Data center warming public children's pool saves the pool operators an estimated $24k annually

[thewayne]

The high-performance cluster server is submerged in a pool of mineral oil - a very effective way to cool systems - and a heat-exchanger transfers the heat into the children's pool! The pool still has a boiler in case it gets too low, but overall it will save a lot of money.

The company behind the install is trying to create more installations like this to recover waste heat - this pool installation claims to recover 97%(!) of its waste heat - rather than just venting it into the air and causing more climate disruption.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/03/free-data-center-heat-is-allegedly-saving-a-struggling-public-pool-24k-a-year/

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/03/17/2037217/free-data-center-heat-is-allegedly-saving-a-struggling-public-pool-24k-a-year

Comments

[dewline]

Now, there's symbiosis in action, right?

[thewayne]

I don't know that I'd say symbiosis, but definitely complimentary systems.

[kathmandu]

That sounds resourceful. And creative.

[thewayne]

I thought it quite clever.  I've known about mineral oil cooling for some time, this takes it to an awesome level!

[disneydream06]

WOWZA!!!!!! That is so cool, so to speak. lol...
I hope more people can follow their lead. :)
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

There have been proposals to heat houses with data center waste heat, but it isn't feasible - you cannot pipe that hot air - with any practicality - across any significant distance without huge loss.  THIS method, much more practical!

[armiphlage]

Good idea!

[thewayne]

I thought it was quite clever.

[frith]

Hopefully it isn't thousands of gallons of mineral oil and that it lasts a long time. Also, the heat from the servers is released, albeit through the pool. The advantage is saving on energy/heat/fossil fuels by not running the boiler. Over all, the heated pool is still a luxury that is there thanks to fossil fuels. We've never had it so good.

[thewayne]

I have no idea how much oil is involved, I do know it's highly reusable for this purpose.  You can also cool computers with either distilled water or de-ionized water, I don't remember which, as it remains non-conductive.  But you get any contaminant into the water and it's game over as it becomes conductive and blows up the computer. And you're right, the heat does get released through the exchange cycle, but at no greater increase than the pool itself being heated by the broiler.  So there is a net savings by the heat exchange maintaining the pool at a slightly higher ambient temperature.

[silveradept]

It's a good way of putting the waste to use, since the heat is already being generated, but the fact that there's enough heat for this to be a viable way of heating the pool for a significant part of the year says something else about the demand for computing resources that the heat generation is this good.

[thewayne]

What's worse is the new releases of public AI/generative systems - those pretty much peg CPUs, so data center heat load is only going to increase.