The specifics of your question have an obvious answer: heat pumps are more efficient, and computers have a high upfront cost relative to their overall heat prod

The specifics of your question have an obvious answer: heat pumps are more efficient, and computers have a high upfront cost relative to their overall heat production, so we wouldn't have enough computers to meet heating demand. The context of your question is a lot more interesting. Why don't we do something with waste heat? We already have systems to efficiently move it, so why not move it somewhere that it can be captured and put to use? If we were motivated enough to do that, could we? There are a few realities that get in the way: - Heat is difficult to trap, and difficult to move. You can't put heat on pause. That puts a hard limit on its travel distance. - Computers have different distance limits. Sometimes, you want them to be close to each other; other times, you want them close to you. These two things are inversely correlated with the utility of heat production: You are likely to generate more heat from a computer that is near you, but unlikely to have any need to put more computers near it. If you could game on a datacenter, then that would change this dynamic. If everyone on your block hosted a giant liquid-cooled LAN party, and used the heat to warm a pool...