The linked story is about a neat little system that recovers waste heat from a data center and uses it to warm a nearby swimming pool. Data centers pump out a lot of heat so being able to tap into that much energy and use it is a nice example of lateral thinking. Even my little laptop generates too much heat to leave it on my lap for very long so some of those big server rooms could no doubt provide a lot of energy. Makes you wonder if the current trend towards flash based hard drives is going to require redesigning of data centers
“A new computer centre in Switzerland is making novel use of the hot air thrown off by its servers and communications equipment: the heat is being funneled next door to warm the local swimming pool.
As in all data centers, air conditioners will blast the computers with chilly air - to keep the machines from exceeding their optimum temperature of around 21 degrees Celsius - and pump hot air out.
Usually, the hot air is vented outdoors and wasted. In the Uitikon centre, it will flow through heat exchangers to warm water that will be pumped into the nearby pool.”
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just throw the servers into the pool