without mixing.

Devices#

All are 0.75 m high and stand on the floor. "kW/K" is meant in game watts like every power value in the game (joules per tick).

How it works#

• Flow: the exchanger does not pump. Whatever pumps or a pressure drop push from inlet to outlet flows through – just like the game's counter-flow heat exchanger. Without flow the display shows "NO FLOW".
• Heat exchange: calculated with the epsilon-NTU method. The larger the heat transfer compared to the flow, the closer the outlets get to the inlet temperature of the other side. Counter flow exchanges more than cross flow.
• Energy: heat is only moved from one side to the other. No stream is cooled below the inlet temperature of the other. The mod checks the balance every tick (wt info, IC10 address 19).
• Bypass: on side A an adjustable share flows past the plates and is mixed back in at the outlet.
• Control: in mode AUTO A the device holds the outlet of side A at the target temperature, in AUTO B the outlet of side B – using the bypass. If the target is out of reach, the valve stays at its stop and the "Auto" LED flashes red.
• Power: 10 W for display, controller and valve. Without power it keeps exchanging passively, valve and control stop.
• Main switch off: no heat exchange, the fluid keeps flowing through the bypass.

Ground probe#

• Terrain only: at least a quarter of the large grid cell below the probe head must be rock.
• Soil temperature = mean of the world's day and night temperature: Mars −23 °C, Europa −144 °C, Venus 464 °C, Vulcan 414 °C. Worlds without atmosphere: −40 °C (adjustable).
• Each 2 m grid cell has one ground store of 50 MJ/K. The probe takes from it or gives to it exactly the heat the fluid gains or loses. The store recovers at 1 kW/K towards the soil temperature. Several probes in the same cell share it.
• Example Mars, water at 30 °C, 2.7 L/s: about 140 kW at first, after a few hours the output settles at about 38 kW – the terrain gives no more.

Building#

• Pipes at floor level: A in right, A out left, B in and B out at the back (seen from the front). Ground probe: inlet right, outlet left.
• Colour ring on the connection: yellow = gas, blue = liquid.
• Power and data on one cable at the back (plate and compact 0.5 m up, ground probe on the floor).
• Built like the game air conditioner: kit, then two pipe kits (liquid pipe kits for liquid), then two cable coils with the screwdriver.
• Rotate with C + mouse wheel, paint with spray can or spray gun (the housing takes the colour).

Recipes (Hydraulic Pipe Bender)#

One kit builds all media of its type, the mouse wheel picks.

Controls#

• Main switch on/off
• - and +: in mode MANUAL the bypass in 10 % steps, otherwise the target temperature in 1 °C steps
• MODE: MANUAL → AUTO A → AUTO B (ground probe: MANUAL ↔ AUTO)
• PAGE < >: display pages 1–5 (overview, side A, side B or ground, control, statistics)
• LEDs: run, heat (orange A → B, blue B → A), auto (green at target, yellow on the way, red out of reach), fault, data
• Sounds (all from the game, the same for all players): quiet rush (gas) or trickle (liquid) only while exchanging, louder with more power; valve actuator when the bypass moves; a click per button; main switch; warning tone when a fault occurs

IC10#

get/put (address): 0 signed heat (W), 1 effectiveness, 2 bypass actual, 3 bypass setpoint (put), 4 target K (put), 5 mode (put), 6/7 flow A/B mol/s, 8/9 flow A/B L/s, 10 state, 11 transferred kWh, 12 operating hours, 13 display page (put), 14 UA, 15 plate effectiveness without bypass, 16 ground store K, 17 soil temperature K, 18 recharge W, 19 energy balance of the last tick (J). clr resets the statistics.

State (address 10): 0 off, 1 exchanging, 2 target reached, 3 no flow, 4 equalised, 5 pipe missing, 6 no ground, 7 target too far, 8 no power.

Example – hold outlet A at 20 °C (the device is named "Cooler"):

define WT 1636894507       # plate heat exchanger S (gas - liquid)
define TARGET 293.15                           # 20 °C
define AUTOA 1                                 # mode: control outlet A
alias tOut r0
sbn WT HASH("Cooler") Mode AUTOA
sbn WT HASH("Cooler") Setting TARGET
start:
lbn tOut WT HASH("Cooler") TemperatureOutput 0
yield
j start

Console commands (F3)#

• wt status – all heat exchangers with values, nearest first
• wt info – nearest heat exchanger in detail (UA, effectiveness, energy balance)
• wt types – all types with prefab hash and UA
• wt ground – soil temperature and all ground stores
• wt page 1-5 – display page of all heat exchangers within 10 m
• wt reset – statistics to 0
• wt sounds – sounds of the nearest heat exchanger (events, flow, valve)
• wt selftest – test stand 30 m above you (host/single player)

Settings (LaunchPad)#

UaKompakt, UaPlatteS, UaPlatteM, UaPlatteL, UaErdsondeGas, UaErdsondeFluessig (heat transfer), VentilSekunden (bypass valve travel time), ZielStandardC, ErdreichMJjeK, NachstromWjeK, BodenAutomatisch, BodenFestC, BodenOhneLuftC, LeerlaufW, SichtweiteM.

Troubleshooting#

• "NO FLOW": the exchanger does not pump. Put a pump in the circuit or make sure the inlet has more pressure than the outlet.
• "PIPE MISSING": an inlet or outlet is not connected. Gas and liquid sides need the matching pipe (colour ring).
• "NO GROUND": the ground probe does not stand on terrain (e.g. on frames) – deconstruct it and build it directly on the ground.
• "TARGET TOO FAR": the target temperature cannot be reached with this size and flow. Use a bigger exchanger, reduce the flow or make the coolant colder.
• Display dark: no power or switched off. The exchange still runs without power.
• No flow noise: it only rushes while heat is exchanged (from about 20 W) and you are closer than 12 m. Bypass 100 %, switched off or no flow = silent.
• Little output with gas: gas carries little heat. More pressure in the circuit or a turbo volume pump helps.
• Gas pipe damaged: if steam is cooled below its dew point, water condenses in the gas pipe – the game does not like that. Do not run gas-liquid exchangers that cold, or add a condensate separator.