- Data centers are raising temperatures in towns and cities
- Researchers recorded variations as high as four degrees
- Considerations for heat need to be made when planning and constructing data centers
Data centers operate thousands of GPUs in order to solve computational problems, generating heat in the process. This heat then needs to be removed to keep the data center cool and working at maximum efficiency.
However, some data centers are pumping out so much heat that it is raising the temperatures of local towns and cities by multiple degrees. In some cases, heat islands with temperatures 16 degrees F higher have been recorded.
Researchers at Arizona State University have studied the effects of data center heat output in Phoenix, and found that temperatures can rise by as much as four degrees F, exacerbating the health risks caused by high temperatures, and compounding the heat output of Phoenix as a whole.
Data centers are raising temperatures
The researchers measured the air temperature both upwind and downwind of four selected facilities. The facilities ranged in output from a 36-megawatt data center in Mesa to a 169-megawatt campus in Chandler. According to the study, data centers of this size can put out as much heat as 40,000 households…