SpreadsheetGamr

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

The polluted water output was introduced somewhere mid 2018 I believe. There were other changes late 2018. Not saying this isn't a long time, but just for reference.

At face value, the calculation looks pretty straight forward. [Mass rate] x [Eruption Period fraction] x [Active Period fraction] 302.5 x 70 / 9483 x 48 / 96.1 = 1.115Kg/s This is the value calculated by the oni-assistant geyser calculator, this is how I've always thought of it and I've seen people do it this way in videos too. I was watching a volcano start its dormancy period and something happened that I haven't noticed before. It seemed to get stuck on 'Next Dormancy: 0s'. It made me realise I didn't really understand how geysers worked. I did some searching and couldn't find any posts on the forum explaining the life cycle of a geyser. So I watched some geysers and noted the behaviour. During the active period, the geyser has a 'Next Dormancy' counter that ticks down to zero. When it reaches zero... nothing happens. It stays at 'Next dormancy: 0s' and the eruption timer continues to count down. After the eruption, it still says 'Next dormancy: 0s'. It remains that way until... well, it seems to update at 22:30 for whatever reason, at which point the status updates to 'Dormant' and 'Next Dormancy...' is replaced with 'Next Activity...'. (This may just have been a display caching issue, sometimes you need to click on a different entity and click back to have those info screens update). The next activity timer lines up with multiples of the Active Period denominator (remember game starts on day 1, not day 0). When the next activity timer reaches zero, the status immediately updates to 'Idle (erupts in ...)' and the eruption timer lines up with multiples of the Eruption Period denominator. When you first start the game, all geysers are erupting. This implies eruptions occur at the start of an eruption period, and the active period is at the beginning of an 'Active Period'. The effect of all of this is that geysers get a bonus eruption each eruption period. But they almost certainly lose one on every active period except the first due to the asynchronism between eruption periods and active periods. It's possible the bonus eruption does not occur if an active period begins at the same time as an eruption period (as on the first day), I didn't test that because I'm less concerned with the first active period than subsequent ones. The important thing is an eruption is never cut short due to dormancy. This means the calculation we have been using is wrong and consistently undervalues the output quantity. To correct for this we round up the active period to an even number of eruption periods. In the case above, the eruption period is 9483s, or 15.805 cycles. Eruption period 1 ends at cycle +15.805 2 = 31.610 3 = 47.415 The volcano is still in its eruption period for the next half of a cycle, so it starts another entire eruption, ending some 15 days in to the theoretical dormancy period. 4 = 63.220 So the new yield calculation is: 302.5 x 70 / 9483 x 63.22 / 96.1 = 1.468Kg/s, 31% more than we previously thought.

I keep going back and forward on this, but I think temperature is just a derived value of the number of DTUs in a tile/object. DTUs are just integers so it solves a lot of complication with floating point numbers and rounding.

So reservoirs can be used to heat or cool fluids. Seems pretty legit. And it tends to be better at cooling than heating, right? Any idea what the optimum temperature difference between the storage and the incoming fluid is to achieve maximum effect? I share Yalp's concern that the right system has more mass. Looks like ~1500kg vs 6500kg? I suppose you could run 500 tiles of insulated pipes...

*slow clap* You are not the hero I wanted, but you are the hero these forums deserve. But pause for a moment to consider... who said anything about cooling the water? In the context of this thread, we're talking about early game, low power ways to produce cool oxygen. I dunno about you, but in that context, I often find myself with ample 30°C water. To ignore that and attempt to source some 95°C water... because I'm concerned about achieving the maximum heat deletion with the electrolyzer? It's almost as if the theory crafting has trumped actually playing the game.

The super simple way to cool oxygen from your SPOM is to run a radiant gas pipe through some of your starting water. This very easily achieves a very specific temperature range. Realistically it transfers such a trivial amount of heat to the water it's fine for the early game. Worst case you re-cool the water with a bit of ice. Also be smart with the water going in to the SPOM. The air coming out should be no hotter than the water going in, right? If you put some radiant pipes around the electrolyzer, the electrolyzer itself will run about +10°C hotter than the water. That last minute heat added to the water helps increase the heat deletion effect of the electrolyzer. The air comes out at 70°C either way, so if the electrolyzer can be kept below that, the electrolyzer itself will help cool the air. If it runs hotter than that, the electrolyzer will radiate heat in to your air and you'll effectively be cooling the electrolyzer later when you cool the air. I like using water around 30°C for the electrolyzer. I'm sure somebody will tell me I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks for the feedback. I've come to the same conclusion about the aquatuner placement. It would be better to put it in the upper steam chamber. I think I'll probably do (yet another) redesign at some point. I've found the water purification system is really only suitable for a very small throughput, otherwise the coolant loop heats up from turbine output. At least it can handle the toilet water.

Somewhat related to your second point, perhaps you could answer a question for me. I had some water that accidentally spilled down to a hot zone and it was just boiling to steam and recondensing constantly. What I know is that the steam was helping to equalise the temperature between the hot zone and the cooler one above. What I don't know is whether the act of condensing or boiling was adding or removing any heat. Can you shed any light on that? The steam was condensing on various dug out tiles too, and dripping off various surfaces all the way back down through the steam to the hot zone. I vaguely remember reading about a temperature calculation bug/feature on the forums yonks ago related to dripping. Is that still a thing?

Hey, I object! I never meant to be teasing. I genuinely believe these things are difficult, regardless of your experience or whatever. It's kind of a metacognition thing (which I'm super interested in). Knowing something intuitively usually comes easily, right? But being able to explain it logically to someone else (or a computer) is often difficult. I have nothing but admiration for OP who is pushing themselves to learn new things. All I was trying to say is if you break it in to two steps it can be easier. Explain the 'problem' in totality first, then map it in digital logic. Once you get part A right, part B becomes easier.

To clarify, I had no idea about the SHC difference arising in crude to NG. I did know about the crude-NG path, I've just never had cause to build it in any of my games. I lurked the forums a bit during EA. There's a lot of stuff in ONI I haven't done yet even though I've apparently spent 888 hours in game. Just the variety of new maps they added on launch has added quite a lot of replayability for me.

Interesting. I've never pursued crude->NG, had no idea. Nice one.

Man, when I looked at the crying crab I thought the SHC difference was surely a one-off mistake for a newer element. I was sure it would be patched. I just assumed everything else had uniform SHC in all states. Then we had the ice heater, and now this... How many elements have different SHC in different states and how has it taken until so recently for these kind of uses to come to light?? It's crazy!

Chthonicone between this post and your other one about using metal refinery as a heat source, I'm curious if you looked at the build I made? I think it might answer some of your questions. I found I could use petroleum coolant between 400 and 405°C when refining steel without damanging pipes. The liquid element sensor is one way but another is just a temperature probe. Note that the liquid element sensor might give a false reading as the petroleum does spontaneously pop in to a tile before bubbling to the surface, so it can depend on your layout. My design had a temperature probe set to above 405 and it seems to be a very reliable indicator that all of the crude has converted.

Nice work! This is similar to something I recently worked on. I have a couple of suggestions if you're interested. You can get better energy recovery by carefully managing the steam temperature. The closer to 200, the more power per DTU you can recover. The airlock where hot petroleum is dropped will be leaking DTU in to the cooling area. Maybe look in to a vacuum airlock there. What do you think about moving the petroleum cooling area below the steam pool? I think it could save space and materials if you let the hot petroleum drop past the steam engines. Lastly, I think the thermo shift plates won't be doing much for you here because the radiator pipes are already immersed in the thing you are trying to heat or cool. Try removing them and see if it has any effect (except for the steam area).