insulated tiles (IT) are so useless

[darekadareka]

YAH, what is the difference between a made of abyssalite normal tile and a same-material insulated tile? They even have the equal thermal conductivity and capacity. An IT also takes more time and material to build 400kg compared to normal one 200kg. So, why do we need it? Except you want to add some decoration to your base.

[Mike072428]

As you know the game has a temperature transference system as for how it works, it is as follows. Normally when the game decides how fast should heat spread from a body to another it does so by taking the log average of these materials and use that result to define the rate of heat transference, this makes it so even though abbysalite has basically 0 thermal conductivity it will still heat up and cool down acording to the log average calculated with the other element, be it oxygen, another tile, etc. For insulated tiles the game simply takes the lowest of the two thermal conductivity values involved in the transfer and use that instead, and as such abbysalite insulated tiles truly don't allow heat transference with anything. 
If you 100% need a system to be isolated from everything then use abbysalite insulated tiles. For things such as keeping heat out of your base you can use igneous rock insulated tiles, these are the second best insulator and any heat that could get in your base through them is minimal and manageable.

[goatt]

According to some info in this forum, insulated tile allows heat to travel 100 times slower than their listed thermal conductivity(TC).

so if tile’s TC is 1, then IT made of same material has TC of 0.01.

i think the second best material for insulation is ceramic, produced by kiln. It’s 3 times slower than igneous rock even tho it’s nowhere near abysillite

[KittenIsAGeek]

Abyssalite is a special case and has changed a lot from time to time.  For most uses, normal abyssalite tiles and insulated ones don't really have a difference.  However, in high-temperature-deltas (working with magma, etc), there could be some heat transfer to the normal tiles.

However, with just about all other materials, insulated makes a huge difference.  Insulated ceramic approaches abyssalite for functionality and is, potentially, infinitely available.

[Tobruk]

I swear I see this kind of post crop up almost on a daily basis...

[avc15]

regular tiles/pipes use log-average of adjacent conductivities when determining heat transfer rate. Insulated tile/pipe uses just the tile/pipe's conductivity, not a log-average with its neighbor.

So in the case of regular abyssalite vs other rock types, given the same delta t, you need 2 blocks wide of insulated igneous to begin performing almost like 1 block wide of regular abyssalite. But sometimes you don't need that much, and going to dig abyssalite for every heat barrier is wasteful.

Knowing when you can get away with insulated igneous rock will save you a lot of time excavating abyssalite. There are a few obvious candidates, like any fluid system where the contents traverse pipes quickly; any tank you're changing out the contents continuously.

And also any fluid system or tank that holds hot fluids but the contents stay inside for a LONG time, really regular abyssalite construction won't cut it. You want insulated. (electrolysis modules with 99C input water - heating tank for your sieve input)

[fishpear]

In fact, abyssalite normal tile can conduct temperature.... You need to wait a bit long to see it

[avc15]

2 hours ago, fishpear said:

In fact, abyssalite normal tile can conduct temperature.... You need to wait a bit long to see it

a lot less time ever since occupational update went live.

[MTzu]

3 hours ago, fishpear said:

In fact, abyssalite normal tile can conduct temperature.... You need to wait a bit long to see it

I have insulated my minor volcano with standard abyssalite tiles. 500 cycles later: Abyssalite tiles still are at 45°C. That's the temperature the abyssalite got mined at.

[greggbert]

Insulated tiles look different so you can tell which ones are insulated and which are not.  That's actually very important.  Otherwise you're in Mouseover hell.

[psusi]

9 hours ago, Mike072428 said:

Normally when the game decides how fast should heat spread from a body to another it does so by taking the log average of these materials

Ok, so I know what a log is, and I know what an average is, but what the hell is a "log average"?

 

[MTzu]

1 minute ago, psusi said:

Ok, so I know what a log is, and I know what an average is, but what the hell is a "log average"?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithmic_mean

[babba]

8 hours ago, Tobruk said:

I swear I see this kind of post crop up almost on a daily basis...

Wait...Idea ! What about...Insulated doors ?

[DreamApart]

5 minutes ago, babba said:

Wait...Idea ! What about...Insulated doors ?

Yeah, I need it badly.

Otherwise I'll have to use “Water airlock”. But it almost feels like a bug.

[psusi]

16 minutes ago, DreamApart said:

Yeah, I need it badly.

Otherwise I'll have to use “Water airlock”. But it almost feels like a bug.

Put an insulating tempshift plate on the door.  You now have an insulated door.

[DreamApart]

8 minutes ago, psusi said:

Put an insulating tempshift plate on the door.  You now have an insulated door.

