# Data centres

Buildings full of servers that turn electricity into computation and then into heat.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/

Conversion and use · Industry, buildings and farms · No. 119

- Conversion and use
 Conversion and use · Industry, buildings and farms · Foundation · Energy

A data centre is, in energy terms, a giant electric heater that happens to do your computing on the way.

Chart: Illustration: Data centres

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Every transistor switch charges tiny capacitances and dumps the energy as heat, so practically every watt a server draws ends up warming the room. Cooling then takes about 38-40% of facility electricity.

##### Three things to know

1. Average PUE fell from 2.50 in 2007 to about 1.5, but has barely moved since 2018, so gains now come from chips.
2. An H100 GPU uses about a hundred million times more energy per operation than physics' Landauer limit for erasing a bit.
3. A 100 MW US data centre may use as much direct water as about 2,600 households.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Grid supply**High-voltage AC into the site substation
2. 2 **UPS**Conditions power, batteries bridge any outage
3. 3 **Power supplies**Convert AC to 12 or 48 V DC
4. 4 **Chips compute**GPUs and CPUs turn every watt into heat
5. 5 **Cooling**Air or liquid carries heat outdoors
 Covered in [The fossil-fuel revolutionEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/fossil-fuel-revolution/)[Making electricity: thermal, nuclear, hydro, wind and solarEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/making-electricity/)[Power density: why land and space matterEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/power-density/)[Using energy: food, materials, mobility and buildingsEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/using-energy/)[Energy transitions and climateEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/energy-transitions-climate/)[Energy, the economy and the futureEnergy](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/energy/energy-economy-society/)

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## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/correlation/index.md)
- [Science and limits](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/science/index.md)
- [Value chain](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/valuechain/index.md)
- [Unit economics](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/economics/index.md)
- [Engineering methods](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/methods/index.md)
- [Equipment and suppliers](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/equipment/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_data_centres/links/index.md)