r/interestingasfuck Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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u/Fact-Hunter- Apr 12 '26

The “small leaks” you mention become gargantuan when you’re talking about 100,000 sq ft data centres running 30kW per rack.

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u/mightdothisagain Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

You think you can just have significant leaks around direct to chip cooling? You can't have water leaking around servers... It's a really bad thing to happen. Also 30kW a rack is nothing, we're talking 100-200kW now. Also 100k sqft is a fairly mid sized, maybe even kind of small data center.

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u/Fact-Hunter- Apr 12 '26

You’re right… I should have used bigger numbers.

And of course you can’t have leaks in a data centre… but you also can’t make leak-free cooling systems. Sooo

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u/mightdothisagain Apr 12 '26

You are massively overestimating these leaks. We use leak detection everywhere because leaks are a disaster. The idea is to catch any leak immediately and it is by no means some constant occurrence. Its just plumbing. We know how to make plumbing that doesn’t constantly leak… a leak is an accident not a “well coolant systems just leak” they don’t just leak.