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this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Technology
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Are you nuts? And miss all the heat that data center will provide you yearly? Imagine in summer having heat from the data center!
You need to stop asking for nuclear power plants, data center is the feature, and you have to accept it! Period.
Pretty sure the nuclear plant will provide significantly more heat. I mean, those giant cooling towers are specifically designed to unload heat into the atmosphere.
Yeah! If there's ONE thing lame-ass nuclear plants and their spicy rocks suck at, it's making heat!
You joke (I think) but community heating schemes off these places would be a good byproduct. Not enough to make them worthwhile, but it would offset their impact.
Do they even make enough heat for that to be viable option? Most computer systems can handle a pretty low temperature before they start having problems because they're over-heating.
It's not going to be steam pipes, but warm water. Maybe 60°C but lots of it. Warm enough for underfloor heating to be sure.
Biggest problem in my head is that you'd need to design buildings to take advantage of it, and I doubt data centres would be permanent enough to warrant the commitment.
IIRC that's being done in some places because it takes care of two issues at once. But certainly not the majority of data centers.
On a scale several orders of magnitude smaller, it's also how car heating systems work. Waste engine heat is transferred to the heater core and then air is blown through it. Engine gets cooled, cabin gets heated.
There are many busy data centers in the southern US states (and other places within a similar proximity to the equator) where community heating would be massively unwelcome for most of the year.
It's not a bad idea for cold climate areas that might benefit more from it though. Much better than letting it go to waste while paying extra for heat.