A UK trial scheme is attempting to cut heating costs for households with shed-sized mini data centres

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Getting a lot of heat—literally.

Data Center
(Image credit: Akos Stiller - Getty Images)

Despite our beloved gaming PCs being designed to expel heat as efficiently as possible, they're not actually that great at heating a drafty home office (ask me how I know). Still, as temperatures drop, and heating bills soar, you can't blame a girl for wanting to get a bit creative about heating her space—though I think I'd have to draw the line at welcoming a mini data centre into my home.

Well, according to the BBC, that's one of the options being offered as part of a pilot scheme in the UK. As part of the project, participants Terrence and Lesley Bridges replaced their gas boiler with the mini data centre in question and claim their bills have dropped from £375 a month (almost $500) to only £40 a month (about $50). The kicker? The data centre, which comprises 500 teeny tiny Raspberry Pi computers, is still compact enough to fit inside their outdoor shed.

Terrence Bridges is pleased with the swap, citing both the savings made and the device's impressive heat output… as well as another line of reasoning that personally gives me pause. He told the BBC, "I think it's fantastic because it's eco-friendly. We're not burning any gases, so it's green—it's environmentally friendly."

However, while the HeatHub may be more 'eco-friendly' than a gas boiler at the point of use, long term, I think solar panels are still the clear winner—and that's to say nothing of how resource-intensive running a collective of HeatHubs may be if the Shield Project is ever scaled up.

An artistic 3D render of the inside of a data centre, with many network cables criss-crossing the server racks. The entire image is bathed in blue light.

(Image credit: Petrovich9 via Getty Images)

At the very least, though the scheme's HeatHubs will eventually be linked up as part of a remote and distributed data centre, they're not powerful enough to do the technical heavy-lifting demanded by AI—so, there's that. Thermify CEO Travis Theune says that instead they'll likely analyse large datasets or potentially run apps.

Still, the demand for data centres in recent years has sky-rocketed. Even though AI is not the sole cause, one report earlier this year put things in perspective by suggesting that AI energy demands alone may soon quadruple. As such, a number of major players are exploring getting creative when it comes to meeting rising energy demands.

Google, for example, has looked to small modular nuclear reactors as one way to power its many multiplying AWS data centres. While in conversation with the BBC, Google CEO Sundar Pichai assured listeners that the company was invested in developing "new sources of energy"—though presently the wider industry does still rely considerably on non-renewables.

While huddling around a tiny, non-AI data centre for heat doesn't sound too bad, it's difficult to forget the fact we're all paying the price—often literally—for big tech's increasing energy demands.

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Jess Kinghorn
Jess Kinghorn
Hardware Writer

Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.

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