Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

asmedigitalcollection.asme.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 535 posts

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#11

Post by pnw »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #5
nemomarx wrote: post #4

Out of curiosity, how are large data centers zoned?

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

It's the issue du jour because of foreign influence. The situation in Phoenix is due more to poor zoning since the DC is right across the street from a residential area.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#12

Post by duped »

pnw wrote: post #11
micromacrofoot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

It's the issue du jour because of foreign influence. The situation in Phoenix is due more to poor zoning since the DC is right across the street from a residential area. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

The Chinese and Russians didn't double my electricity rates this year.

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#14

Post by estearum »

pnw wrote: post #11
micromacrofoot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

It's the issue du jour because of foreign influence. The situation in Phoenix is due more to poor zoning since the DC is right across the street from a residential area. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

Or because people see:

1) their electricity bills rising

2) their land prices (read: rent) rising

3) actual fucking nutjobs in charge of these companies who can't seem to simply not say actual nutjob shit all the fucking time

4) entry level jobs disappearing

5) the obvious fact that "I am building the most powerful technology ever" means "the already-powerful people who own these technologies and companies are working to become vastly more powerful"

And I say this as someone who uses and loves using AI heavily across both my personal and professional life. It's better to grapple directly with the fact that people have very legitimate fears and concerns around this technology and the people who own it.

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#15

Post by nemomarx »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #5
nemomarx wrote: post #4

Out of curiosity, how are large data centers zoned?

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

If they're zoned like heavy industry, that seems fine for any noise/ heat etc. If they're zoned for light industry or similar to office buildings like the other comment says I feel like that could have different impacts - an office building will have some of this but probably has much less equipment and energy needs, less venting heat out maybe?

But if we're going to keep factories and chemical plants away from housing we can keep data centers over with them I think. Out of sight, out of mind, less chance of local protestors, maybe even closer to good power plants for transmission. Everyone wins?

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#16

Post by ck2 »

so now we are speed-running global warming

there are now record setting gas turbine sales instead of solar/nuclear

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk8ziQCWK1w

and for what?

so we can have totally useless "AI" customer service agents where you still have to demand to talk to a human to properly get a problem solved

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#17

Post by jeffbee »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #5
nemomarx wrote: post #4

Out of curiosity, how are large data centers zoned?

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

> I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too

If anything about this paper is accurate, which it clearly is not, then the >8000MW rejected to the atmosphere from the nearby Palo Verde power station should be raising the air temperature at least 250C, 1km downwind. Which it obviously does not.

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#18

Post by pnw »

duped wrote: post #12
pnw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the issue du jour because of foreign influence. The situation in Phoenix is due more to poor zoning since the DC is right across the street from a residential area. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

The Chinese and Russians didn't double my electricity rates this year.

Neither did the data centers. Datacenters use less than 5% of US electricity.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.19777

Re: Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

#20

Post by nemomarx »

pnw wrote: post #11
micromacrofoot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

industry or heavy commercial, which is where some minor wrinkles have been coming up because they usually don't need special permission to build as long as the zoning fits honestly I'm sure other industrial uses can cause temperature increases too, the nature of industrial zoning on its own tends to reduce green space which can lead to the heat island effect, so this is at least partially because hating on data cente…

It's the issue du jour because of foreign influence. The situation in Phoenix is due more to poor zoning since the DC is right across the street from a residential area. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

If you want people to be more supportive of it, there are pretty direct ways to do that. Donate heavily to the local community to make up for impact, build new power plants for the project to pay for itself, don't put in gas powered generators, stay away from housing...
Post reply on HN