4 ms·

You may want to re-read; this isn't disabling the current water heater, it is modifying it to be less insulated, and placing a compute unit there. [It will main

You may want to re-read; this isn't disabling the current water heater, it is modifying it to be less insulated, and placing a compute unit there. [It will maintain an immersion heater] Re: fiber, Natural gas lines often already have a fiber line for monitoring (some US utils were the first to the fiber market because of this)

Alupis 4y ago
The cost of routing a fiber line is extraordinary. Even if one existed nearby, it would not be usable because it's owned by the utility not this private server company. Regarding keeping the existing heating element - seems necessary because this server water heater isn't going to heat much of anything. To flip it on it's head - this is free cooling capacity for a for-profit server company that will do little-to-zero for the home owner and risks damaging their expensive water heater for some hand-wavy promised savings of $200 a year... not really selling me.
- smileysteve 4y ago
  Which is more difficult, routing a fiber line or a natural gas line?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Alupis 4y ago
    I don't understand what you are driving at. There is no reality where this server "heater" can replace a natural gas or electricity line - so the comparison is moot. Further, fiber lines are owned by an entity. This private, for-profit company is not going to be able to just use someone else's fiber lines simply because they are nearby. Even further, bringing a fiber line even across a building can run thousands or tens of thousands. Across a street? Try a hundred thousand... I've been here many times with fiber, ie. there's nothing cheap about it, all of it. There is no reality where this server company is going to shell out tens of thousands to run fiber lines to a bunch of one-off installations.
    - smileysteve 4y ago
      Ah, you've missed the context that this is coordinated with British Gas, providing the utility natural gas infrastructure that exists to heat the water. Many gas companies have already entrenched fiber when performing maintenance on consumer gas lines for monitoring stations. Fiber is shallower and is easy to trench relative to gas lines. It also serves as an early warning sign when digging.
      - Alupis 4y ago
        None of which means this for-profit company gets access to utility infrastructure. Even if they did... it would still be cost prohibitive to split, splice, run and terminate fiber into a residential unit - all in the name of saving $200 a year. It simply does not make economic sense. Like I said before - I strongly suspect the entire truth is not being told about this arrangement.
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  They... would just get a contract with the utility ? Also, I don't think you just get one fiber(?), I have 4 fiber ports on my wall outlet, which was quite useful when I changed ISPs (that didn't share the same fiber) : only a few seconds of downtime, to switch Ethernet cables and Wi-Fi ! Also, unless you have solar thermal hot water, this sounds to be the perfect use case, thanks to the large inertia... (I wonder how they interface with the off-hours cheap electricity? This seems to be up to a constant 200W, ~100W guaranteed ?) The concern I have here is that despite the "patented heating element", this sounds to be a hacky solution that might compromise the insulation too much. They really need to build those in the water heater to start with ! (And provide regular service against failure from rust, since a leaky heater might have more dire consequences here.)
bydlocoder 4y ago
So what will happen when the tank is already hot from a proper? What will be the CPU temperature when ambient is at 60C?
- mike-cardwell 4y ago
  From the FAQ on the trial page, it seems like it will simply not run if there is nowhere to dump the excess heat: How much of my hot water will it deliver? A useful base load. If the heata unit ran all day it would deliver about 4.8kWh of hot water which is about the amount of hot water an average household uses. In practice the utilisation level will be lower and sometimes the water will be at temperature so the heata unit won't be able to run. We think it could deliver up to 80% of an average household's hot water, with good compute utilisation. This trial will help us learn more about how this will work in practice and enable us to give you a useful amount of free hot water at the same time.

Alupis 4y ago

The cost of routing a fiber line is extraordinary. Even if one existed nearby, it would not be usable because it's owned by the utility not this private server company. Regarding keeping the existing heating element - seems necessary because this server water heater isn't going to heat much of anything. To flip it on it's head - this is free cooling capacity for a for-profit server company that will do little-to-zero for the home owner and risks damaging their expensive water heater for some hand-wavy promised savings of $200 a year... not really selling me.

smileysteve 4y ago
Which is more difficult, routing a fiber line or a natural gas line?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Alupis 4y ago
  I don't understand what you are driving at. There is no reality where this server "heater" can replace a natural gas or electricity line - so the comparison is moot. Further, fiber lines are owned by an entity. This private, for-profit company is not going to be able to just use someone else's fiber lines simply because they are nearby. Even further, bringing a fiber line even across a building can run thousands or tens of thousands. Across a street? Try a hundred thousand... I've been here many times with fiber, ie. there's nothing cheap about it, all of it. There is no reality where this server company is going to shell out tens of thousands to run fiber lines to a bunch of one-off installations.
  - smileysteve 4y ago
    Ah, you've missed the context that this is coordinated with British Gas, providing the utility natural gas infrastructure that exists to heat the water. Many gas companies have already entrenched fiber when performing maintenance on consumer gas lines for monitoring stations. Fiber is shallower and is easy to trench relative to gas lines. It also serves as an early warning sign when digging.
    - Alupis 4y ago
      None of which means this for-profit company gets access to utility infrastructure. Even if they did... it would still be cost prohibitive to split, splice, run and terminate fiber into a residential unit - all in the name of saving $200 a year. It simply does not make economic sense. Like I said before - I strongly suspect the entire truth is not being told about this arrangement.
BlueTemplar 4y ago
They... would just get a contract with the utility ? Also, I don't think you just get one fiber(?), I have 4 fiber ports on my wall outlet, which was quite useful when I changed ISPs (that didn't share the same fiber) : only a few seconds of downtime, to switch Ethernet cables and Wi-Fi ! Also, unless you have solar thermal hot water, this sounds to be the perfect use case, thanks to the large inertia... (I wonder how they interface with the off-hours cheap electricity? This seems to be up to a constant 200W, ~100W guaranteed ?) The concern I have here is that despite the "patented heating element", this sounds to be a hacky solution that might compromise the insulation too much. They really need to build those in the water heater to start with ! (And provide regular service against failure from rust, since a leaky heater might have more dire consequences here.)

bydlocoder 4y ago

So what will happen when the tank is already hot from a proper? What will be the CPU temperature when ambient is at 60C?

mike-cardwell 4y ago
From the FAQ on the trial page, it seems like it will simply not run if there is nowhere to dump the excess heat: How much of my hot water will it deliver? A useful base load. If the heata unit ran all day it would deliver about 4.8kWh of hot water which is about the amount of hot water an average household uses. In practice the utilisation level will be lower and sometimes the water will be at temperature so the heata unit won't be able to run. We think it could deliver up to 80% of an average household's hot water, with good compute utilisation. This trial will help us learn more about how this will work in practice and enable us to give you a useful amount of free hot water at the same time.