Waste heat in data center

Data centres generate enormous amounts of waste heat during operation, as the white space areas with servers and IT infrastructure must be cooled around the clock. At the same time, the connected office buildings require a comfortable indoor climate with cooling, heating and hot water. This presents a great opportunity: instead of releasing this energy unused into the environment, operators can efficiently recover the waste heat and use it to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs.

A particularly promising approach is the integration of data centres into district heating systems. The waste heat can be used in various ways. In applications where the temperature from the data centre is already sufficient, such as in greenhouses, fish farms or vertical farms, the energy can be used directly. In other cases, heat pumps are used to raise the temperature of the waste heat, making it usable for feeding into district heating networks or for heating office buildings.

In the distribution of heat and cold, various custody transfer measurements are required. For example, measurements of the heat transfer from the power plant into the district heating network and from the network to each individual user premises can form the basis of a charging system. Due to seasonal changes the flow rate may change enormously. KROHNE’s core competence is the production and calibration of flowmeters for custody transfer purposes. For the district heating and cooling market KROHNE offers ultrasonic and elector magnetic flowmeters according to MI-004 and OIMLR75/EN1434. They are insensitive to scaling and require no or only a minimum straight pipe length at the installation point.