Why waste heat?

Computers get hot and data centres use a huge amount of energy to deal with it. Remarkably the waste heat from a large data centre could provide hot water for 11,000 homes.¹

But moving heat is hard, it requires new infrastructure or a pre-existing heat network. Moving data is easy, so we've taken the servers to where heat is needed, in people's homes.

We harness the heat from compute to provide free hot water for those that need it, turning a compute problem into a social benefit.

heata unit attached to boiler in an airing cupboard

Working in IT I know how much heat servers give off. Re-using it to offset hot water heating makes so much sense.

Ian
heata host
Bordon, UK

How it works

How the heata unit works. New way to 3D render

Benefits

We use the energy twice, once for compute and once for hot water.
We submeter and pay for the energy that we use saving households up to £450 / year.²
Each unit saves 1 tonne of CO2 / year.³
Easy to install, update and replace,
no plumbing required.
Fits vented hot water cylinders, a version for unvented cylinders is in development.

Interested in joining the network?

Installation overview

Our patented thermal bridge is fitted to vented domestic hot water cylinders and provides the attachment point for our powerful server.

We've tested the installation process with British Gas engineers and checked that it doesn't invalidate cylinder warrantees with one of the UK's largest cylinder manufacturers.

To find out if your cylinder is suitable for a heata unit, download our summary brochure which includes the cylinder checklist and installation overview.

Download

Diagram - How the heata unit works with your boiler

References

A large data centre typically consumes 30GWh/year [4]. At a PUE of 1.6 this equates to 18.75GWh/year of compute power. Average daily UK domestic hot water energy use is: 1705kWh/year @4.67kWh/day [5].
Cost saving is based on hot water heated with electricity not gas, using an electricity price of 34p/kWh, with the heata unit supplying 3.6kWh of hot water per day, which is approximately 80% of the average daily UK domestic hot water energy use: 4.67kWh[5]. The actual saving will vary according to the compute utilisation level and whether the primary heating system uses electricity or gas.
CO₂ saving is based on electricity generating 0.307kg/kWh {0.283 kg/kWh (generation)[6] + 0.024kg/kWh (distribution)[6]}. Typical Data Centre + domestic hot water: 680W/hour (300W compute + 180W air conditioning[7] + 200W hot water). Heata: 300W/hour (300W compute, including 200W harnessed from waste heat). Average UK domestic hot water energy use: 4.67kWh[5]. Therefore average hourly hot water power consumption = 195W. We’ve rounded up to 200W for simplicity of calculations.
Data Centres and Power: Fact or Fiction?
Measurements of Domestic Hot Water Consumption in Dwellings.
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Conversion Factors 2018.
Ni, Jiacheng & Bai, Xuelian. (2017). A review of air conditioning energy performance in data centers. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 67. 10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.050.

Why waste heat?

How it works

Benefits

Installation overview

References

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