This guide explains how to use the Heat Management System mod, what the in-game data means, and how to deal with overheating in practical situations.


This chapter covers the basic thermodynamic principles you need to understand in order to enjoy the mod.

When we talk about heat, there are three main concepts:

Heat Source – a block that produces heat. In version 1.x.x, the only true heat source is batteries.

Heat Sink – a block that can actively dissipate heat. Currently, vents, heat vents, exhausts, and atmospheric thrusters act as sinks. For thrusters, the amount of heat dissipated depends on their thrust.

Heat Transfer – the process of moving heat between blocks. This can be tricky to understand because it depends on three variables:
• Contact surface area
• Temperature difference
• Thermal conductivity

Currently, four types of heat transfer are implemented:

3.1. Air Exchange – heat exchange with the environment. Requires an atmosphere around the block. The contact area is the exposed surface of the block, while conductivity depends on atmospheric density.

3.2. Neighbor Exchange – heat transfer between connected neighboring blocks. Only non-deformable neighbors participate. The contact area is the full connection area, while the conductivity is configurable. Neighbor blocks then dissipate heat to the environment as usual.

3.3. Heat Networks – special structures (pipes, ducts, small conveyors) that transfer heat very efficiently. Important: these are insulated from the environment, so they do not dissipate heat on their own — they only transfer it. Make sure they’re properly connected; otherwise, the block will show “insulated” in its info panel.

3.4. Radiation – heat emitted directly into space. Think of it as “air exchange for a vacuum.” It’s much less effective than air exchange, but in space, it may be your only option. Effectiveness depends on the exposed area: bigger blocks radiate more heat.

The last important concept is how heat affects blocks.

We usually talk in terms of temperature, but that’s only part of the story. Heat itself is energy, while temperature depends on a block’s thermal capacity (how much heat energy it takes to raise it by 1 °C).

Example: A battery with a thermal capacity of 10 MJ/°C transfers 1 MJ of heat to a vent with a thermal capacity of 100 kJ/°C.

• The battery cools by 0.1 °C
• The vent heats up by 10 °C

So the same amount of heat can affect blocks very differently!

Also, remember: heat always flows from hotter to cooler.

• If the environment is hotter than your vent, the vent heats up instead of cooling down.
• If you connect a fresh battery to hot pipes, it will heat up quickly because the network is still hot.


This chapter takes a deeper look at the information the mod provides through block info panels. Different block types display slightly different data, but the principles are the same.


At the very top, you’ll see general stats:
Temperature – the current internal temperature of the block.
Thermal Status – a simple indicator (Heating, Stable, Cooling).
Net Heat Change – the total temperature change per second (°C/s) considering all sources, sinks, and transfers.
Thermal Capacity – how much energy it takes to heat the block by 1 °C. Large capacity = slower heating.
Cooling Area – how much surface area is exposed to air. Larger area = better passive cooling.
Density – used to calculate thermal capacity, purely a technical parameter. Will likely be removed later.
Wind Speed – the effective air flow around the block. Higher wind = faster cooling.
Time to Overheat / Cool Down – a rough estimate based on the current trend. Not exact, but useful to see if you’re winning or losing the heat battle.

Next comes the detailed breakdown of where the heat comes from or goes to:
Internal Use – heat generated inside the block (for batteries, this is caused by charge/discharge).
Air Exchange – passive cooling to the environment, if atmosphere is available.
Neighbor Blocks – heat exchange with directly attached blocks.
Heat Pipes – transfer via pipe networks.

All these values are shown as °C/s, not Joules. That’s on purpose: it shows directly how fast this specific block’s temperature is changing, after accounting for its thermal capacity. So if you see “-0.5 °C/s,” that block is cooling half a degree every second.

At the bottom, you’ll see a list of connected neighbors and networks with their temperatures and exchange rates. Again, the exchange is always relative to the block you’re looking at. So if a neighbor shows “-0.5 °C/s,” it means your current block is cooling by 0.5 °C/s through that neighbor.


