Comms room heat; practical applications
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A recent AC failure (along with a corporate drive towards a greener stance) has made me put a bit of thought into comms room heat; a mid-size comms room (with the usual assortment of server racks, RAIDs, backup devices, UPSs, etc) generates a pile of heat. We all know this, and pay through the roof for AC to suit.
But: other than a few jacket potatoes in foil behind the cooling fins, has anybody found any more worthwhile uses for all that thermal power rather than ducting it all away? A few heat exchangers onto the inflow to the building's water-boilers perhaps?
OK, it probably won't interest the Americans much, but for those countries that /have/ signed up to environmental clauses... ;-p (OK, that stereotyping was a cheap shot...)
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Trap the hot air, funnel it so its upward force increases, and use it to power a dynamo.
Then use that dynamo as a power repository for small objects, like recharging your camera batteries.
I'm not sure how much upward force that air has, but you could find out.
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Once I saw an indoor AC unit from the server room vent its exhaust right by the bathroom. It worked as a great hand dryer.
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Wooh.
I don't think I'd want lots of hot air in the bathroom. :3