[Ars Technica] Free data-center heat is allegedly saving a struggling public pool $24K a year

[Space Lynx]

Free data-center heat is allegedly saving a struggling public pool $24K a year

Deep Green deploys data centers in places that could use wasted data-center heat.

arstechnica.com

The computers are submerged in mineral oil that captures heat that gets transferred into pool water with a heat exchanger. The pool still has a gas boiler to boost the water's temperature if required. Deep Green claims it's transferring about 96 percent of the energy used by its computers and reducing a pool's gas heat usage by 62 percent. Deep Green is paying the Exmouth Leisure Centre for all the electricity its data center uses, as well as any setup costs, and the Exmouth Leisure Centre gets the heat for free.

I love this concept, we need more creative thinking like this. I think the key number is it is 96% of the energy used is transferred, that seems like a lot of wasted potential by NOT doing this everywhere. If some small startup can pull this off, there is no excuse for the bigger companies to contact their local public pools or YMCA's and start changing the world for the better imo.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Seems like a reasonable idea.

 

[Frick]

Waste heat is an excellent thing to use. Where I live we use waste heat from a paper plant to keep the street with all the shops free from snow and ice. It's also used to heat homes and whatnot. Apparently 8% of district heating in Sweden comes from waste heat.

 

[Space Lynx]

Waste heat is an excellent thing to use. Where I live we use waste heat from a paper plant to keep the street with all the shops free from snow and ice. It's also used to heat homes and whatnot. Apparently 8% of district heating in Sweden comes from waste heat.

I know in Finland they do this as well, my friend actually sent me some pictures of all the snow and ice, but the streets were wet cause of the heating design the city has in place.