How does the heat exchanger work ?

  • I'm a beginner of reactor, so this question maybe innocent. But I really read wiki many times and can't understand.
    So thanks for any help and excuse my poor English.



    In this design Mark I EB by Rick
    Why I couldn't use Heat Exchanger at the bottom-right? I don't know why I need use the Component Heat Exchanger.
    And what is the heat exchange process of the 2 Heat Exchanger and the Component Heat Exchanger in detall ?

  • In this Thread is a list of all reactor components and their values.


    For more detail on how each component works, look in the wiki here: http://wiki.industrial-craft.n…php?title=Nuclear_Reactor


    In your example, you need to cool 96 heat. 4 overclocked vents cool for 20 each but take 32 heat from the hull, so you need to cool each vent for an additional 12. the component heat vent cools the component on all 4 sides of it by 4. that is an additional 16 cooling which is enough to cool all heat. all other heat exchangers are needed to move the heat from one overclocked vent to the others so nothing melts. If you use a normal exchanger in the bottom right, you wouldn't be able to move enough heat to the bottom vent and thus the heat exchanger in the top right would melt after some time.

  • In your example, you need to cool 96 heat. 4 overclocked vents cool for 20 each but take 32 heat from the hull, so you need to cool each vent for an additional 12. the component heat vent cools the component on all 4 sides of it by 4. that is an additional 16 cooling which is enough to cool all heat. all other heat exchangers are needed to move the heat from one overclocked vent to the others so nothing melts. If you use a normal exchanger in the bottom right, you wouldn't be able to move enough heat to the bottom vent and thus the heat exchanger in the top right would melt after some time.

    Thank for reply.
    Doesn't the overclocked vents take 36 (not 32) from the hull ?
    The reactor planner show that if I remove the exchanger in the bottom right, the bottom overclocked vent only take 12 heat. So can I think that the vent need to be transport other more 12 heat (because every vent need to take 24 heat) ?


    I don't know how many heat the component heat exchanger will move to the bottom vents.

  • Because the reactor is calculated piece after piece, 3 overclocked heat vents will take the 96 heat that is generated leaving no heat for the last OC vent. So you have to move 20 heat in total from the other vents to the last OC vent. Normal heat exchangers move 12 heat to the sides and exchange 4 with the core. Component Heat exchangers exchange 36 heat with the sides and nothing with the core . Each OC vent that took 32 heat has 8 spare heat(because 32-20(self cooling)-4(component heat vent) = 8 ) that needs to be moved to the last OC vent. When you only use normal exchangers the top right one will move 8 heat and the bottom right one would have to move 16 heat which he can't, so the top right exchanger overheats. using component heat exchanger in the bottom right which moves 36 solves this problem


  • Because the reactor is calculated piece after piece, 3 overclocked heat vents will take the 96 heat that is generated leaving no heat for the last OC vent. So you have to move 20 heat in total from the other vents to the last OC vent. Normal heat exchangers move 12 heat to the sides and exchange 4 with the core. Component Heat exchangers exchange 36 heat with the sides and nothing with the core . Each OC vent that took 32 heat has 8 spare heat(because 32-20(self cooling)-4(component heat vent) = 8 ) that needs to be moved to the last OC vent. When you only use normal exchangers the top right one will move 8 heat and the bottom right one would have to move 16 heat which he can't, so the top right exchanger overheats. using component heat exchanger in the bottom right which moves 36 solves this problem

    Thanks for patient explanations.
    I can understand a little more. But all the wiki I consulted shows that the OC vent can take 36 heat instead of 32 heat. I don't know what I was missing.
    Does the exsample shows that the data of planner v3 is 36 heat ? If so I only need to move 12 heat to the last OC vent.
    Where I go wrong ?

  • I think you are mistaking the numbers for the component heat exchanger and the overclocked heat vent.


    OC vent takes 32 heat from the core
    Comp Heat Exchanger moves 36 heat around


    The planner v3 is still up to date with the calculations in existing reactors.


    You have to move 8 heat from the left OC vent to the bottom OC vent
    You have to move 8 heat from the top OC vent to the bottom one. There is no direct connection so you move those 8 heat to the right OC vent.
    The right OC vent gets an additional 8 heat and now has to move 16 heat to the bottom OC vent. normal heat exchangers can only take 12 heat, so you need an advanced heat exchanger or a component heat exchanger in the bottom right to move those 16 heat to the bottom OC vent.
    The bottom OC vent gets 8 heat from the left and 16 from the right OC vent, 24 in total. 20 of that is cooled by itself and 4 by the component heat vent.


    if you have no heat exchanger in the bottom right, the bottom vent will cool 12 heat because the heat exchanger will move 12 heat from the left to the bottom OC vent. this is because there is no equilibrium between heat generated and cooled and the system would fail in the future. The values that are displayed by the planner are more or less average values because the reactor doesn't behave the same every tick. heat gets moved around all the time and so the heat that is generated each tick rises or falls depending on the current state but when the planner says it will do a full cycle, the system is stable

  • OC vent takes 32 heat from the core


    This is the data of official wiki, I think it has been out of date.
    But if the OC vent takes 32 heat, why does this can do a full cycle ?

    each of the two advanced heat vent cooled 8 heat in this case and the OC vent cooled 20 heat. If the OC vent only take 32 heat , how does the two advanced heat vent cooled 16 heat ?
    If the wiki and the planner all have been out of date, where I can get the latest version of them ?


    The right OC vent gets an additional 8 heat and now has to move 16 heat to the bottom OC vent.

    You said the normal heat exchangers move 12 heat to the sides and exchange 4 with the core. So I think that in order to equilibrium, the exchanger will move 4 heat to the core and the 4 heat can be take by other OC vent. If so the right OC vent only need to move 12 heat to the bottom OC vent.

    • Official Post

    each of the two advanced heat vent cooled 8 heat in this case and the OC vent cooled 20 heat. If the OC vent only take 32 heat , how does the two advanced heat vent cooled 16 heat ?


    Easy. The reactor works through each component from the top left slot to the bottom right every reactor tick (which is a second). Because there if a heat exchanger, it will try to split heat between the components. The overclocked heat vent is first, so it takes 20 heat as that's the maximum it can dissipate. 36-20=16 With only 16 heat left, each advanced vent therefore gets half it which is 8. Reactor logic is sometimes strange, but in the end majority of it makes perfect sense.


    The big thing with overclocked heat vents is that they can take 36 heat in each reactor tick, but only dissipate 20. So they will always try to only take in 20, unless there is spare heat after every other vent is calculated.

    145 Mods isn't too many. 9 types of copper and 8 types of tin aren't too many. 3 types of coffee though?

    I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you read was not what I meant.


    ---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
    // I just don't know what went wrong :(


    I see this too much.