Let computers warm humans - a kind of Matrix in reverse
Feeling cold? Wonder how you are going to pay the heating bill? Then host a data centre.
This a frigging brilliant idea.
A couple in the UK are the pioneers in a scheme which sees them heat their home using a data centre in a shed.
The pair, who live in Essex, have swapped monthly bills of nearly £400 for around £40, ten times less.
The small data centre contains around 500 computers and the heat generated is captured by oil and then transferred into the couple’s hot water system via a thing called the HeatHub.
The data system is used for running apps and analysing large volumes of data.
The HeatHub was developed by Thermify.
It’s Thermify Cloud service runs encrypted computation tasks paid for by cloud compute users, usually companies. The tasks run on a distributed, secure network of small, but powerful data centres that then replaces a gas boiler in people’s homes.
Thermify boss is Travis Theune, who’s gone from data centre construction to leading cloud operations for industry pioneers. He previously served as Director of Platform Engineering and CISO at Foxpass.
He told the media that HeatHub will eventually be part of a “remote and distributed” data centre, involving many units processing data for customers. He added the system provides “clean, green heat at a low-to-no price point. The electricity that’s generating that heat is paid for by somebody else.”
So if you’re offered the red, or blue pill, just ask which ones provides the cheap heating.
