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What's unclear from the article is how they're actually using the water. Servers aren't 'thirsty' for water, there's not some dude with a firehose frantically
by jtriangle 3y ago
What's unclear from the article is how they're actually using the water.
Servers aren't 'thirsty' for water, there's not some dude with a firehose frantically running around the datacenters keeping things cool.
This seems to be intentional obfruscation of the real problem, which is datacenters using cooling towers with open loop cooling without any attempt at reclaimation simply because it's cheaper to do so than other options.
- tw04 3y agoHow much cheaper than using a closed loop system can it really be? We've run cars on closed loop liquid cooling for decades and it would seem outside of the slight additional cost of a heat exchanger, cost should be pretty even initially and lower in the long run.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jtriangle 3y agoIt is a closed loop, they run muni water through the towers in open loop to cool the closed loop. As far as how much cheaper? Well, heat pumps basically double your power costs, air handlers are highly contingent on reduced density and/or cool environmental air, so, alot cheaper to run the tap, no doubt. It's more an issue of waste. That water, at that scale, should be treated and fed back into the system, but it's just discharged instead.