Submitted 11 months ago by fer0n@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-energy-heating-homes
Since 2020, Meta’s hyperscale data center — spanning 50,000 square meters on an industrial estate on the edge of the city — has been pushing warm air generated by its servers into the district heating network under Odense. That heat is then dispersed through 100,000 households hooked up to the system, with Meta providing enough heat to cover roughly 11,000.
With my growing homeland, I’m nearly self hosting this same sort of solution in my basement.
It’s all fun and games until you get raided by some very disappointed DEA agents.
That’s okay. They found a roach in the basement so you’re going away for 3-5.
If you live in an environment that gets hot in the summer time you may think about getting a heat pump for your home. That much heat energy being generated in the summer would be great for your energy bill. Instead of battling the heat generated by your lab with AC it would actually be used to create a more efficient heat energy exchange for the pump.
Can you elaborate on how creating heat in summer time helps save money on cooling your home?
Well, was mostly making a joke but would be pretty cool. I’ll bet there’s some way I could figure out how to use the waste heat to offset the water heater or something.
Hmm, liquid cooled… now you have me thinking :).
This is actually a law in Denmark, so it’s something Facebook had to do.
Any new data centers build on Danish ground need to be hooked up to the central heating system, providing heat to the community.
Perfect use of resources.
“Perfect use of resources” might be overstating it a bit.
They took a waste product and used it to heat homes, sounds responsible and efficient.
Actually, the whole of Facebook shutting down would be better use of resources.
Data center heat, with a little external help, warms homes of nearby residents. Nothing unusual or interesting.
Saved you a click.
Thank you for your service.
Can you grow on it? Would be the first good thing that comes out of it…
adam@doomscroll.n8e.dev 11 months ago
Wish this kind of joined up thinking happened in places other than the Nordics.
Data centres and industry exist and dump heat all over the world. Putting it to use is a no brainer.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I think the Nordics is probably the only place capable of utilizing this system in the first place. It looks like they have a utility system that already centralizes heating for their communities. They basically have a hot water line that circulates through radiators located in all the buildings in the community. Facebook was able to hook their heat exchange to this system, so they didn’t have to build any real infrastructure.
I’m not really sure how efficient this solution is, it really depends if their centralized system is a closed or open system. The water Facebook is pumping out is only 80 degrees, and has to be heated up to 170 by the utility company for service.
The problem is that while these servers produce a large volume of heated air, the intensity of that heat is very low, making it hard to exploit or preserve for transfer.
GenEcon@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Germany has this concept implemented in a lot of places, too.
Ironically this results in some problems now. For example the city Salzgitter (100k inhabitants) is heated by the local steel plant – which currently transitions towards green steel. Their transition also leads to a shut down of their blast furnaces, leaving the inhabitants of Salzgitter out of heating.
No idea what their plan is to replace it, though.
VonReposti@feddit.dk 11 months ago
District heating in Denmark is a closed system. The heated water leaves the Combined Heat & Power plant (CHP) or an industry’s heat pump and runs towards the consumers. In radiators it flows through and you pay for the difference in heat in/out and for tap water/shower etc. you have a heat exchanger that heats up the normal cold water line. The now colder heated water then runs back to the CHPs where it gets reheated.
Denmark may be big on windmills but CHPs are actually another energy technology that’s widespread here.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Other places don’t have central heating? Damn, I’ve always taken it for granted
currycourier@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think it could work for some college campuses too? I know there are a lot that use (used?) centralized steam heating and have a lot of that infastructure to pump the steam around still in place
nicetriangle@kbin.social 11 months ago
Yeah this is the sort of problem solving we'll really need moving forward