← Demos/Thermal Commons

Data-center heat meets the community pool

A pool is one of the few neighbourhood loads that can take data-center heat at 30 °C directly, with a plate heat exchanger and no heat pump. Pick a climate, a data center, its cooling architecture and a pool, and watch the month-by-month balance: how much of the pool’s heat the data center covers, how much of the data center’s heat the pool absorbs, and what the pool owner stops paying for.

What to look for

Pool demand peaks in January and collapses in summer; data-center heat is flat all year. In cold climates a 0.5 MW edge site keeps a 50 m pool warm through winter; a hyperscale campus barely notices it. Use Fill the data center to see how many pools of a given type one site could carry in its peak month.

1 · Climate

2 · Data center

2.0 MW IT load

3 · Cooling type

4 · Pool

5 · Number of pools

1 poolthis data center carries 2 in January

Assumptions

Year-round heat balance · Boston, MA

met by DCunmetDC supply
05001,000MWh / monthJan: 509 MWh met by the data centerJanFeb: 420 MWh met by the data centerFebMar: 418 MWh met by the data centerMarApr: 302 MWh met by the data centerAprMay: 185 MWh met by the data centerMayJun: 82 MWh met by the data centerJunJul: 18 MWh met by the data centerJulAug: 42 MWh met by the data centerAugSep: 112 MWh met by the data centerSepOct: 266 MWh met by the data centerOctNov: 369 MWh met by the data centerNovDec: 481 MWh met by the data centerDecrecoverable DC heat 1,116 MWh/mo

Pool heat demand

3,205 MWh/yr

2,564 kWh per m² of surface

Demand met by DC heat

100 %

Covered in every month

Share of DC heat absorbed

24 %

of 13,140 MWh/yr recoverable

Peak load, one pool

685 kW

January monthly average; sizes the heat exchanger

What the pool owner saves (heat actually delivered)

vs gas heater

$169k/yr

84 % efficiency at $1.30/therm

vs heat pump

$136k/yr

801 MWh electricity at COP 4

CO₂ avoided vs gas

691 t/yr

EPA factor 53 kg per MMBtu

Value of the heat

$0.053/kWh

ceiling an offtaker could pay before connection costs

Temperature match

DC water 45 to 60 °Cpool 27 °C70 °C15 °C

Direct use: supply water is above the pool by at least 3 K, so a plate heat exchanger moves the heat with no heat pump.