A public pool in Devon, England, is being heated by waste heat from a data center about the size of a washing machine.

Saving Energy and Expenses

According to a BBC report, there are computers within the white box, and the oil traps enough heat to keep the pool at 30 degrees for around 60% of the year. At no cost, the data center is made available to Exmouth Leisure Centre, a municipally operated facility.

This is expected to save Exmouth Leisure Centre thousands of dollars or about £20,000 ($24,000) per year. Apparently, the recreation center's manager, Sean Day, anticipated an increase of £100,000 (£121,000) in the facility's energy costs this year.

"The partnership has really helped us reduce the costs of what has been astronomical over the last 12 months - our energy prices and gas prices have gone through the roof," he said.

Day acknowledged how great it is for the company to be exploring new cost-cutting opportunities.

Swim England chief executive Jane Nickerson said it was good to see pools adopting creative and innovative solutions.

When public swimming pools nationwide shut down due to rising energy costs, this initiative is a welcome effort to help lessen those costs. In a recent study by The Guardian, England has lost over 400 swimming pools since 2010, with the biggest loss occurring in areas with the highest health needs.

The Power of 'Hot Oil'

In order to monetize its computer capacity, data server owner Deep Green charges customers to utilize it for machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The startup's founder, Mark Bjornsgaard, also announced that the company would reimburse the leisure center for its energy expenses associated with powering the "digital boiler," joining seven other pools in England in participating in this initiative.

After five years of research and development, the simple idea of pumping hot oil through a heat exchanger to warm the pool's water was established.

See Also: Japan Considers Expanding Offshore Wind Farms to EEZ

Concerns About Data Centers

Dr. Julian Allwood, a professor in the departments of engineering and the environment at Cambridge University, remarked, "If it's a sensible idea and it saves the leisure center some money, then why not?" He went on to note that data centers, on the whole, used less energy than was previously reported.

In contrast, huge data centers may need millions of pounds of ice and billions of gallons of water to maintain a comfortable temperature. Some are constructed in subterranean tunnels or very frigid climates.

BBC reported that cities in Denmark and Sweden have enormous data centers that provide electricity to thousands of houses.

Deep Green's Bjornsgaard said data centers got a massive problem with heat. He added that the expense of cooling a data center is a significant portion of the overall operating budget.

What they did was move a little section of the data center to an area where the heat is really needed.

See Also: Scientists Achieve Clean Energy Breakthrough After Turning Air into Electricity