You’d probably use water as a thermal conduction medium, similar to how old buildings had a boiler in the basement which heated water which was then sent to rooms through radiators.
Comment on Home heating from datacentres - good use of waste energy or a waste of money? | TechRadar
shortwavesurfer@monero.town 7 months ago
How would you transport it? If its not a lot hotter than the biant it moves slowly. As an example, it been cold here recently at night (45F). My house is currently 67F and the outside temp is 78F. I have the door open which does allow the outdoor temp to warm the house, but its incredibly slow since its only an 11F difference. I have a few computers mining crypto in my bedroom and the heat from those has kept me from really having to use my heater. I have had to use it, but not nearly as much as i would otherwise.
niemcycle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
shortwavesurfer@monero.town 7 months ago
But servers couldnt get the water to boiling point. I have lived in several apartments (Minnesota) that used the boiler method you described. Heck, my office was the old pilsbury mansion and used it. I even had to monitor the boiler pressures during maintainence once.
CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
The only way it makes sense is within the same facility. You could use water or refrigerant in heat exchangers, and run insulated lines to other parts of the building. Wouldn’t do too much, but might see a slight reduction in heating costs.
philpo@feddit.de 7 months ago
Ever heard of heat pumps?
shortwavesurfer@monero.town 7 months ago
Just watched a heat pump install vid and that looks a bit complicated. Something like window AC units just require you to install it and turn it on. Shouldnt heat pumps be simple like that too?
philpo@feddit.de 7 months ago
A window unit is technically a heat pump (air to air heat pump). But they are terribly inefficient and ineffective - they often achieve less than 25% of the heating capacity of a proper heating setup. (Cooling is a bit different)
Heatpumps are comparably easy to install if you compare them to regular thermal heating. You won’t need a chimney, no fuel storage or gas pipes. And they are much, much,much easier to maintain - no ash removal, no cleaning of potentially cancerous substances from a burn chamber,etc.
Of course they are still more complicated than a window unit - but that is only slightly so with the benefit of massive gains.
space@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Water and insulated pipes.