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A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

politico.com

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Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#21

Post by ikiris »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean, "allowed" to vote on it? The county officials are the decisionmakers, who should have allowed or not allowed them? It also seems worth noting that these gas turbine generators are meant to be the solution to another big complaint people have about datacenters, that they might drive up local power prices if they plug into the grid. Like you and the people in the article, I'm personally very sensitive…

I mean, I'm fine with datacenters plugging into the grid, if they pay for it. I don't understand (and I mean feel free to explain it) this weird shit where a datacenter goes up and everybody's power bills start increasing. I have assumed that it's because the grid's facilities require upgrades to meet the new demand, but in the case of the "new demand" being "one structure consuming an assload of power" it feels incr…

Power doesn’t just apperate out of thin air. It has to be generated and that has costs. If suddenly the grid draws more power then more costly sources have to feed it. Everyone pays for the same power.

The big consumer also buys in bulk and negotiates better rates etc.

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#22

Post by Izikiel43 »

tren_hard wrote: post #10
bilekas wrote: post #3

> Stephenson said the data center’s operations team had not seen any “abnormalities” on the day in question. > “However, we take any reports of issues at the site seriously,” Stephenson wrote Absolutely no abnormalities because this is by design, but nobody wanted to pay attention when approving the building and zoning. Amazing what some money to politicians will get you. I can't even imaging living within ear shot o…

[flagged]

> Also a state housing complex nearby with mentally unwell people screaming all night outside.

I think this would be the greatest annoyance to me, the other stuff becomes background noise eventually

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#23

Post by dionidium »

citrin_ru wrote: post #15
tren_hard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Point is, if you ban anything that makes noise you’ll be left with nothing, it’s pure selfish nimbyism The US is large enough country and it should be possible to build DC far away from homes. That’s a rare case where I support NIMBY. I lived in 1km from a gas fired power station and did bot notice any noise at all. If a DC can be heard it is either too close or too loud.

> That’s a rare case where I support NIMBY.

It's kind of darkly funny that NIMBY ever came to refer to housing in the first place. The term was originally meant to apply to stuff exactly like this -- i.e. genuinely noxious uses that most people nevertheless agree are necessary somewhere. Almost everybody is a NIMBY in this sense.

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#24

Post by hunter2_ »

jmugan wrote: post #7

I feel like the world needs more sound engineers. There's a constant humming of the machines and we all suffer for it. We also need more vigilance about preventing noise pollution. The beep, beep, beep may make a company feel like it is doing something for safety, but there is no counterforce that they have to answer to about what they are doing to everyone else not involved. (I know there is a better sound to replac…

We would need to figure out a quantifiable metric for annoyance level. Municipal sound ordinances do tend to correctly utilize SPL(A) and SPL(C), with A-weighting being relevant for safety against ear injury (low frequencies have less influence) and C-weighting being relevant for annoyance level (low frequencies have more influence), but this isn't nearly enough. For example, ordinances carve out additional tolerance for burstiness, which makes sense for rare events like jackhammering but not for common events like routine plant operations. Sound with lots of harmonic content (think distortion) is more annoying than without. High frequencies can be worse if they reach you, but they're less likely to reach you (approaching a need for line-of-sight). It's complicated.

Here's a free idea for someone to run with: just as Zillow has a neighborhood "walkability" score prospective buyers might look at, there could be various pollution scores, including sound and light, sourced from some kind of Flock-like (ew) network of capture devices. Some folks are into mounting things like personal weather stations on their property, so maybe a new generation of devices capturing this type of data (with local signature-based identification of sources, and triangulation when the same thing is heard in multiple places, etc.) wouldn't be too far-fetched.

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#26

Post by jeffbee »

jmugan wrote: post #7

I feel like the world needs more sound engineers. There's a constant humming of the machines and we all suffer for it. We also need more vigilance about preventing noise pollution. The beep, beep, beep may make a company feel like it is doing something for safety, but there is no counterforce that they have to answer to about what they are doing to everyone else not involved. (I know there is a better sound to replac…

The constant humming that causes the overwhelming population-weighted noise pollution comes from cars and airplanes, due to the fact that in America it is currently not legal to build an apartment except within 100ft of a freeway or at the ends of airports.

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#28

Post by jerlam »

jmugan wrote: post #7

I feel like the world needs more sound engineers. There's a constant humming of the machines and we all suffer for it. We also need more vigilance about preventing noise pollution. The beep, beep, beep may make a company feel like it is doing something for safety, but there is no counterforce that they have to answer to about what they are doing to everyone else not involved. (I know there is a better sound to replac…

It's the Simpsons "Everything's OK" alarm: (note: loud and annoying noise) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxNp3bUDtxY

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#29

Post by iamtheworstdev »

SayThatSh wrote: post #4

I've seen a few videos with the audible whine heard from people's houses even super far away from these datacenters. Guess we'll see in a few years whether they were worth building in the first place or whether they end up abandoned once the bubble bursts.

I assume once the bubble bursts they'll be turned into power supplies for bitcoin miners

Re: A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

#30

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

jmugan wrote: post #7

I feel like the world needs more sound engineers. There's a constant humming of the machines and we all suffer for it. We also need more vigilance about preventing noise pollution. The beep, beep, beep may make a company feel like it is doing something for safety, but there is no counterforce that they have to answer to about what they are doing to everyone else not involved. (I know there is a better sound to replac…

They could start with building codes. State of the art, beautiful new designs where you can hear every word of the meeting next door.
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