Put a "data furnace" in your home

Mary Bruno

Mary Bruno Jun 27, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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          <article>
            <header>
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                <h1>Put a "data furnace" in your home</h1>
                <h2><p>Computer servers generate heat. Lots of it. Now, according to GeekWire, the Dutch company Nerdalize is installing some of those hot little servers in residential homes, a win-win arrangement that heats up houses and decentralizes cloud computing at the same time. The “data furnace” idea is homegrown, appearing in a</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/mary-bruno-crosscut-com/">Mary Bruno</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Computer servers generate heat. Lots of it. Now, <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2015/home-data-furnaces-have-arrived-heating-spaces-with-excess-server-heat/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">according to GeekWire</a>, the Dutch company Nerdalize is installing some of those hot little servers in residential homes, a win-win arrangement that heats up houses and decentralizes cloud computing at the same time. The “data furnace” idea is homegrown, appearing in a <a href="https://dev.cascadepbs.org/content/files/legacy/events/hotcloud11/tech/final_files/liugoraczko.pdf">Microsoft Research paper in 2011.</a> Nerdalize ran with it. "The company’s eRadiators," explains GeekWire, "push excess heat from its cloud-computing services into a radiator-like housing to warm homes and businesses." And ... "The company will reimburse homeowners for the electricity used to run the servers, meaning you could heat your house for free."</p>
          </article>

Computer servers generate heat. Lots of it. Now, according to GeekWire, the Dutch company Nerdalize is installing some of those hot little servers in residential homes, a win-win arrangement that heats up houses and decentralizes cloud computing at the same time. The “data furnace” idea is homegrown, appearing in a Microsoft Research paper in 2011. Nerdalize ran with it. "The company’s eRadiators," explains GeekWire, "push excess heat from its cloud-computing services into a radiator-like housing to warm homes and businesses." And ... "The company will reimburse homeowners for the electricity used to run the servers, meaning you could heat your house for free."

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By Mary Bruno

Mary was Crosscut's Editor-in-Chief and Interim Publisher. In more than 25 years as a journalist, she has worked as a writer, editor and editorial director for a variety of print and web publications,