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Is there any examples of using something like a server farm to heat a building in the winter? Removing heat from a server farm through heat exchange with a cold
by wppick 5y ago
Is there any examples of using something like a server farm to heat a building in the winter? Removing heat from a server farm through heat exchange with a cold building seems like an efficient combination of two interests (building needs heat, servers need to get rid of heat). Of course this becomes a problem in the summer months...
- wongarsu 5y agoStockholm, Sweden has an open district heating network: buildings can not only buy heat from it for heating, like a normal district heating network, they can also sell surplus heat to the network. At least two data centers (Bahnhof Thule and Bahnhof Pionen) sell heat from their heat exchangers to the network. https://celsiuscity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Waste-heat-from-data-centres.pdf https://celsiuscity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Waste-heat... pages 7-9
- grenoire 5y agoIn Amsterdam, the botanical gardens and Hermitage Amsterdam exchange heat in that sort of mutually beneficial way, https://www.cultureelerfgoed.nl/onderwerpen/praktijkvoorbeelden/overzicht-praktijkvoorbeelden/hermitage-en-hortus-delen-warmte-koudeopslag https://www.cultureelerfgoed.nl/onderwerpen/praktijkvoorbeel....
- uomo 5y agoOne of Amazon’s buildings in Seattle (Doppler) uses a data center next door to reduce their overall heating costs during the winter. Source: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/the-super-efficient-heat-source-hidden-below-amazons-seattle-headquarters https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/the-super-ef...
- Quindecillion 5y agoThis is actually one of the use cases that Satoshi Nakamoto spoke about in regards to Bitcoin mining. The purpose built machines for mining (ASICs) turn electrical energy into heat through performing hashes. If you need electrical heating there's functionally no difference between turning a regular heater on or turning on an ASIC. The benefit of turning an ASIC on instead is you can recoup some of the cost of expending the electricity.
- totallyabstract 5y agoA French company made a product along these lines already, but I don’t think it’s been updated since 2018: https://blog.qarnot.com/introducing-the-qc-1-crypto-heater/ https://blog.qarnot.com/introducing-the-qc-1-crypto-heater/ It’s true this is as good as resistive heating in terms of heating efficiency, but it is still far less efficient than a heat pump. Unless you are in an area with a large excess of renewable energy it probably doesn’t make sense environmentally to use an asic heater.
- nybble41 5y agoOne might use a smaller version as a space heater, rather than for primary heating. In that context it isn't really competing with heat pumps; space heaters are usually resistive. It looks like the same company still makes some products that leverage waste heat from computation (https://qalway.com/fr https://qalway.com/fr), just not ones that specifically mention crypto as the source of the computation.
- elil17 5y agoThe issue is that modern heat pumps are way more efficient than just a resistor. Not something that was obvious in Nakamoto’s day. Even gas furnaces are more efficient due to transmission losses. If your house is one of the few that have an electric furnace, there’s no difference. For most people, though, there’s a huge difference. Running an appliance such as a computer to heat a house will cost more and be worse for the environment.
- fomine3 5y agoWasn't it obvious in 2007 (or even 2000)?