'I heat my Essex home with a data centre in the shed'
www.bbc.co.uk
"It's fantastic because it's eco-friendly...We're not burning any gases," says Terrence Bridges.

Data centres that supply domestic heating aren’t new, but I’ve never seen a distributed model like this before.

  • Adubya@feddit.onlineEnglish
    8·
    5 days ago

    Was wondering if heatpumps would be the next step and on the site that is what they exploring net for the cooling side.

    In parallel, the project will assess alternative LCT options — such as heat pumps and rooftop wind turbines — to identify ways to further boost SHIELD’s efficiency. As deployment begins, we’ll also explore how the commercial model can evolve to incorporate services like Distribution System Operator (DSO) flexibility and expanded P2P supply arrangements.
    https://innovation.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/projects/shield

    If we are looking at this kind of modeling hopefully district systems could be considered as well.

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    6·
    5 days ago

    Well this is really cool.

    Ive seen the large data centers handling heating for nearby residential units or in the same building, but not with a localized unit like this like you said.

    I’m (hopefully) going to be getting some decent property for a farm, most likely will have to build, and this makes me wonder if a small setup like mine (a dozen or so machines) feeding before the heating system as a preheating (like solar water heating) would be worthwhile.

    Going to have to have a chat with an ME I know!

  • Chao-c'@f.cz
    5·
    5 days ago

    @scholar yes, we do this. For warm water, it mak sense, heating - not so much, because you have excess heat during summer. And it is extremely tricky to sync supply and demand. You need stable long term housing contracts…

    • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      I think you could do both. Use the heat for both the house and water in the winter. The impact on the water won’t be as high, but it’ll likely still have a positive impact.

      Then in the summer just use the heat for water, maybe even running a recirculating system to keep warm water on tap all the time.

      There’s a ton of different options for how to implement it for new construction.