A reference guide to see how many of each life support component is needed to support a number of crew. Useful for designing passenger ships for survival, or large ships with big crews. Crews of less than 60 will only need 1 of each device even without any efficiency tech.

The converter output figures in this guide are when the 100% efficiency life support tech has been researched. If you don't have any life support tech researched, divide the converter output by 66.7%. Applies to air reprocessor, waste treatment plant and water purifier.

If an output gets blocked by a full tank, then production rates will be lower. Avoid filling tanks up to maximum capacity to get highest production rates.

This guide was made in game version Alpha 16C.
Last updated for Alpha 18A.

Referencing:
(G) : information comes from in game tooltip - is likely accurate
(W) : information comes from the TLS wiki (https://www.tls-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page) - may be outdated

(Source: https://www.tls-wiki.com/wiki/Crew_Member)

30 crew will consume 1 water, 1 oxygen and 0.15 food per second, and produce 1 CO2 and 1.132 sewage per second. These are the figures I'll be using to determine how many crew a component supports.

(W) : https://www.tls-wiki.com/wiki/Airduct

Airducts will oxygenate the room they are in. Some ship designs use multiple redundant airducts to reduce the risk of losing atmosphere from hull breaches.

For large ships with walls partitioning many rooms, you need to spread the oxygen ventilators and CO2 scrubbers around the ship to ensure full oxygenation.

One large centralised air reprocessing system seems to work better than multiple small systems. More vulnerable to being damaged on warships though.

Without any efficiency tech researched, a single air reprocessor will support 60 crew. Crews less than 60 only require a simple system:
CO2 scrubber -> CO2 tank -> air reprocessor -> O2 tank -> airduct.

I don't have any data on spacesuits, but I suspect the rate of O2 consumption is the same and the CO2 produced is deleted.

I don't use the oxygen generator for life support purposes. It can be good for money making as O2 sells for double what water does. Buy water, convert to O2, sell. 2000 credit profit.

(1) Sewage removal is limiting factor
(2) Water production is limiting factor - includes efficiency loss from water purifier

A 100% efficiency system will gradually produce water and compost at the expense of importing food. This is where farms come in, but I'll address them separately.

The waste treatment plant will pause production when the compost output is full, causing a slight drop in production rate. It depends on how much free labour there is on the ship, but anticipate maybe about a 5% reduction.

If there is no habitation deck, no sewage is produced. Currently there is no penalty for not collecting sewage from the habitation deck (game version A16C). I would recommend at least collecting it and bottling it, even if only to sell.

Ice grinder is good for getting more water. Don't rely on it to keep crew alive though.
Ice -> waste water -> water -> O2 can make mining comets a modest money source. 100 water ice processed into 1000 oxygen will make 4000 credits.

Farm information from the wiki is contradictory - I'm not sure what's correct. This is what I've got:

200 crew eat 1 food per second.

Farm plot yield: (each farm has 6 plots)
Time: 425 seconds
Food: 15 (22.5 with +50% crop yield research)
Water Used: 22.5 (is this correct? Possibly lower?)
Compost Used: ? (2.5 or 5, not sure which - think 2.5 is more likely)
Seeds: 1-2 (varies, but gradually produces more seeds over time)

Source: https://www.tls-wiki.com/wiki/Hydroponic_Garden

A full farm should produce 15*6/425 food per second = 0.212 food/s
This should feed 42 crew per farm.
With +50% yield tech this rises to 0.318 food/s.
This should feed 63 crew per farm.

Farms are modest money earners from selling seeds and food, even if you have to buy the water and compost for them. Compost availability in trading is bad, so they only work at scale if you have a lot of people on board the ship.

For most ships it's easier to just sell compost and buy food.

Hydroponic Garden has the highest value increase from it's raw materials of any item in the game for profitable manufacturing, so it's worthwhile to research even if you don't use farms.

A useful table to help people who don't want to crunch the numbers. If in doubt, just go up to the next bracket. For example, if you want 180 crew, use the 200 row and you'll have a little extra capacity.

Number given is with 100% efficiency tech. In brackets will be the number for no tech where applicable. If no bracket number, then it is the same as 100%.