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German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

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Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#11

Post by aaron695 »

_stephan wrote: post #4
hollerith wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to think that this is a publicity stunt (rather than a sincere offer of heating services). I don't think it is.

Ignoring the technical difficulty of actually using the excess heat for reliably and consistently heating a building, it's hard to believe that the economics of connecting and servicing single cabinets randomly located all over the landscape could work out.

> that the economics of connecting and servicing single cabinets randomly located all over the landscape

I kinda thought the same.

But assuming it can be properly encrypted (hard) what's the difference to swapping in a new server compared to swapping in a new gas bottle? User pays for the initial infrastructure.

Pull the old one out, pop the new one in, 60 seconds, any blue collar worker can do it, if it's setup properly. It would even be automatically checked remotely it was done 100% correctly.

Once every 3 years? Probably cost $50 a pop? Not necessarily crazy.

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#12

Post by aaron695 »

yc1010 wrote: post #10

What about the noise? Servers can be extremely noisy, in a home environment they would drive the occupier insane (well unless they are deaf)

Heat pump heating is loud too, but people make it work.

It doesn't have to be inside.

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#14

Post by trvz »

yc1010 wrote: post #10

What about the noise? Servers can be extremely noisy, in a home environment they would drive the occupier insane (well unless they are deaf)

Reading C&H's site, I think the living room reference in the article is false. The rack is supposed to be in the basement to add heat to your water heating system.

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#16

Post by throwaway_yy2Di »

return0 wrote: post #9

i wonder if any big data centers do something similar to heat nearby cities?

I'm sure there's a few -- the technical term you want is "district heating". I.e.,

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024952673_amazonheat...

    "Partnering with other companies, Amazon will use waste heat
    from a data center in a Seattle skyscraper to warm its
    soaring new Denny Triangle campus across the street."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/20/helsinki-...

    Helsinki data centre to heat homes
    
    "A mini revolution in eco-friendly computing is taking place
    in the depths of the 19th-century Orthodox Uspenski
    Cathedral in downtown Helsinki."
    
    "The Finnish IT company Academica has installed a new 2MW
    database server centre in an empty second world war bomb
    shelter meant to protect city officials in the event of a
    Russian attack. Water warmed while cooling the servers will
    go on to provide heat for 500 homes or 1,000 flats in a city
    that often suffers winters of -20C. After the heat is
    extracted, the water will be recycled back to cool the
    servers again."

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#17

Post by k__ »

reduce wrote: post #15

So now what happens when law enforcement shows up to the hosting company and tells them they're raiding some servers? Will this be seen as a way to impede and slow down large scale raids?

This is not possible here in germany.

Even if they want to "raid" my flat-mate, they can't go to my rooms while doing it.

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#18

Post by smoyer »

DanBC wrote: post #6
buro9 wrote: post #5

Do we get to turn the servers off in the summer when there is a heatwave?

> If the servers do heavy data processing when no one needs the heat, the system stores hot water in a “buffering tank.” And the Cloud&Heat cabinets can also vent outside in the spring and summer.

There's a limit to that buffering ... and if they can vent outside in the Spring and Summer, wouldn't that be even more efficient in the Winter?

Re: German Cloud Company Offering Free Heat If You Have Room for Some of Its Servers

#19

Post by thraxil »

> Security is a concern with these setups, because anyone’s data could be in anyone else’s house at a given time, but Cloud&Heat claims that since all of its data is encrypted and only its employees can open the cabinets that everyone’s information is safe.

Unless they've cracked the problem of practical fully homomorphic encryption, that data is still going to be unencrypted at some point in those units and vulnerable if the physical security of the cabinet is compromised.

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