Deliverable D3.3 outlines how HEATWISE evaluates the energy performance and efficiency of waste heat recovery from data centres integrated into buildings. The report introduces seven Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) designed to assess how well the heat generated by IT infrastructure is reused for building heating or sent to external grids.
Why is this important? Data centres produce significant amounts of waste heat, but much of it typically goes unused. HEATWISE aims to transform this waste into a valuable resource, reducing emissions, enhancing energy efficiency, and supporting green building strategies.
The Seven KPIs Defined:
- Waste Heat Utilization (WHU): How much waste heat is actually used instead of being dumped.
- Degree of Coverage for the building (DOC): How much of a building’s heating demand is met by recovered data centre waste heat.
- Potential waste heat coverage for the building (PWHC): The theoretical maximum heating the building could receive from waste heat from the data center.
- Primary Energy Savings (PES): How much conventional energy is saved thanks to heat reuse.
- COP of waste heat utilization in building (COP_WHUB): The purpose is to analyze how much electricity is used to provide the waste heat to the building.
- COP of waste heat utilization to grid (COP_WHUG): The purpose is to analyze how much electricity is used to provide the waste heat to the grid
- Waste heat utilization restrictors (WHUR): What factors are limiting heat reuse, such as insufficient temperature or oversupply.
Pilot Findings: Initial tests on the PSNC (Poland) and EMPA (Switzerland) pilots show that while current waste heat usage is limited due to temperature constraints, there’s promising potential, especially with future liquid cooling systems like ZutaCore.
What’s next? These KPIs will guide future HEATWISE actions, pilot upgrades, and later deliverables, especially as the infrastructure evolves to harness more usable waste heat.