Computer Servers as Heating Systems
thinking outside the box on sustainability
The EPA reports that servers and data centers are responsible for around 1.5 percent of the electricity consumption in the U.S. With the rise of cloud computing, that number is likely to climb in the future. A research paper from Microsoft Research suggests distributing some of these servers to offices and homes where they would function as heating systems under the term “data furnaces.” The temperature of the exhaust air generated by a computer server is over 100 degrees F, which would be perfect for heating a building space. The data furnaces would be managed remotely, and the research paper suggests that the owners of the computer servers (most likely cloud computing service operators) could provide free heat to host families. This arrangement would provide for a more sustainable IT industry; the industry could continue to grow without increasing its carbon footprint or its electricity consumption, and with significant cost savings.