Insulated Tiles Material Choices

[crypticorb]

With the advent of the new thermal properties and the ability to view correct thermal properties of insulated tiles, I decided to test which materials were best for making insulated tiles from. The answer is... it depends.

For most all purposes, the thermal conductivity of any material used in insulated tiles is 1% of the base material. If you just want to insulate your base from external heat, or prevent heat from escaping a moderately warm area (e.g. steam geysers), use whatever material you like and is most available.

Below is a list of materials and their best uses, in order of ease of acquirement:

1. Sandstone - average material, early availability, in large quantity. Useful early game to keep base from getting hot from the outside, or early insulated pipes
2. Obsidian - above average material. Low quantity available, but early availability, and a good strong material for making high capacity reservoirs from.
3. Granite - THE KING. There is no better material for making high capacity liquid storage from, as it can withstand up to 2000Kg/m3 pressure, which equates to hundreds of meters of liquid storage. Easily available in mass quantity, and while it has relatively high conductance for a base material, insulated tiles make this negligible.
4. Igneous Rock: 2nd place. This material is easily available in massive quantity, and has average material strength. Make insulated pipes out of this stuff, as it isn't the best for making large reservoirs from, and it has the lowest thermal conductivity.
5. Sedimentary Rock: last place. This stuff is trash, feed it to your hatches. The worst at retaining liquid pressure of ANY material, and average conductance.
6. Abyssalite: I placed this last place on the list because of availability. It requires special training and lots of time to dig up, and insulated tiles take a LOT of material. Abyssalite is good for two purposes, EXTREME temperatures, and high pressures. Insulated tiles made from abyssalite can hold incredible amounts of pressure, and have next to zero conductance. Use this stuff for volcanoes and coolant reservoirs.

 

When working with anything between -50^oC and 200^oC, use any material you have easily available for a single wall of insulated tile, and it should function fine. Double the wall if you want better. Anything above or below that temperature, use abyssalite insulated tiles, as you're most likely working with steam, volcanoes, or coolant.

For high pressure and moderate temperature ranges, use granite or double thickness igneous rock insulated tiles. High capacity reservoirs is the best example for this use.

For insulated pipes, use whatever material you like. Pipes don't over-pressurize, and at 1% thermal conductivity of the base material, you can easily overcome hot geyser water running through your base with a single wheezewort. Only use abyssalite if you are running hot water directly adjacent to something like sleet wheat, and you are paranoid.

[FenrirZeroZero]

You are talking over water pressure. Are Airtight Tile no longer pressure immun? 

Otherwise a two tile thick wall with one airtight and one isulated tile out of igneous rock.

[crypticorb]

2 hours ago, FenrirZeroZero said:

You are talking over water pressure. Are Airtight Tile no longer pressure immun? 

Otherwise a two tile thick wall with one airtight and one isulated tile out of igneous rock.

Air pressure currently has zero effect on tiles. You can pump hundreds of kilograms of gas into a tiny space using door compressors with zero downsides. I use this method to keep a natural gas reservoir to tide me over the dormancy periods of my NG geysers.

If you want to create an infinitely pressurized water/oil tank, use locked manual airlocks backed by insulated tiles. The doors can withstand infinite pressure without breaking, and the insulated tiles are for the thermal insulation. I do NOT recommend doing this, as any failure in your setup will result in a water fountain and flooding, and once it's pressurized its difficult to repair or modify any buildings in the tank. 

[FenrirZeroZero]

I misstiped i wanted to say "Are Airflow Tile no longer pressure immun?"

I'm sorry for the missunderstanding. 

[crypticorb]

5 hours ago, FenrirZeroZero said:

I misstiped i wanted to say "Are Airflow Tile no longer pressure immun?"

I'm sorry for the missunderstanding. 

It appears that airflow tiles are still currently immune to water pressure, I just tested it. Refined metal tiles are not immune to high pressure.

I still would recommend against making high pressure liquid storage, because it has a possibility of being patched, and it's really easy to screw up with disastrous consequences. It isn't very hard to make large reservoirs and pump to/from them.

[FenrirZeroZero]

Well it would be an hilarius end of an colony if it was flooded be ultra pressured lava/ice cold polluted water ^^

[KittenIsAGeek]

something similar happens during the intro video clip just before all of the Rhymes with Play streamcasts...

[crypticorb]

8 minutes ago, FenrirZeroZero said:

Well it would be an hilarius end of an colony if it was flooded be ultra pressured lava/ice cold polluted water ^^

That is precisely why I recommend not doing it. And it happened with super cooled oil just before Klei added in a freeze point for crude oil, so I came back to a base completely flooded with frozen solid oil.

RIP Uncomfortable_Spaceprison.sav

[KittenIsAGeek]

5 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

That is precisely why I recommend not doing it. And it happened with super cooled oil just before Klei added in a freeze point for crude oil, so I came back to a base completely flooded with frozen solid oil.

RIP Uncomfortable_Spaceprison.sav

That must have been frustrating at the time. It makes an awesome story, however.

[Oozinator]

Insulated pipes give me weird results..
Are tiles different, when it comes to isolation?
They are quick cooling down.
Was it not so before R2, that only for extreme temperatures abbyssalite was needed(isolated tiles/pipes)?



Tested it.. When i place granite tiles on radiant pipes (quickest result), quickly changing temperature..


Edit: Here two cycles later...


Edit2: Here two more cycles later...

[chemie]

We lost the insulated bridge a few updates ago so that forces abslytte

[eggsvbacon]

On 4/30/2018 at 2:53 PM, Oozinator said:

Unrelated: What is going on here? What is this doing, what is the purpose of these hvacs there? here are they going? Is this just a loop right there? Tell me more. Fascinating stuff, thanks.

[Oozinator]

8 hours ago, eggsvbacon said:

Unrelated: What is going on here? What is this doing, what is the purpose of these hvacs there? here are they going? Is this just a loop right there? Tell me more. Fascinating stuff, thanks.

^^
I used it to setup a loop - deleting heat - cooking PW - desinfect - generate energy.
Works, but steam engine is not really worth the work.
The hydrogen is -200°C (unused)
Removing solids from volcanos sucks (when played in survival)
Edit:  "stopped working with actual update" lol

[BlueLance]

I just dont use insulated tiles, and probably for the reason oozinator mentioned, I had pipes running through the wall and the temperature shot up like no ones business.

[Oozinator]

13 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

I just dont use insulated tiles, and probably for the reason oozinator mentioned, I had pipes running through the wall and the temperature shot up like no ones business.

But when you use no insulated pipes, you can't build some fancy stuff?

[Kiros]

So then what about regular Abyssalite tiles? Will the ability to build normal tiles with Abyssalite be removed?

[BlueLance]

1 hour ago, Oozinator said:

But when you use no insulated pipes, you can't build some fancy stuff?

I never actually tried that, my pipes were made out of abyssalite.