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 homelab, 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.
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?
Instead of the HVAC system cooling already warm air made from the servers, you would partition the lab from the rest of the house and HVAC system, and then install a heat pump for just the room.
The heat exchange would take care of the lab, and the HVAC system would have to circulate less hot air through the system.
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 :).