Groundbreaking sustainable water heating
We use the waste heat from cloud compute to give families free hot water and save them money on their bills, with minimal disruption to tenants
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COMPUTERS GET HOT
Our servers are attached to hot water cylinders in homes and the heat they generate is transferred into the water in the cylinder.
HOMES NEED HEAT
The heat from the heata unit means the household’s heating system comes on less often, which saves them money.
We use energy twice.
Nice.
All data processing ends up as heat, and data centres then spend more energy getting rid of it.
Yet heat is useful.
We think the waste heat from compute can be put to good use providing heat in society.
Free hot water for families
- Save £150–350 a year on your energy bill
- Reduce your gas usage and save carbon
- Enjoy free hot water provided by data processing
Straightforward installation, within a day
Unlike other more involved energy efficiency measures, installing a heata unit can be completed within a day, without any significant disruption to the household.
My two installers were excellent. Answered all my questions and were super professional.
heata host
Frequently asked questions
Computer processing on the heata unit generates heat which is transferred into the water in your cylinder. This means that your existing heating system has to use less energy to get the water to temperature. Think of it a bit like solar thermal; when it's sunny it heats your water, reducing the amount of energy your main heating system needs to use. When the heata unit is processing it's having the same effect.
No, your existing heating system stays in place and the heata unit works alongside it. Your existing heating system will kick in less often as the heata unit has already provided some heat to the water. In some cases it will have provided enough hot water (your existing heating system won't kick in at all), in other cases your existing heating system might kick in to top-up the hot water.
A useful base load. If the heata unit ran all day it would deliver about 4.8kWh of hot water which is about the amount of hot water an average household uses. In practice the utilisation level will be lower and sometimes the water will be at temperature so the heata unit won't be able to run. We think it could deliver up to 80% of an average household's hot water, with good compute utilisation.
heata pays for the electricity used by the heata unit. Depending on your supplier, we’ll either directly credit your energy account, or your bank account. An accredited billing submeter with a readable screen is included as part of the installation, which we will read remotely to get the details for your credit amounts.
Yes, you’ll still have hot water as it works alongside your current central heating system, which will provide hot water if the heata unit isn't working.
The installation procedure is a larger version of how a standard tank thermostat is installed - we remove a patch of the foam insulation (taking it down to the metal). Then we attach our thermal bridge to that section, the heata unit is then connected to that. We’ve tested the process with British Gas, and spoken to a leading cylinder manufacturer who confirmed that following the approved installation process won’t invalidate your cylinder warranty. We will also re-insulate the area if the heata unit is removed.
Meet some of our hosts
We’ve generated over ten tonnes of hot water, which is about 90 days of average use of hot water and about 226 showers!
Irfan, Gatwick
Irfan and family, Gatwick
Andrew, installer
Tackling climate change is important, especially for our children. Borrowing the energy from cloud compute to offset our hot water heating seems like a brilliant way to help.
Austyn and Catherine, Ash Vale
Austyn and Catherine, Ash Vale
James and Family, Woking
It’s a win-win situation: reduce your gas bill and save the planet!
Jamie
The Everything Electric Show
The Everything Electric Show focuses on energy efficiency, here's the episode where they took a look at the heata unit.
Supported by Innovate UK
heata is part of the Innovate UK Net Zero Group, which looks at how innovative solutions can help to decarbonise homes.
Our Net Zero strategy has a focus on decarbonising heat in buildings. Heata's solution is particularly elegant: to use electricity twice – providing services to a rapidly growing industry (cloud computing) and provide domestic hot water.Dr Mike Pitts
Deputy Challenge Director, Innovate UK
Discover energy efficient water heating; meet the heata unit
- Patented heat transfer mechanism
- Avoids cooling energy
- Reuses the heat generated from its processing
Read more about heata
- Cloud compute
Jupyter notebooks article
- 3D rendering
Team Spotlight: 3D Lead, Jay Patel
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Award winning cloud innovation
heata is a leader in UK cloud innovation and has been featured on BBC News and Radio, in New Scientist, Popular Science and MIT Technology Review, and been nominated for The Earthshot Prize.
Our story
Find out how heata started and why.
British Gas Trial
Find out about our trial with British Gas Employees.
Content hub
Read more about what we've been doing at heata.
The waste heat from one data centre could provide hot water for 100,000 homes.
The waste heat from businesses cloud compute could provide you with free hot water. Register your interest in joining the network and we can get in touch as we expand the network.
