Attached to the hot water cylinder in his London home is a compact computer server that generates heat and then transfers it as it operates. Gibson gets the benefit of hot water when he needs it at a reduced cost, while the heat that is generated by the server is not lost into the air, a big environmental problem with large datacentres around the world. Gibson’s system, supplied by the Surrey-based company heata, is one of a number of innovative ideas on the market that aim to tackle the problem of waste heat on a domestic scale.
Heata operates a sustainable cloud computing business that sends processing jobs from its clients to the servers in people’s homes. The devices have the combined power of about eight laptops. He says the company aims to provide about 80% of the heat needed for a home’s hot water.
A container with the server in is attached to the front of the cylinder after engineers cut a hole in the insulation. It is glued to the boiler with a thermal paste so the unit can conduct heat to the cylinder with no plumbing involved. There is no cost for the installation.
Heata pays for the electricity that is used to keep the server running, while the homeowner pays for the fibre broadband connection that is necessary. Beharrell says that millions of homes are fitted with vented water cylinders, while the units can also work with heat pumps. However, the system is not suitable for homes with combi boilers.
A version for unvented cylinders is in development. Heata’s units are now in 100 homes and there are 3,000 people on the waiting list for installation. Anyone interested in having one can sign up on the company’s website, heata.co.
The company says hundreds more are expected to be installed next year. In a separate project in Essex, two households are testing a concept where almost 500 matchbox-sized computers are stored together to form a mini datacentre, and the heat generated from them is converted into energy. The freezer-sized HeatHub units are made by the Wales-based company thermify and, like heata’s, also recycle the energy created when computers process tasks.
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