Heat recovery from Internet data centers for space heating based on an integrated air conditioner with thermosyphon

With the rapid increase of Internet data centers (IDCs), a large amount of electricity is consumed for IDCs' cooling, and a considerable amount of heat is exhausted directly into the ambient all year round. On the other hand, to efficiently and cleanly heat the room in cold regions a lot of energy is consumed. In this study, a heat recovery system based on a water-cooled integrated air conditioner with thermosyphon is proposed. To analyze the feasibility and energy performance of the system, a steady-state hourly energy model of the system was developed. The energy performance of a typical system located in Beijing was analyzed, and compared with the most common cooling and heating method in China. The results show that the system can substantially reduce the energy consumption of IDCs for cooling and the energy consumption of buildings for heating simultaneously. It should be an alternative heating system making use of potential heating and natural cooling resources.