Ice Maker

The Ice Maker is a utility building that turns stored water into ice or snow over time, while transferring the removed heat into the surrounding environment. It is an early-game way to create a local cold source and to convert duplicant labor directly into heat deletion. Because the building has no liquid input port, water must be delivered by a duplicant or by a flying critter/hauler-type supply source.

An Ice Maker steadily cools 30 kg of water at about 0.16°C/s while operating. The water inside does not follow the usual freezing behavior of regular water systems: it becomes ice at exactly 0.6°C, and the resulting product is cooled further into -20°C ice or snow depending on the building’s output behavior. The amount of work required depends on the incoming water temperature, but the cooling rate itself is constant. As the internal water is converted, the building releases heat into its surroundings and becomes noticeably hotter.

From an energy standpoint, the building is a modest but useful heat sink. The water being cooled represents about 20.06 kDTU/s of heat removal, while the building itself emits 16 kDTU/s, for a net deletion of roughly 4 kDTU/s while running. Its cooling efficiency is listed at 333.33 DTU/W, and after accounting for the heat it emits, the net cooling works out to about 67.66 DTU/W. This is far less efficient than a Thermo Aquatuner in raw transfer terms, but the Ice Maker can still be practical because it is simple, local, and cheap to use in the early game.

The building behaves as a small renewable source of ice and snow. When its internal stored mass of ice and snow is below 300 kg, it will queue another production cycle. Its theoretical internal storage cap is 359.9 kg. Because the output can be moved directly to problem areas, it is useful for spot-cooling rooms, preventing overheating, or temporarily buffering heat in a small base segment. The produced ice can also be placed where cooling is needed, making the building both a heat-management tool and a source of cold material.

• The Ice Maker’s output temperature is fixed by its process, not by the original water temperature.
• Hotter input water increases the amount of duplicant time needed before a batch is produced.
• It is most valuable early in a colony, when simple heat deletion and portable cold are more useful than complex cooling loops.
• It is especially effective when used to cool a specific area by moving the produced ice nearby.