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According to this article, due to bad pipes Thames Water leaks up to "250 Olympic-sized swimming pools" worth of water every day. That's 625 Million liters, com

According to this article, due to bad pipes Thames Water leaks up to "250 Olympic-sized swimming pools" worth of water every day. That's 625 Million liters, compared to the 1-5 Million liters these data centers use daily. I still think that much water for a data center is crazy (why wouldn't they use some form of closed-loop cooling? Or do they and they need 1-5M liters to top it off? Just seems excessive to me but I also don't know much about how data center cooling works.

_aavaa_ 3y ago
As to why I would hazard to say that water is dirt cheap when compared to running a closed loop system (you need pumps and heat exchangers to cool that water and those cost electricity).
darkclouds 3y ago
1/3 of a data centres energy consumption goes on cooling. They are end of life Victorian pipes, in a massively built up and down part of the world. It was always going to cost lots, which is why the govt privatised the problem before people realised what was involved. Renationalising it would put up taxes for everyone in the country not just Londoners, thats why London is so expensive to live in. If labour get in, and they renationalise it, labour will be exploiting the stupidity of their voters. Hanlon's razor, never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity except stealth Govt planning.
- deepsun 3y ago
  Where does the other 2/3 of energy go? I thought it's all converted to heat.
  - darkclouds 3y ago
    https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/ https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/ "the amount of power needed to run data centers on a global scale, which amounts to 416 terawatts, or approximately 3% of all electricity generated on Earth." "Making massive-scale changes to data center operations to enhance the efficiency of energy usage can be a complex, costly, and time-consuming venture. But changes don’t have to be extreme to be effective, and they don’t need to happen all at once. By utilizing the following sixteen methods, data centers can quickly start to efficiently lower their power usage without significantly impacting their bottom line." More at the link for a more detailed explanation. Personally I think this is Thames water looking to shake down the IT sector. Good luck with that considering the brains that run the IT sector! LOL.
  - yodelshady 3y ago
    It's all converted to heat. (nearly) 2/3 is used for computation, which produces waste heat, 1/3 is used to move that heat out of the building. Presumably HVAC designers are smart enough to ensure their waste heat is made outside, and so doesn't add to the total cooling load.
- ReflectedImage 3y ago
  The plan is not to have water in London? I'm not sure where you are going with this?
  - darkclouds 3y ago
    No not saying there should not be any water in London, thats rather melodramatic wouldnt you say? Likewise, where are you going with this, if you think that?
pixl97 3y ago
>That's 625 Million liters, compared to the 1-5 Million liters these data centers use daily The number of pipes and infrastructure that need replaced to fix that likely represents decades of work and funding.

_aavaa_ 3y ago

As to why I would hazard to say that water is dirt cheap when compared to running a closed loop system (you need pumps and heat exchangers to cool that water and those cost electricity).

darkclouds 3y ago

1/3 of a data centres energy consumption goes on cooling. They are end of life Victorian pipes, in a massively built up and down part of the world. It was always going to cost lots, which is why the govt privatised the problem before people realised what was involved. Renationalising it would put up taxes for everyone in the country not just Londoners, thats why London is so expensive to live in. If labour get in, and they renationalise it, labour will be exploiting the stupidity of their voters. Hanlon's razor, never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity except stealth Govt planning.

deepsun 3y ago
Where does the other 2/3 of energy go? I thought it's all converted to heat.
- darkclouds 3y ago
  https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/ https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/ "the amount of power needed to run data centers on a global scale, which amounts to 416 terawatts, or approximately 3% of all electricity generated on Earth." "Making massive-scale changes to data center operations to enhance the efficiency of energy usage can be a complex, costly, and time-consuming venture. But changes don’t have to be extreme to be effective, and they don’t need to happen all at once. By utilizing the following sixteen methods, data centers can quickly start to efficiently lower their power usage without significantly impacting their bottom line." More at the link for a more detailed explanation. Personally I think this is Thames water looking to shake down the IT sector. Good luck with that considering the brains that run the IT sector! LOL.
- yodelshady 3y ago
  It's all converted to heat. (nearly) 2/3 is used for computation, which produces waste heat, 1/3 is used to move that heat out of the building. Presumably HVAC designers are smart enough to ensure their waste heat is made outside, and so doesn't add to the total cooling load.
ReflectedImage 3y ago
The plan is not to have water in London? I'm not sure where you are going with this?
- darkclouds 3y ago
  No not saying there should not be any water in London, thats rather melodramatic wouldnt you say? Likewise, where are you going with this, if you think that?

pixl97 3y ago

>That's 625 Million liters, compared to the 1-5 Million liters these data centers use daily The number of pipes and infrastructure that need replaced to fix that likely represents decades of work and funding.