The data furnace is a method of

heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

residential homes or offices by running

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs ...

in them, which release considerable amounts of

waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...

. Data furnaces can theoretically be cheaper than storing computers in huge

data centers A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...

because the higher cost of electricity in residential areas (when compared to industrial zones) can be offset by charging the home owner for the heat that the data center gives off. Some large companies that store and process thousands of

gigabyte The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix ''giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB. This defini ...

s of data believe that data furnaces could be cheaper because there would be little to no

overhead cost In business, overhead or overhead expense refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business. Overheads are the expenditure which cannot be conveniently traced to or identified with any particular revenue unit, unlike operating expenses such as r ...

s. The cost of a traditional data storage center is up to around $400 per server, whereas the overhead cost per server of a home data furnace is around $10. Individuals had already begun using computers as a heat source by 2011.

Usefulness

The first kind of data furnace (DF) could be a low cost seasonal DF. This kind of DF would use an existing

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

connection to perform delay-tolerant jobs such as content indexing or the processing of large sets of scientific data. The server will only come on and start heating and processing when the house needs heat. The second kind of DF would be the low bandwidth neighborhood DF. This option can provide faster computations as it can run at all times, but this increases the risk of overheating. To get around this problem there may be vents to the outside added to the server racks to get rid of some of the unneeded heat. The third option would be an eco-friendly urban DF. This option, much like the second, runs year round and can vent excess heat to the outside. This would be an advantage for service providers to expand into urban areas more quickly, so long as the

application Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

s scale to the number of servers. This option causes a new challenge, because since it runs year round, the cost of electricity to run the servers cannot be offset by billing the home owners for the

heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

that they use as it will be little to none.

Technical requirements

For a data furnace heating water, the heating needs to be at least 56°C/ 133°F to prevent the development of pathogens while limiting the risks of skin. Regarding space heating radiators, a temperature of 50-60°C/122-140°F is suitable for a radiator embedding processors as long as the heating surface is of significant size to dissipate the heat.

Security

There are concerns about the security of these servers, as they would be stored on private properties unmonitored. Unlike traditional data centers that are constantly monitored, data furnaces should be treated as the most insecure environment for data storage. For the best security, each server would have a device to prevent tampering. Furthermore, all of the data on these servers would have to be

encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

so that no one except the person requesting the data would have access to it.

Applications

A few companies around the world are commercialising this concept around the world. A German company Cloud&Heat offers hot water heated by a distributed data center installed in the premises. French company Qarnot computing developed a radiator that heats with embedded processors and sells the computing power generated.

References

{{reflist Servers (computing) Heating

Usefulness

Technical requirements

Security

Applications

Further reading

References