Why Waste Servers' Heat?

mikejuk writes "A new paper from Microsoft Research (PDF) suggests a radical but slightly mad scheme for dealing with some of the more basic problems of the data center. Rather than build server farms that produce a lot of waste heat, why not have distributed Data Furnaces, that heat home and offices at the same time as providing cloud computing? This is a serious suggestion and they provide facts and figures to make it all seem viable. So when it gets cold all you have to do is turn up the number crunching ..."

Combined heat and power

[pfafrich]

Combined heat and power [wikipedia.org] (CHP) schemes are a increasingly common using the waste heat from some process to provide district heating. Temperatures from a server farms might be a bit on the low side but it changes the situation when you look at the heat as a resource to be used rather than a waste item.

Re:What a novel idea

[suso]

Oh really, then why when I search for datacenter in a barn, this comes up first: Microsoft puts data centre in a barn (Jan 2011) [itnews.com.au]

Yeah, I'm done alright.

Been there, done that...

[julf]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/20/helsinki-data-centre-heat-homes

Re:Energy wasting technology

[hackertourist]

The 'aside' you mention is actually the main point. Even the most efficient power plants top out at 60% efficiency. Assuming your house is heated with gas, not electricity, this means that the light bulb is slightly over half as efficient as your gas furnace.
For a recent (less than 15 yo) gas furnace over here (.nl) efficiency is in the 95%+ range, thanks to government incentives towards more efficient systems. Dunno about the US situation.

Also, heat and light needs don't overlap: you'll be running those same lights in the summer, when your AC will be running overtime to pump out the excess heat from the damn bulbs.

Finally, the effect of light bulbs on heating is negligible. My central heating is rated at 25 kW, and I have 13 light fixtures. If I installed 100W incandescent lights everywhere I would generate ~1300W in heat, or 5% of the peak capacity I need.