Liquid-cooled computing and heating system for waste heat recovery

Abstract

A liquid-cooled computing and heating system for integration into the building services of buildings, comprising at least one liquid-cooled computing unit, a primary cooling circuit for dissipating thermal power losses from the computing unit, a heat pump for raising the temperature level of these power losses, and a secondary heating circuit, characterized in that the computing and heating system is designed as a pre-assembled, plug-and-play modular system from modularly combinable functional units, wherein the secondary heating circuit is fluidically connected to a topologically variable buffer storage arrangement, which is designed as a thermal cascade consisting of at least two separately installable storage tanks connected in series, wherein at least one of the storage tanks has at least one integrated electric heating element.and wherein an upper storage area, maintained at a specific temperature, primarily feeds a fresh water station for hygienic, continuous domestic hot water heating, and a lower storage area, maintained at a specific temperature, serves as a hydraulic cooling zone for the return flow of a space heating circuit, and wherein the system has an automated, control-controlled bypass system which, when the buffer storage arrangement is thermally saturated, diverts the power loss of the computing unit to an external waste heat unit, completely bypassing the heat pump, in order to ensure continuous operation of the computing unit that is decoupled from the building's heat demand.