Project: Combination of a High Performance Computing (HPC) server with an electric heater including home automation capabilities
Almost every week, huge data centers are opened for storage or calculation of numerical data. Needs, including calculation power, are becoming increasingly important, which explains the creation and implementation of more and more of these data centers. However, the past few years have shown that these clusters are particularly energy-consuming not only because of the calculations but also because of the cooling system._x000D__x000D_With this in mind, many companies are looking to reduce their carbon footprint (and expenses) by implementing solar panels or installing their data centers in underground bunkers or old mines which can naturally provide some durable control of the temperature. Nevertheless, all these solutions are expensive in terms of investment and in any case the energy released by the calculations is still lost!_x000D__x000D_We assume that this heat should not be lost but for instance exploited as heating systems. If it was already shown that it is possible to recover the heat for heating, there are still a large number of technological challenges before offering a commercial solution for such product at a large scale._x000D__x000D_The purpose of this proposal is to create a European collaborative R&D project led by Qarnot computing, a French innovative SME, and PAPOUCH, a Czech innovative SME. This project, called SMARTHEAT, ambitions the development of a solution able to provide usable heat through computational calculation power. The project consortium gathers two complementary companies in the fields of grid computing, electronic, hardware, home automation as well as thermal and mechanical engineering: Qarnot computing and Papouch. _x000D__x000D_Qarnot computing is a young innovative SME created early 2010 in France. Qarnot Computing is a high performance computing operator that offers its customers to outsource their computing tasks on a highly innovative machine park while ensuring an excellent security. The company has an expertise in grid computing and thermal engineering as well as embedded electronics and informatics._x000D__x000D_Papouch is a system integrator offering technologies for industrial electronics, data communications and metrology purposes. The company is installed in Prague, in Czech Republic. One of Papouch’s experience and important business is related to buildings equipment and management, this expertise will be bring by the company to the consortium and the project._x000D__x000D_Our project aims to develop a flexible heating grid using the heat emitted by calculation units and targeting households, companies and regional authorities’ buildings. The outcomes of the project would allow proposing calculation power capabilities on one side, and domestic heat on the other side (see figure 3 “General architecture solution” in the Technical Annex – paragraph 3 – p.28)._x000D__x000D_The consortium will base its development work on the study of six different modules including mechanical, control and power electronic as well as thermal analysis. Emphasis will also be put on the software and hardware developments and the security of the product. The last phases of the project will allow each P to develop their own innovative technologies and propose new computation servers on the one hand and home automation products on the other (see the GANTT planning in the Consortium Agreement – Article 3.3 – p.9)._x000D__x000D_Calculation power is a very important and strategic topic in our modern economies. With numerical models, supercomputing allows the accomplishment of experiments that would otherwise be dangerous (accidents), long (climatology), inaccessible (astrophysics), prohibited (nuclear tests), varied (finance), extremes (insurance), expensive (prototyping) or imaginary (animation). Thus more and more industries need to perform heavy computing operations that can’t be done internally. Therefore grid computing clusters are developed for calculation outsourcing, but the offer is still underdeveloped compared to the demand._x000D__x000D_Besides, heating is still a major necessity for Europe and it represents an important expense for households and companies. The idea behind SMARTHEAT would thus be to offer free heating in exchange of smart heaters installation in their premises. A win-win strategy!_x000D_
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Acronym
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SMARTHEAT
(Reference Number: 8239)
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Duration
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01/01/2014 - 31/12/2015
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Project Topic
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SMARTHEAT aims to develop a flexible High Performance Computing grid able to reuse the heat emitted by calculation units for the heating purposes of houses and business premises. The outcomes will also propose home automation functions. Consortium: QARNOT (French SME) and PAPOUCH (Czech SME)
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
