Interstellar Mod - Radiators and Waste Heat

[giddonah]

I'm having a hard time understanding the waste heat side of things. I tried following the tutorial, but there are a few things not defined clearly. Do you ever actually stop waste heat from accumulating?

I'm just trying to put up a couple satellites for remote tech. I can do it with solar panels and batteries, but I'd like to learn how the generators work. It seems like all my ships are time bombs.

Is there a good explanation somewhere of how to calculate all this? The parts aren't listed by sq. cm., they all give temp/MW ratings...

[Viragos]

You don't ever get rid of all the waste heat, what happens is radiators dump waste heat faster the closer to "full" of heat they are so eventually if you have enough radiators it reaches a stasis point where the heat is dissipating as quickly as its being generated. With just solar panels and batteries you shouldn't really need more than a radial or 2 unless you're building a big Microwave solar power plant.

[cicatrix]

If you use Interstellar add the Thermal helper button to your toolbar in VAB. Basically, you want the figures to be green.

Figures are green?

- Yes: Launch

- No: Add more radiators and go to step 1

[giddonah]

Ah, thanks for the replies. I'll just have to keep an eye on it to see how it stabilizes. I'd really like to calculate exactly what I'll need though.

[Dust]

I'd really like to calculate exactly what I'll need though.

As I understand it, you can calculate it if you know the temperature of the heat source, the ambient temperature, the surface area of each radiators, and the efficiency of each radiator. There are some formulas at https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki/Waste-Heat-Management

[Vanamonde]

This affair about an add-on has been moved to Add-on Affairs.