Post: #1

http://www.symbid.com/ideas/3900-nerdalize

Just heard about this on the Scott Adams blog. Here is his description:

Quote:The company is Nerdalize, and their insight is that computers are also accidental heaters. With their business model you can heat your home for free in return for allowing a computer/heater in your home that is connected to the grid.

This way data centers don't need to spend vast amounts of money discarding excess heat that other people would happily pay for. It's brilliant if it works.

The link above takes you to a video explaining the concept.

Post: #2

placing servers in homes? that would be a nightmare when it comes to server maintenance.

Post: #3

Good point!

Wonder if these guys have factored this in?

Post: #4

im sure they have thought of and have a highly optimistic solution.

it seems like a good idea fairy business to me.

You realistically have one customer, the business that owns the servers. You have a second quasi-customer, the homeowner. The homeowner is in it for the idea of getting free heat. A server doesn't produce enough heat to sufficiently heat a single family home. It may offset by a bit, but how much? The homeowners are paying to power these and receive a "lease" payment to offset that. The problem is simple: servers require huge amounts of electricity. From an engineering standpoint, if you power something that is designed to produce heat as the primary product it is going to be much more efficient at producing heat that something that produces heat as a byproduct. So, the homeowners are actually losing money by powering these in exchange for "free heat".

Now your main customer, the business that owns the servers. Are they down for this? The only possible thing they have to gain is reduced operating costs: i.e. no construction costs for server housing (or lease) and no upkeep (electricity/ventilation systems). These costs (electricty) would then have to be passed on to the homeowner (which is less efficient than using a real heater). And now they have a server that could easily be tampered with or have maintenance delayed (homeowner isn't home to let maintenace techs in).


too many moving pieces. too little actual advantage. Fun idea, could be an interesting senior thesis. But in the words of Shark Tank: Im Out.

Post: #5

OK so I'm a software guy not a hardware guy, but I do know that blade servers are very noisy, and they'd drive you nuts.

Also they might catch fire and burn down your house.

This idea is probably totally stupid.

Post: #6

(03-19-2014 04:51 PM)TopPanda Wrote:  This idea is probably totally stupid.

fixed that for you.

but it will be interesting to see what happens with it. are they crowdsourcing it?

Post: #7

The link at the top - links to a crowdsourcing site.

They have raised 55 thousand euros. Which is about 76 thousand US dollars.

Anyway - they have stopped raising funds since they raised the amount they needed.

They are giving away a 3.85% stake in the company - which means the company is valued by them at 1.43 million euros (1.98 million dollars).

Post: #8

gotcha, thought it was just a link to the video.

this is what i love about business. An idea I think has absolutely no chance at succeeding, yet can manage to raise 76k usd!

especially with a 2mil valuation.

I'll keep an eye on it, thanks for bringing it up.

Post: #9

My bitcoin miner runs on "free" electricity, as i would need the power to heat my home any way.

Maybe future blocks will have server centers in the middle of the block and in the basement.

Post: #10

And during the summer your air conditioning expenses double or triple to cool someone elses servers.

Idea fail.

Post: #11

lol

Post: #12

So hopefully nothing sensitive is stored on them?

Post: #13

You can run heat exchangers long distances over insulated pipes or hoses. It's basically the same as baseboard heat.