Is Heated Liquid bad?

[Izzy248]

Constructing a Metal Refinery and from what I can understand, heated liquid should be able to kill germs in the water like food poisoning right? So is there a downside to Heated Liquid and why I should keep it out of my main water reserve? Also what is the point of cooled liquid?

[trukogre]

Heated liquid is hot.  Hot things burn people.  Some plants like cold, some plants like hot.  Which plants do you grow? I recommend you liquid tepidize all the water in your asteroid to 85 C, after which you will quickly see why heated liquid can be a problem. Science!

[PhailRaptor]

The thing is that hot things exude that heat to the area around them.  And liquids in general are able to store a lot of heat within their volume, while also having a high per-tile density.  If you don't take measures to contain the heat, you will end up cooking your colony.  The easiest place to see where this is a problem is your greenhouse.  Berries, in particular, do not like heat, and will stop growing pretty quickly.  Another good example is Plastic.  It will melt pretty readily in a warm environment.  This will cause a lot of issues for you, like melting your Fancy Beds, Plastic Ladders, (new) Pneumatic Tubes, etc.  Next thing you know some of your metal stuff starts melting if you don't do something to stop the spread.

 

Beyond just keeping your environment at a comfortable temperature, though, temperature control is incredibly useful for a lot of purposes, and keeping a reserve of cool or cold water in a specific area can be really helpful for "resisting" the spread of heat.