@yobson, well... In times of 1.4 I made a little mod for myself that does exactly this - copies over-wall mechanic from ReplaceStuff and adds it to Heat Pumps. I thought it's finally time to publish it. Sadly, for now both Heat Pumps and Replace Stuff throw errors in 1.6 (HP when placing ghosts, and RS during startup) for reasons I don't understand, and so my thing that relies on them (more importantly RS) is broken too.

still works in 1.6 but need over wall variant now more than ever, i want to put these on the outside of my ship but then i have 100hp weak points on my ship walls

@radioastronomy I don't think that should make a difference. This mod uses the same internal game functions for handling temperature as the vanilla heater and AC just with different math for how much heat or cooling to output and when. So however those work in terms of heating and cooling with adjacent objects, the heat pumps in this mod should work the same. And since RimWorld tracks temperature only on a room-by-room basis indoors, I am pretty sure the only thing that matters is what room a heat pump's output or exhaust is in, and not whether there are any other objects nearby.

Love this mod. Just wondering, does the number of sides that are unblocked make a difference? For example if the Geothermal heat pump was surrounded by walls on three sides would it still give as much heat to the room as a unit that was freestanding with no walls on any side?
Also, can they be grouped together without blocking each other. For example, if nine of them were placed in a 3x3 layout would they give the same result as nine units with empty space between them?

Can confirm now. Works.

@Shabazza Don't seem to be any.

Issues with 1.5?

@Qwer The reason for the inefficiency I believe is because below 0 C the condensation in the air begins to coat the evaporator coil with frost, insulating it from the air it needs to use to absorb and release heat. There are also issues with phase changes occurring earlier at "refrigerator temperatures" (0-10 C) in the fluids used in them, i.e. turning to liquid before it should, resulting in further inefficiencies. There are tricks IRL to get around this, like installing a heater to periodically heat the coils when they start to frost over.

@Qwer I'm also definitely not an expert! But the information I was able to find when deciding efficiency numbers for the mod suggested that, with contemporary heat pumps, BTU (heating capacity) does in fact go down as the source temperature goes down, and then there also comes a point where it's too cold for the heat pump to operate at all.

If you're curious about the specifics, or if you want to make changes, the source code for the mod is included in the workshop download (and also available at the ludeon forum post linked a few comments ago). The math that controls heat output and power consumption is in a file named "Building_ReversibleHeatPump.cs".

Pardon my layman's understanding, but I don't think the outdoor temperatures matter so much as the difference between the drawing temp and the feeding temp does, and that difference in temperatures is roughly what leads to calculating the heat pump's coefficient of performance, which in standard practice is never below 1. This is an amazing concept for a mod though and I'll definitely be adding it to my mod list just for the fact that heat pumps are overpowered in real life, especially geothermal ones.

it works fine in 1.5 but may we have it updated for the tag?

That's the thing though, isn't it..? A "cooler" IS a heat pump.

Thanks to the mod, my temperature concerns have been resolved. This mod not only saves energy but also operates about 10% more efficiently than the vanilla cooling unit. For those who want an improvement over the vanilla without being op, this mod is the best choice.

@Aequus This isn't on GitHub currently, but the source code is included in the mod download and the Ludeon forum post would be a good place for discussing development of the mod. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=56991.0

Hi pineapple! Is there any github or something? I'd like to suggest some code for supporting over-wall building feature from Replace Stuff mod.

Do you want to add Absorption heat pumps that works with heat from fuel, wood (or dubs bath Hygiene) instead of power. Can be used both to heat and cool rooms (like your heat pumps).

@butt.toucher There's nothing special about the geothermal heat pump building regarding infestation behavior. It's basically the same as a heater just with different temperature control behavior. It's not a bug or a feature, just a coincidence.

is it a feature or a bug that infestations can spawn on top of the geo pump?

based technology connection

Really nice to have,thanks for the mod.

for people that dont read all too much let me conclude this mod

1st research: Cooler, but it can now heat too, for less power than just a cooler alone.
2nd research: Same as above, but you now do not need an exhaust port

yeah overwall would sell me on this 100%

Awesome!
Wonder if this mod will have Overwall variety in future, like BetterCoolers and BetterVents

That's neat