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CoolPipes

10 points posted to Environment by simon_n Jun 13

Air conditioned offices/computer rooms unnecessarily recool hot air exhaled by computers.

Instead of allowing hot air from computer extractor fans to flow out into office environment, the air could be sent outside of buildings during summer time along lightweight piping.

Would considerably reduce air conditioning costs and energy consumption.

Many modern offices are already equiped with raised flooring which could be used to conceal the pipes.
For those that don't the piping could come in a variety of colours and shapes to help blend them into offices.

badblood
Jun 13		 I don't think it would work. The fans in computers are not strong enough to push the air out. You'd get a build up of hot air in the pipe which would push back into the computer and overheat it.
pablohs
Jun 13		 You can do this with server cabinets, and a lot of people already do this. However it will be difficult to implement at the computer level.
jmxz
Jun 13		 IBM does similar, but with water instead of air.

Threaded throughout the entire rack, the piping pumps in cold water to the chips and pumps out the resulting hot water away. IBM is promoting the idea of then using the warmed water for other means, such as heating a nearby office. Mauri said that most of the IBM engineers that worked on this cooling system helped to build and maintain water-cooled mainframes back in the day.
inkslug
Jun 14		 That's like building a house just so you can have a front door. Here's an idea, make the components more efficient and therefore run cooler. the real holy grail would be some form of heat exchanger to turn the heat back into electricity, dynamo fan in the vents lol!
simon_n
Jun 15		 To BadBlood
One could have amplifier fans inside the pipe at set intervals that would ensure the air keeps flowing. Its a lot cheaper and sensible to push hot air out of a building than to cool it with hefty air conditioning systems.

To inkslug
It would require some people to drill a couple of holes in their office walls. Thats all. Its not a big deal.
badblood
Jun 16		 hi there, I am pretty sure that the energy required to push the CPU air out the building would negate any potential benefits in terms of electricity savings. There might be ways to connect the CPU pipes to the existing air conditioning ducting?
simon_n
Jun 18		 To BadBlood:
I think we'd need to do a little research to determine what is more power efficient: recooling heated exhaust air from computers or pumping out of buildings.
badblood
Jun 19		 yes you are right, research is needed.
jdelidc
Jun 23		 2 problems here with doing this.

1) earthquakes. one small move would break the pipe and all of a sudden you got an overheated (and possibly water damaged) system
2) humidity. there is crazy amounts of humidity here (and in florida) and it don't take much cooling to start squeezing it out. if you're using cooler-than-ambient anything to cool the chip, you could end up with water damage, especially out here in the pacific
pablohs
Jun 25		 This is an interesting article about how Oscillating Heat Pipe (OHP) and nanofluids will be used to cool down the next generation of devices.

http://www.physorg.com/news64771086.html
 
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