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Slow reminder to delete old emails to save water in the United Kingdom. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/casualuk@feddit.uk
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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-drought-group-meets-to-address-nationally-significant-water-shortfall

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[–] 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The problem is data centers use potable water in their heat exchangers and in the process turn it into non-potable water.

However, this is as stupid as when Johnson recommended buying a new kettle to save on energy bills.
A new fridge, washing machine, dishwasher... I can understand that.
But a kettle is nearly 100% efficient at using electricity to turn cold water into boiling water.
And spending the money to get (I guess) an insulated kettle (is that a thing?!) to get closer to 100% efficient is not going to save you any money.

Fucking clown show

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Anything using heat exchangers is going to be closed loop so the water use use there is negligible. It's just the same water being pumped in a loop. Chiller systems are not the issue here and should actually be encouraged because they make far more efficient use of refrigerant than conventional cooling systems.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yes, there are loops of water.
    But evaporative cooling is used by less sustainable data centers to release the heat from the cooling loops.
    Which is what UK government is concerned about: Unsustainable use of water by data centers.

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688cb407dc6688ed50878367/Water_use_in_data_centre_and_AI_report.pdf

    UK government classifies data centers as Critical National Infrastructure. Which means they have some responsibility for their uptime and security, but also their sustainability and environmental impact.
    The rapid growth of AI data centers with their massive power consumption and cooling requirements are not included in UKs water planning and projections.
    So, that's what this report is about.

    And the UK government is recommending the public should delete old emails and pictures to reduce load on data centers.
    Which is the kind of out-of-touch misinterpretation (or misrepresentation) of the information in the report thats inline with conclusion of "buy a new kettle" from a report that probably said "old fridges can be inefficient".

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I was responding to this exchange.

    Specifically not talking about evaporative cooling.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Gotcha. I don't feel I was refuting you, just adding context as to why the UK government is sending the wrong message.
    I might have been confuddled and wandered from my intentions.

    I think we agree.
    Data centers aren't the problem.
    LLM being rammed into everything and requiring insane resources is the problem.
    And the UK is blurring/confusing the point, and telling people to delete emails

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