Data Centers, Heat Up!

After the companies spent millions on dealing with cooling issues, after we spent hours every day reviewing the latest cooling technology and writing pages and pages explaining the underlying principle and how the technology would revolutionize green data center concepts, researchers finally have started exploring the science of making data centers into  ‘Data Furnaces’.

What are data furnaces now, you ask? It’s quite simple actually. Servers in data centers produce massive amounts of heat; technology demands their continuous operation and hence, they draw uninterrupted power. All that power eventually translates to heat. The heat that is produced has to be constantly eliminated. This is done by passing cool air through the servers, where heat is transferred from the circuits to the cool air which is eventually wasted.

In data furnaces, this heat is redirected and reused for other purposes. The said purposes include heating swimming pools, offices, greenhouses, homes, even nearby districts. The heat can also be used to generate on- site power! Not only that, the redirected heat can even used for internal data center cooling.

It makes sense, though. There is no point spending excess money on cooling the data center and then some more to heat the building next door. The idea is to spend energy on computing and utilize the same energy for heating purposes. Offices can even consider getting rid of the boilers in the basement and installing a data center instead! With additional benefits like a smaller carbon footprint, data centers can surely look into this advancement with a positive outlook. Go on data centers, generate more heat!

To keep up with the current trends in the data center world, visit Data Center Talk.