CibbuanoSwimming Pool Heated with Waste Heat from Server Farm
April 14th 2008 20:46
Ah, wonderful. Those clever efficient Swiss... Wired News reports of a computer center that recycles its heat by channeling it to heat the local swimming pool.
It's a mentality that more of us should have. So much of our electricity goes to heating or cooling, when it makes so much sense to funnel the heat and cold between the two.
Server rooms produce an obnoxious amount of heat... all that computing power, packed into tight spaces, cooled by fans and heat sinks - well, the heat has to go somewhere. Most server rooms are air-conditioned to the point of making it a painful environment.
Removing some of the heat with water is a fantastic idea. From the article:
"As in all data centers, air conditioners will blast the computers with chilly air - to keep the machines from exceeding their optimum temperature of around 70 degrees - and pump hot air out.
Usually, the hot air is vented outdoors and wasted. In the Uitikon center, it will flow through heat exchangers to warm water that will be pumped into the nearby pool. The town covered the cost of some of the connecting equipment but will get to use the heat for free.
Steven Sams, a data center services vice president for IBM, said the Swiss project should be a model. After all, IBM says, the computers in the Uitikon center will throw off enough heat to warm as many as 80 houses."
I'd like to see more efforts like this - the only other one that I can think of is the house that uses its rainwater tank to keep the temperature of a house stable.
It's a mentality that more of us should have. So much of our electricity goes to heating or cooling, when it makes so much sense to funnel the heat and cold between the two.
Server rooms produce an obnoxious amount of heat... all that computing power, packed into tight spaces, cooled by fans and heat sinks - well, the heat has to go somewhere. Most server rooms are air-conditioned to the point of making it a painful environment.
Removing some of the heat with water is a fantastic idea. From the article:
"As in all data centers, air conditioners will blast the computers with chilly air - to keep the machines from exceeding their optimum temperature of around 70 degrees - and pump hot air out.
Usually, the hot air is vented outdoors and wasted. In the Uitikon center, it will flow through heat exchangers to warm water that will be pumped into the nearby pool. The town covered the cost of some of the connecting equipment but will get to use the heat for free.
Steven Sams, a data center services vice president for IBM, said the Swiss project should be a model. After all, IBM says, the computers in the Uitikon center will throw off enough heat to warm as many as 80 houses."
I'd like to see more efforts like this - the only other one that I can think of is the house that uses its rainwater tank to keep the temperature of a house stable.
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