Cool Steam Vents

[bashkov]

Hiyo.

 

Anybody aware of the max output of a cool steam vent? Mine doesn't seem to be functioning. Vacuumed the area out in sandbox to make sure and it's still surrounded in vacuum despite saying it's outputting 7.3kg/s of steam.

 

Sure I saw something on a redit post not long ago about a 7kg limit?

 

Thanks in advance.

[fox_kirya]

This method of allowing vents and geysers to erupt being overpressured doesn't work anymore. They just don't erupt and don't show anything in a tooltip.

[bashkov]

What do you mean by "this method"? I'm just trying to cool it down but it doesn't erupt?

[Rogue Witch]

I think the steam is almost immediately being condensed to water and so you dont see any steam.

[KittenIsAGeek]

8 hours ago, bashkov said:

Anybody aware of the max output of a cool steam vent? Mine doesn't seem to be functioning. Vacuumed the area out in sandbox to make sure and it's still surrounded in vacuum despite saying it's outputting 7.3kg/s of steam.

I see in your tooltip that your vent is emitting 7.3kg/s of steam.  You have your vent in a very small room.  What is likely happening is that its emitting steam for one or two seconds and becoming over-pressurized before the steam can condense into water.  Without a heat overlay, I can't tell you for certain, but that's my suspicion.  The insulated tiles are keeping the heat near the steam, meaning that only the steam touching the water can condense into water.  That water is high enough that steam can only emit from the very top tiles of the vent -- even with your upper most tempshift plating. 

Basically, a vent can only emit if the overall pressure is less than 5kg in any regions that it will emit to.  Since you're emitting 7.3kg/s, one second of eruption will instantly fill 1 tile with over 5kg of steam.  There are only two tiles where the vent will emit to that aren't currently covered by water.  Pump the room out until you have only one tile deep of water at the bottom and your geyser may start functioning correctly.

3 minutes ago, Rogue Witch said:

I think the steam is almost immediately being condensed to water and so you dont see any steam.

It isn't.  Its getting deleted.

To be more clear: I've observed in my own steam vents that when there is too much of the vent covered, one of two things will happen: It will say 'overpressure' because it is, or it will be detecting pressure at a point that the steam can't get to, so it will emit the steam which will immediately get destroyed.

[bashkov]

thanks will give it a try!

[bashkov]

Thanks sucking out some water helped!

[Steve Raptor]

The tile that emits steam is the 2nd one from the bottom of the vent to the left.

Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that this tile is covered and messes up the steam emission.

[nakomaru]

The emission tile is indeed the 2nd right/2nd up from the bottom left above the neutronium.

But the over pressure check is less than 5kg in any tile in a plus shape around that tile.

Your 3rd layer has 5kg of water in this image.

It has nothing do with output rate.

[bashkov]

Yeah cheers guys, managed to get it working after turning on the pump. Now I just have to figure out what the hell to do with so much water!

[Gurgel]

10 hours ago, nakomaru said:

The emission tile is indeed the 2nd right/2nd up from the bottom left above the neutronium.

But the over pressure check is less than 5kg in any tile in a plus shape around that tile.

Excellent information. I always though the check was just the 3rd horizontal from the bottom.

[beowulf2010]

6 hours ago, bashkov said:

Yeah cheers guys, managed to get it working after turning on the pump. Now I just have to figure out what the hell to do with so much water!

Honestly? Either store it in an overpressure storage unit or dump it in an ice biome to start melting it for more water to store. 

Or run it through an electrolizer or two and store the gasses in overpressure storage tanks in preparation for liquid hydrogen rockets. 

[bashkov]

Totes, got too much water. Slush geyser, salt water geyser 2 steam vents. Made a petroleum boiler and that gives me more water then I put in to it. Guess I can stick it all into reed fibre and forget about it.

[KittenIsAGeek]

In my bases, I tend to intentionally build complexes around vents and geysers to regulate whatever they produce.  I try to give a containment area that holds enough to get me through a dormant period.  For example, in my current map, I'm producing about 20 bristle blooms and producing oxygen for 10 dupes.  I have captured two cool steam vents that tend to have alternating dormant periods, and individually produce enough water to cover my needs.  Since their dormant periods occasionally overlap, I have a series of containment pools (at various temperatures) that will cover my needs should both become dormant at the same time.  During all other periods, they will occasionally over-pressure, especially during times when they're both active.  I don't need to keep ALL their water; I just need to keep enough to get me to the next active cycle.

This also means that I have to keep an eye on their activity and not do something stupid like build a new 40 bristle bloom farm right at the start of a double-dormancy. ... Oops.

[Steve Raptor]

Just a thought...

Wouldn't it be faster and easier to just pump the water out of the geyser into an aqua tuner loop and cool it down to a desired temperature?

[beowulf2010]

4 hours ago, Steve Raptor said:

Just a thought...

Wouldn't it be faster and easier to just pump the water out of the geyser into an aqua tuner loop and cool it down to a desired temperature?

Yes and no.  If you know you need 100% of the output of the geyser at a specific temperature, then sure, this is a fine idea.

In reality, it's better to store the barely condensed water at 95C or so and only cool what you need as you need it with a smaller reservoir at the desired temperature, which is what Kitten is doing with their containment pools. Sure, it costs an extra pump or three, but those are cheap in the mid-late game.

[Steve Raptor]

5 hours ago, beowulf2010 said:

Yes and no.  If you know you need 100% of the output of the geyser at a specific temperature, then sure, this is a fine idea.

In reality, it's better to store the barely condensed water at 95C or so and only cool what you need as you need it with a smaller reservoir at the desired temperature, which is what Kitten is doing with their containment pools. Sure, it costs an extra pump or three, but those are cheap in the mid-late game.

Its pretty much what I do in my games.

I pump the water out of the geyser into reservoirs and from there to electrolyzers.

I just never found a reason to start "taming" those vents and enclosing them.

[beowulf2010]

48 minutes ago, Steve Raptor said:

I just never found a reason to start "taming" those vents and enclosing them.

I enclose and tame them purely to not waste any of the output. I'm a border at heart. 

[zOldBulldog]

Reading this thread it is obvious that there are many different ideas, but a consensus seems to be forming about the "best practice" :

• If you have a special immediate use for the vent, use it for that.
• If you don't have an immediate use, take the water out immediately and put it into overpressure storage until you figure out what to do with it, so that you don't waste production.

Correct?