For vents and heat vents, the panel looks slightly different. You’ll see:
Temperature – the vent’s own heat level.
Air Heat Change – how much cooling or heating it’s doing.
Mode – Passive (vent off) or Active (vent powered). Active vents dissipate much more heat.
Thermal Capacity – how much energy it takes to heat the vent itself.
Ambient Temperature – the temperature of the environment the vent interacts with.
Air Density – how thick the atmosphere is. Denser air = better cooling.
Wind Speed – moving air helps cooling even further.

The rest is similar to the battery panel (neighbors, networks, etc.), just without “Internal Use.”


Thrusters work a lot like vents, but with one twist: they only dissipate heat effectively while producing thrust. If they’re idling, they’ll show Passive mode and won’t cool much at all. When pushing hard, they dump a lot of heat into the environment, which makes them both a big heat source and an important sink at the same time.

In the very beginning of the game, when you place your first battery, you don’t have to overthink heat too much. Just make sure the battery is exposed to open air and not buried inside other blocks. At this stage, your power demands are small, and natural air cooling will almost always be enough to keep things stable. If you stick it in the middle of a wall of armor, though, don’t be surprised when it warms up faster than you expected.

As your base grows, so does your power throughput, and that’s when things start to get interesting. A lazy solution is to simply surround the battery with vents on all sides and let them do the work. That works for a while, but it’s hardly engineering. The better way is to design a proper heat pipe network: run pipes from your batteries out to a cluster of vents, heat vents, or thrusters that can actively push that heat away. The more connections between your heat sources and your sinks, the more effective the transfer will be. Just remember that pipes themselves don’t cool anything — they only move heat. And because pipes also have their own thermal capacity, they can soak up some heat at first and make you think everything is under control, but as soon as the whole network saturates, the heat has nowhere to go unless you’ve provided enough sinks.

Small ships are even trickier, because thrusters demand so much power. Batteries will heat up quickly, so you have to plan for it. Atmospheric thrusters are the worst offenders: they chew through power, but they’re also your best cooling friends if you connect them properly with heat pipes. Especially on planets, your lifting thrusters work constantly, which makes them perfect candidates for heat dissipation. Another trick is to use multiple batteries at lower loads instead of one pushed to its limits. Ten batteries at 10% each heat up much more slowly than one battery at 100%. That’s why it’s usually a bad idea to try to power your whole base with a tiny rover battery — it just can’t take the load.

Big ships raise the stakes even higher. In space, you can’t rely on air cooling, so your options are limited. Radiation is the classic approach: move heat to the outside of the ship with pipes, place a sink, attach big blocks to it, and let them radiate. Solar panels, for example, make excellent radiators. Another, more creative solution is to provide your own atmosphere. Put blocks inside a pressurized room, and they’ll behave as if they’re sitting in a cozy 30 °C environment — at least until I find time to implement heating of pressurized rooms.


Q: What if I’m on a hot planet like Mars? How am I supposed to cool things down?
Mars is tricky. During the day, it gets brutally hot, but at night it cools down nicely. The simple answer is: don’t push your batteries too hard during the day. Let them work at night when the ambient temperature is low. Another option is to build in a pressurized environment, which will always be treated as a stable 30 °C.

Q: My production facility batteries overheat even though I’ve got tons of vents. It feels impossible to manage!
That’s because of throughput. Industrial-scale setups push enormous amounts of power, and every joule of it goes through the batteries. Even if you don’t need them at that moment, if they’re online, they’re constantly cycling and producing heat. The fix is simple: switch them off when not needed, or put them in Recharge mode to keep them full without constant charge/discharge. You can also automate this with the Event Controller: set it up so that batteries switch on and off depending on their temperature.

Q: I play slowly and carefully early game, but my first battery always overheats and explodes before I can expand. That’s annoying!
Here’s a trick: remember that wind speed helps with cooling? You can cheat a bit by placing your battery on a rotor and spinning it. The faster it spins, the higher the wind speed it experiences, and the faster it cools. It’s a bit goofy, but it works.

P.S. This post might be changed as new versions come up.
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