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Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

bbc.com

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Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#11

Post by newpavlov »

9dev wrote: post #2

Something I have been wondering: Why don't data centres use the excess heat for a sort of energy recuperation, turning at least some of it back into electricity?

Because it's not economical, the required hardware is unlikely to pay for itself during its lifetime. The gradient is too small (~50C), which means low Carnot efficiency. Additionally, extraction of low-enthalpy energy involves obstruction of heat transfer, meaning lower cooling efficiency. It may have been a different story if we had computer hardware able to efficiently operate at 200-300C.

Even steel plants which deal with significantly higher waste heat gradients rarely bother with recovering energy.

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#14

Post by Symbiote »

9dev wrote: post #6
breitling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw on TV a long time ago that a funeral home's "energy" (burning bodies) was used to heat homes somewhere in Europe. We can just use data centers for heating too...maybe turn around all these protests against them

There's lots of district heating in Germany for example, but it's usually fed from either big heat pumps, bio mass plants, or heat from waste incineration plants. There's no reason to not use excess heat from data centres too - I'm pretty sure I read that already being done in several places. But in some cases, a data centre might be too remotely located, or the infrastructure is too lacking to make it economically f…

> I'm pretty sure I read that already being done in several places.

Presumably you read this very recently, since it's mentioned at the end of the article.

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#15

Post by bojangleslover »

cm2012 wrote: post #9

All data centers that are in controversial areas should offer free heated swimming pools for the neighborhood. You could add a giant pool complex as a percentage or two of the cost of a big data center.

This is an unironically good idea

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#16

Post by SilasX »

breitling wrote: post #3
9dev wrote: post #2

Something I have been wondering: Why don't data centres use the excess heat for a sort of energy recuperation, turning at least some of it back into electricity?

I saw on TV a long time ago that a funeral home's "energy" (burning bodies) was used to heat homes somewhere in Europe. We can just use data centers for heating too...maybe turn around all these protests against them

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#17

Post by newpavlov »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #13

Is it feasible to do this at smaller scales? Would be cool to use my compurers to heat water at home. Put all that useless heat to good use. Air conditioners could do it too, right? Pump heat into a water reservoir instead of just throwing it away?

Some people use cryptocurrency miners to heat their homes. It's certainly better than dumb resistive heating, but depending on various conditions it can cost more than installing a heat pump.

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#18

Post by driverdan »

stavros wrote: post #8

I don't understand how a server (the "washing-machine-sized datacenter") can heat up any fraction of a swimming pool appreciably. Wouldn't it be a few kW tops?

GPU power density is very high. The B300, for example, is rated at 1400W TDP. You can fit a lot of B300s in the space of a washing machine.

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#19

Post by gravel7623 »

stavros wrote: post #8

I don't understand how a server (the "washing-machine-sized datacenter") can heat up any fraction of a swimming pool appreciably. Wouldn't it be a few kW tops?

And more importantly, once the pool is warm enough (or in a very hot day), doesn't it lose its cooling efficiency?

Re: Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool

#20

Post by cyanydeez »

bojangleslover wrote: post #15
cm2012 wrote: post #9

All data centers that are in controversial areas should offer free heated swimming pools for the neighborhood. You could add a giant pool complex as a percentage or two of the cost of a big data center.

This is an unironically good idea

unfortunately, it's like saying all billionaires should let people swim in their pools when they're away.
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