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Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

dougmacdowell.com

71–80 of 91 posts

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can this concept be extended to the home in general? Why not pump heat out of computer components and into a general hot water tank for home use? I wonder if anyone's tried it.

I’ve long been annoyed in the summer every time I turn on a heat generating appliance (stove, dryer, on-demand hot water) and then think about all the waste heat my air conditioner dumped out the side of the house in the last X hours. It would be amazing to somehow store that heat in a reservoir where it could be later used. I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it, but I sometimes fantas…

> I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it

I wonder. Infrastructure investments tend to have absurd payoffs. For example, my solar energy equipment has been generating profit for years.

In my country 5 kW electric showers are common every day items and they add up to a huge chunk of household energy consumption. Switching to a more efficient water heating system has been on my mind for years. If I can use my home server as a heating element, so much the better. Could even use free CPU cycles to mine Monero on it. A solar powered cryptocurrency mining home serving water heating computer. Wow.

I also think a lot about the heat my air conditioners constantly pump out of my house. Seems like a waste to just throw it out of the house like that. Ideally it would be stored so that it could be used to heat other things later... To me it seems like it should be possible with enough integration.

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#72
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as GE Coffeemattic PC, is in fact, GNU/GE Coffeemattic PC, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus GE coffeemattic. GE Coffeemattic is not a PC unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full PC as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which pumps hot java today is often called "GE Coffeematic PC", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a GE Coffeemattic exists, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. GE Coffeematic is the coffee kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's caffeinated resources to the other the user's physical space. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Coffeemattic is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Coffeemattic added, or GNU/GE Coffeemattic. All the so-called "GE Coffeemattic PC" distributions are really distributions of GNU/GE Coffeemattic PC.

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve long been annoyed in the summer every time I turn on a heat generating appliance (stove, dryer, on-demand hot water) and then think about all the waste heat my air conditioner dumped out the side of the house in the last X hours. It would be amazing to somehow store that heat in a reservoir where it could be later used. I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it, but I sometimes fantas…

> I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it I wonder. Infrastructure investments tend to have absurd payoffs. For example, my solar energy equipment has been generating profit for years. In my country 5 kW electric showers are common every day items and they add up to a huge chunk of household energy consumption. Switching to a more efficient water heating system has been on my mind for ye…

I think it boils down to a) effectively storing heat for later use is extremely difficult to do well, and b) moving heat around properly means 400psi compressor tubes everywhere, and those are a lot more fragile and annoying to work with than regular plumbing, and you need a special gas licence to charge them up afterward.

In contrast to the RV proposal, maybe a better option could be something like a boutique hotel, where you’ve got 100+ showers happening every morning, so having a giant cistern of hot water that you dump all the waste heat from AC, fridges, and freezers into makes a ton of sense.

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#75
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

v0.2a needs to mine crypto to pay for its own coffee beans while peculating the coffee. =3

Then tokenise the mined crypto. The tokens can be represented by coffee beans. The beans are now magically valuable! Digitally enhanced coffee as fungible tokens. “Decaf” for short. What could go wrong?

"DECAF tokens, also known as DECAF T, can be used to..."

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve long been annoyed in the summer every time I turn on a heat generating appliance (stove, dryer, on-demand hot water) and then think about all the waste heat my air conditioner dumped out the side of the house in the last X hours. It would be amazing to somehow store that heat in a reservoir where it could be later used. I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it, but I sometimes fantas…

> I doubt the extra piping and infrastructure is anywhere near worth it I wonder. Infrastructure investments tend to have absurd payoffs. For example, my solar energy equipment has been generating profit for years. In my country 5 kW electric showers are common every day items and they add up to a huge chunk of household energy consumption. Switching to a more efficient water heating system has been on my mind for ye…

There are heat-pump water heaters, if that fills in a conceptual gap. The main complaint I've seen with them has just been that they're slow, but that's more of a product-design (at a price point) issue than anything fundamental afaict.

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#78
post #9

Why not rig it the other way: pump water past the CPU, then through your coffee grounds? It probably wouldn't be great for your CPU, because the temperature required to properly brew coffee is hotter than you really want for your CPU. But maybe get the water to 80C, and a secondary heater after that.

Could use an old P4 Celeron as the secondary heater.

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember in a video, Linus measured that the ground absorbs all the heat before it could even reaching the pool.

His pipes have too much or not enough insulation then.

I don't know anything about the topic and this made me really curious. Why could too much insulation be a problem?

Re: Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU

#80
post #9

Why not rig it the other way: pump water past the CPU, then through your coffee grounds? It probably wouldn't be great for your CPU, because the temperature required to properly brew coffee is hotter than you really want for your CPU. But maybe get the water to 80C, and a secondary heater after that.

Many years ago we used a hot P4 to heat mulled wine.

https://imgur.com/a/mulled-wine-pc-WW1pW

It could get to 60°C which is a bit low for coffee but was great for mulled wine

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