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itchyfrog t1_jc60xip wrote

Finally a bit of joined up thinking.

Now can we use this on a bigger scale for district heating?

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7h33v1l7w1n t1_jc6l61k wrote

If you pay attention to the kinds of master planning projects that municipalities, universities, and commercial entities are initiating, there are certainly projects similar to this in the works, among many other creative solutions for efficient district heating, power, etc.

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vasya349 t1_jc67zrp wrote

I don’t think the data centers large enough to be useful are the best use of space in areas dense enough for district heat.

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itchyfrog t1_jc694pa wrote

This one is the size of a washing machine and can heat a municipal swimming pool 60% of the time, it currently costs around £300k a year to heat a pool in the UK, which is around what 300 houses worth of central heating costs.

Even after allowing for an order of magnitude difference in efficiencies between heating a body of water and homes you wouldn't be looking at huge amounts of space.

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RU_FKM t1_jc6tne6 wrote

I'm in Canada and our pool costs about $2000 per year (May through September) to heat. (18x30 feet)

How big is the pool that costs 150 times that?! (Not even considering exchange rate.)

Edit: it's an outdoor pool.

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itchyfrog t1_jc72di6 wrote

A fairly standard municipal pool will be about 25mx10m by an average of about 2m deep

So about 82ft x 32ft x 6.5ft and the electric will probably be between £0.50-£1 a kwh depending on their contract, and it's all year round, and the article said the £300k was to heat the complex so presumably includes changing rooms and offices etc but the pool will be most of it.

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Gynetic t1_jc6op2e wrote

Rotterdam (The Netherlands), has already been using a similar method of providing heating to a huge portion of the city since 2006. 'Stadsverwarming' (directly translated to city-heating), uses excess heat that's produced in the city's port/harbour to provide heating to houses and businesses all over the city.

(It's also the largest port in the world outside of Asia)

There are other parts of The Netherlands which already use the excess heat from large scale data centers for exactly the same thing. Cities such as Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen for example.

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lt_spaghetti t1_jc7thql wrote

Here in Quebec city a large datacenter opening up will heat a hothouse full of weed, tomatoes and strawberries.

Not bad

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Papegaaiduiker t1_jc6p194 wrote

I'm living in a city thats very soon getting this. It's not all great, as some/a lot of the houses are older and not designed for low heating. So they get moisture problems and are too cold. But it's still pretty nice.

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