500 Helsinki Homes to be Heated by Cathedral's Underground Servers

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mrk

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More datacentres should do stuff like this, no?



Any company that's ever boasted of its green credentials can shove it in the coal burner, after hearing about Helsinki's Uspenski Cathedral's data center, which will use its overheating servers to warm 500 homes joined by a network of pipes.

Opening in January, the center will save $563,000 each year and 500 homes will be toasty-warm thanks to the water-heated pipes connecting them to the underground servers
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[Full article]
 
It's a good idea, but one that I imagine is quite costly to implement.
 
They're probably looking for the nine billion names of god.

It's a good idea, rather than waste the heat, or spend even more energy on cooling it they are putting it to a practical use :)
 
so is it a big watercooled array of puters or what :confused: How do they get the heat to the houses?

**edit** ah, reading helps.
 
I've been there

That building looks amazing in real life, the gold things are so shiny (probably real gold)

Stayed in a hostel IN the Olympic Stadium :)
 
The University of Manchester Kilburn Computing building was designed in the 70s to be heated by the massive servers in the basement and for about a decade it was.

The problem was, it worked on a convection (i.e. fan) system, so as the computers became quicker, they started to need more cooling than a simple convection system could provide, so now they are all force cooled, using even more energy, while the building has its own heating system. A real waste.

They must be water cooling their system to do this though, it's the only way to effectively remove the heat from the servers while keeping enough of its energy in the water to pump it away.

Very good idea, often not possible though due to the locations of most datacentres, most arn't held in cathedrals in the middle of residential housing!
 
manic_man said:
The University of Manchester Kilburn Computing building was designed in the 70s to be heated by the massive servers in the basement and for about a decade it was.

The problem was, it worked on a convection (i.e. fan) system, so as the computers became quicker, they started to need more cooling than a simple convection system could provide, so now they are all force cooled, using even more energy, while the building has its own heating system. A real waste.
!
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The problem with that building is they didn't expect computers to actually get cooler. It can be freezing in there at times.
 
meghatronic said:
The problem with that building is they didn't expect computers to actually get cooler. It can be freezing in there at times.
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Definately, not to mention claustrophobic if you happen to have to use any of the upper floor or any of the offices that arn't intended for proffs ;)

Personally I think they should somehow hook in a watercooling system from the server room to the (now) piped heating system, start a trend that other institutions across the country may take on-board.

Not going to happen though, they have many other more pressing areas to spend their money on... like building an enormous heinz baked bean can with the wrapper ripped off... sorry University Place...
 
manic_man said:
Personally I think they should somehow hook in a watercooling system from the server room to the (now) piped heating system, start a trend that other institutions across the country may take on-board.
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Just some simple heat exchangers would help efficiency.
 
a little off topic but our new local hospital is heated by a heat exchanger under the reservoir over the road.

As for the OP, well done to whoever had the foresight and balls to implement it. Lets hope they have thier own genny to power the servers in case of a power cut mid winter. Can get pretty chilly in helsinki...
 
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