Data Center Cooling

Discussions center on cooling methods for data centers, debating evaporative cooling's water usage versus alternatives like closed-loop systems, geothermal, immersion, or mist cooling.

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Keywords

www.lrz EE AI PUE CO2 DHW AC TEC wikipedia.org theglobalfight.org cooling water heat temperature energy cooled closed liquid air loop

Sample Comments

semiquaver Oct 20, 2025 View on HN

Why can’t the water for cooling these be a closed-loop system?

giantg2 May 10, 2024 View on HN

Why not used a closed loop system? Maybe something with geothermal cooling.

Rexxar Aug 14, 2022 View on HN

You really think they don't already use cooling towers ?

istjohn Apr 16, 2025 View on HN

Perhaps they use evaporative cooling towers?

AstralStorm Oct 29, 2019 View on HN

You could create a heatsink by freezing a mass of water then thawing it. The problem is space for large amounts of water and the high efficiency cooling and distribution system needed.

Difwif Jul 19, 2025 View on HN

If energy wasn't a problem then they could just recirculate a coolant

yjftsjthsd-h Jul 1, 2025 View on HN

Why wouldn't air/water be able to cool the air? It'd just output hot water instead of hot air

gpm Mar 2, 2025 View on HN

They aren't closed systems, they ultimately cool by evaporating water to reject heat.

chrisseaton Mar 10, 2020 View on HN

The cooling sounds like a side-effect then. The goal isn't to cool for the sake of it. You want the energy out of it. If you just want a cooling system you could spray water onto it and let the steam escape. That'd be an effective cooling system. What people really mean is that they want to usefully extract the energy.

RantyDave Mar 10, 2021 View on HN

Maybe quite handy for water cooling?