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Does district heating actually work for heat from data centers? The exhaust temperature of computer equipment is only slightly above room temperature and the st
by AnthonyMouse 1y ago
Does district heating actually work for heat from data centers? The exhaust temperature of computer equipment is only slightly above room temperature and the structures in need of heat would only be at slightly below room temperature when calling for heat. Heat distribution systems with tiny differentials like that tend to have poor efficiency, i.e. you're going to have consume a lot of energy on fans/pumps.
Meanwhile in a cold climate you can do cooling by just blowing outside air through a filter, so the alternative in those climates is that rather than running a compressor.
- actionfromafar 1y agoThat kind of district heating already exists and it uses heat pumps to raise the temps. Basically you run a huge AC somewhere and dump the hot side not into air but into district heating.
- AnthonyMouse 1y agoThat's actually not that bad. Then it's no longer "free" but it would be more efficient than running heat pumps against the cold outside air, and then you could run them in reverse during the summer to cool the data center.