Atmospheric heater

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Atmospheric heater

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The Atmospheric Heater is a building added in the Anomaly DLC that can be used to raise the outdoor Temperature of the entire map.

Acquisition[edit]

Building an Atmospheric Heater requires the Atmospheric Heater Anomaly technology, after which it can be build with 2 Shards, 8 Components, 150 Bioferrite and 150 Steel.

Summary[edit]

The Atmospheric Heater functions similarly to a normal Heater. Once built, it can be selected to set a target temperature, and will activate when the outdoor temperature falls below the setting. A single active Atmospheric Heater can raise the temperature by roughly 10°C. [Needs Confirmation]

Also like the Heater and Air conditioner, it has both a High power and Low power setting. When the outdoor temperature is naturally above the setting, it will be at Low power and only consume 75W. During High setting, it will consume 1500W of power, as well as 8 Bioferrite per day. The building does not need to be outdoors to function, and will generate a large amount of heat when indoors.

Analysis[edit]

As outdoor Temperature is most important for Farming, the value of building an Atmospheric Heater is best compared to a farming setup using Sun lamps.

A single Sun Lamp illuminates 100 tiles for an average of 2069W⋅Days, assuming one is using a Battery to store excess power at night to use during the day. However, while the actual power required for an Atmospheric Heaters is 1500W, it also consumes Bioferrite that could have been used to produce power using a Bioferrite generator, which produces 4000W at the cost of 6 Bioferrite per day. Thus, the real power consumption for a single Atmospheric Heater running on High is actually roughly 6833W⋅Days, or 3.3 Sunlamps. This cost is compounded further in regions where a single heater isn't enough to keep the temperature above freezing during the coldest periods, such as Tundra.

On the other hand, Crops no longer have to be grown indoors, which allows for farming Trees, and makes it easier to grow large fields of crops that cannot be grown with Hydroponics, most notably Devilstrand. Also, in more temperate climates, a single Atmospheric Heater can potentially be enough to allow for farming during the entire winter, and protect crops from a Cold snap. Since the Atmospheric Heater only consumes Bioferrite when at High Power, the actual loss in potential power from Bioferrite generators will be much lower for a Atmospheric Heater that only has to run for one or two Quadrums a year.

Version history[edit]