Does that really work?

I tried this before but I didn't feel much difference (expect it increases the heat capacity of nearby tiles.)

I don't know the theory here, but It feels like the case in electricity: adding a resistor in parallel with an existing appliance, despite how large the resistance, it will always decrease the whole resistance of the circuit part, not increase.

[Slvrsrfr]

51 minutes ago, DreamApart said:

Does that really work?

I tried this before but I didn't feel much difference (expect it increases the heat capacity of nearby tiles.)

I don't know the theory here, but It feels like the case in electricity: adding a resistor in parallel with an existing appliance, despite how large the resistance, it will always decrease the whole resistance of the circuit part, not increase.

I also was intrigued by the notion.

[psusi]

1 hour ago, DreamApart said:

Does that really work?

I tried this before but I didn't feel much difference (expect it increases the heat capacity of nearby tiles.)

I don't know the theory here, but It feels like the case in electricity: adding a resistor in parallel with an existing appliance, despite how large the resistance, it will always decrease the whole resistance of the circuit part, not increase.

Yes.  A tempshift plate forces the surrounding 8 tiles to only exchange heat with it instead of each other.  So one made of abyssalite next to a door means the door can no longer exchange heat with the air; only the plate, and the plate doesn't exchange much heat.

[riwenna]

Just now, psusi said:

Yes.  A tempshift plate forces the surrounding 8 tiles to only exchange heat with it instead of each other.  So one made of abyssalite next to a door means the door can no longer exchange heat with the air; only the plate, and the plate doesn't exchange much heat.

Can you clarify what you mean by "next to a door"? Do you put it on the side you're trying to insulate (i.e. on the inside-of-base side) or on the other side?

When I really wanted to make sure my slickster farm is going to stay well insulated, and I wanted access from inside the base, I made a double liquid lock with a vacuum pocket in between. The oil on the warm side, so if the air ever goes higher than 100*C the water doesn't turn to steam, and nice living temperature water on the base side.

[jfc]

12 hours ago, Mike072428 said:

As you know the game has a temperature transference system as for how it works, it is as follows. Normally when the game decides how fast should heat spread from a body to another it does so by taking the log average of these materials and use that result to define the rate of heat transference, this makes it so even though abbysalite has basically 0 thermal conductivity it will still heat up and cool down acording to the log average calculated with the other element, be it oxygen, another tile, etc. For insulated tiles the game simply takes the lowest of the two thermal conductivity values involved in the transfer and use that instead, and as such abbysalite insulated tiles truly don't allow heat transference with anything. 
If you 100% need a system to be isolated from everything then use abbysalite insulated tiles. For things such as keeping heat out of your base you can use igneous rock insulated tiles, these are the second best insulator and any heat that could get in your base through them is minimal and manageable.

igneos rock is horrible, slush geyser pw was already at 33c sitting on those insulatde pipes for just a few cycles

[riwenna]

2 hours ago, MTzu said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithmic_mean

Hey, wait, I'm just looking at this formula for log-average... And the formula says... log_mean(x,y) = 0 if x = 0 or y = 0.

So the conductivity of non-insulated abysalite tiles and structures should still be 0 as the log average of 0 and anything else is ... zero?

[Lali-Lop]

27 minutes ago, riwenna said:

Hey, wait, I'm just looking at this formula for log-average... And the formula says... log_mean(x,y) = 0 if x = 0 or y = 0.

So the conductivity of non-insulated abysalite tiles and structures should still be 0 as the log average of 0 and anything else is ... zero?

If I recall, abyssalite has a conductivity of 0.0001 or something like that, so it's technically not zero.

[riwenna]

Just now, Lali-Lop said:

If I recall, abyssalite has a conductivity of 0.0001 or something like that, so it's technically not zero.

Sneaky, since they only show it up to three decimal places, as 0.000(DTU*(m/s))/degC. Both in the wild and on built tiles.

[psusi]

1 hour ago, riwenna said:

Can you clarify what you mean by "next to a door"? Do you put it on the side you're trying to insulate (i.e. on the inside-of-base side) or on the other side?

Either side.  If it's on the hot side, then it will block the hot air from heating up the door and it will stay cool.  If it's on the cool side, the door will got hot, but will be unable to pass the heat to the air on the cool side.

[TOOK14]

The only use for insulated abyssalite tiles over normal abyssalite tiles I have encountered is if you have something like a tempshift plate next to it.  Even the normal abyssalite tiles will leak heat through if it has to fight a tempshift plate, but an insulated abyssalite tile won't.