来源：《新科学家》
原文见刊日期：2023年3月11日
People in the UK may soon be able to save about £150 a year on their energy bills by using a data server to heat their water. About 45 per cent of energy consumed in data centres is used by cooling systems to stop servers overheating, even though there might be better uses for that excess heat.
英国人可能很快就能通过使用数据服务器加热水，每年节省约150英镑的能源支出。数据中心消耗的能量中，约45%用于冷却系统，以防止服务器过热，尽管这些多余的热量可能有更好的用途。
Now, Heata, a start-up spun out of British Gas five years ago, has a solution that involves installing small data servers in people’s homes. The company’s shoebox-sized machines do away with cooling hardware and instead attach to a hot water tank.
如今，五年前从英国天然气公司剥离出来的初创企业Heata推出了一种解决方案，即在人们家中安装小型数据服务器。该公司的鞋盒大小的服务器不需要冷却硬件，而是连接到热水箱上。
The server uses the water tank as a heat sink to take waste heat away from its two processors, warming the water so it could be used for showers or the washing-up.
服务器使用水箱作为散热器，带走两个处理器的余热，将水加热，以便用于淋浴或洗碗。
The company has already run a trial with 20 homes and is now halfway through installing the devices for a larger trial – funded by the UK government – with 80 households, which will run for a year.
该公司已经在20户家庭中进行了一次试验，目前正在为一项由英国政府资助的规模更大的试验安装设备，该试验将持续一年，共有80户家庭参加。
Chris Jordan, co-founder of Heata, says the devices will provide up to 4.8 kilowatt-hours of energy per day, which is about 80 per cent of the hot water demand of the average UK household.
Heata联合创始人克里斯·乔丹表示，这些设备每天可提供高达4.8千瓦时的能量，约能满足英国普通家庭热水需求的80%。
The electricity use of the server is recorded by Heata and the cost of running it is reimbursed to the home owner. The company says that each home will save around £150 on its energy bills annually.
Heata记录服务器的用电量，并将运行电费偿还给房主。该公司表示，每个家庭每年将节省大约150英镑的能源支出。
Jordan says Heata already has customers lined up to use the computer power available on the 80 servers, including architecture firms that need to do computer-intensive rendering of 3D animations.
乔丹表示，Heata已经有客户在排队使用80台服务器上可用的算力，包括需要进行计算机密集型3D动画渲染的建筑公司。
The machines currently use a home’s broadband connection, sending what Heata says will be relatively small amounts of data via a secure VPN. But the company says it is in talks with internet service providers to create connections solely for the use of the servers so they wouldn’t eat into the data allowances of the households hosting the machines.
这些服务器目前使用家庭宽带连接，通过安全的VPN发送相对少量的数据。但该公司表示，它正在与互联网服务提供商进行谈判，以创建仅用于服务器的连接，这样就不会占用托管服务器的家庭的带宽。
The units are fitted with alarms to notify the firm if anyone tries to gain access to the internal components. All data transmission is protected by 256-bit encryption to stop unauthorised people accessing it.
这些服务器装有警报器，如果有人试图进入内部部件，就会通知公司。所有数据传输都由256位加密保护，以防止未经授权的人访问。