Computers get hot, really hot. If you’ve used a laptop or a computer for a few hours you will have felt the heat and heard the sound of the fans cooling it down. Now imagine that on a large scale… With 480 data centers in the UK that’s a lot of computers and a lot of heat!
The heata unit is a powerful compute server that is attached to domestic hot water cylinders. It harnesses the heat from the processing and transfers it into the water, providing the household with free hot water.
By re-using the heat and removing a cooling energy cost, it reduces the carbon footprint of the processing it undertakes by ~40% vs a typical data centre, turning a compute problem into a social benefit.
Here’s an overview of the heata unit on a hot water cylinder
Installing a heata unit
An electrician can install the heata unit in under two hours using our British Gas approved ‘no plumbing’ process. The unit’s power supply has an integrated meter so we know exactly how much electricity it is using.
A few FAQs
Definition:
A host refers to a tenant living in the house or flat into which the heata unit is fitted.
How much hot water does a heata unit provide each day?
The heata unit can deliver up to 4.8kWh of hot water per day, approximately 80% of the hot water required in an average UK household.
Who pays for the electricity the heata unit uses?
Heata pays for the electricity to run the device, not the host. The electricity used by the unit is metered and the host is credited with the amount used at 10% above the market rate.
Does installing a heata unit invalidate my cylinder's warranty?
The installation procedure has been tested and approved by British Gas and won’t invalidate your cylinder’s warranty.
What happens if the heata unit stops working?
The host will still have hot water as their existing primary heating system (eg. immersion heater) will take over. The heata unit will then be replaced at a time that is convenient for the host.
Could a host gain access to the data in the heata unit?
There are chassis intruder alarms, and all peripherals are disabled and physically inaccessible. The storage within the heata unit is LUKS / AES-256 fully encrypted and inaccessible if removed from the heata unit.
Is the data processed on the heata unit secure?
Yes, we’re working with SUSE, leveraging their secure edge platform which provides enterprise grade security in physically exposed public infrastructure, eg mobile base stations.
Get in touch:
If you’re a housing group or residential social landlord and would like to help your tenants by providing free hot water whilst also decarbonising your housing stock (4-8 point improvement in the EPC rating), we’d love to hear from you.
We’d also love to hear from you if you have a suitable offline batch workload that you’d like to test and run on the heata network.
