Capturing Heat Created by Computing to Heat Homes

The year before GeekBrief.TV ended, Luria and I bought a killer Mac Pro. It has (2) 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 14GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Graphics card, (4) 15,000 RPM SAS HDDs with storage capacity of 1.5TB (not counting external Drobo storage). There are two classic Apple Cinema Displays attached. One is 23-inches and the other is 30-inches with a resolution of 2560×1600.

I feel very lucky to work on a computer this powerful, HOWEVER(!!!), every yin has a yang and every blessing seems to have a curse. The curse of all this computational power is that it generates a tremendous amount of heat. In my office as I write this, the window is open, there is no heater, I have a ceiling fan on and a fan blowing air out the window. It’s 43 degrees outside and a toasty 75 degrees in here. Heat generation depends on how hard it’s working, so if I’m processing video, it’s a lot warmer than if I’m just uploading video.

If my system creates this much heat, imagine how much is generated by cloud storage server farms! Researchers at the University of Virginia and Microsoft Research collaborated on a paper suggesting the placement of servers in private homes to generate heat. Data furnaces would consist of one, two or three cabinets filled with servers that connect with the existing circulation fan and ductwork. 110 servers would generate all the heat required to warm a home in the coldest climates. In warmer weather, the heat would be vented outside.

If you’re intrigued by the concept, there’s more information about how it could work to reduce costs and energy usage here. I doubt this will become a reality because of security concernes, but I love the idea. I’d love to find a better way to pump the heat out of this office to a place where someone is cold!