[Request] Low-tech solar boiler

[Usernm]

Idea is using sun to heat water.

It should be something like default boiler, but without fuel consumption.
It should respect day\night cycle.
It should be less powerful than regular boiler, something like 45-60kW (default boiler - 180kw), maybe less.
Ideally it should heat water to 60-70 degrees only.
And of course do it without pollution.

We can boil water and put it in tanks, for later use on nights. Or if partially heating works we can preheat water before using solid fuel.

[aubergine18]

A compost heater would be much more effective - at peak microbial activity, it would heat water to in excess of 100ºC (roughly 2 months in to lifecycle, for a period of 6-8 months, in all weather and irrespective of day/night cycle).

[Usernm]

Interesting idea, but broke vanilla factorio feel. We don't have any tech in vanilla related to biology or something.

[Roxor128]

I had the same idea, too. Didn't necessarily have reduced power (though now that you mention it, I think it's a good idea), but was 3*1 rather than the 1*1 of the default boiler, so you could replace your existing boilers and inserters with a line of solar boilers without needing to move the pipes. Combine that with your reduced capacity and I think we'd have a decent trade-off of area versus pollution.

I do, however, disagree with the "only heat to 60-70 degrees" part. I have a rooftop solar hot water system and I regularly see temperatures over 100 degrees reported by the control unit from the rooftop part during the summer. These things aren't even designed to boil the water, just get it hot.

Now, one other question: What should the required technologies for the solar boiler be? Somewhere between start-of-game and the photovoltaic panels, but that's a fair range. Optics as a bare minimum, I would think.

Also agree that the compost heater feels a bit out-of-place. It would be fine as part of a larger biotech-focussed mod, though.