Dutch cloud provider Nerdalize and energy company Eneco suggest a novel use for the former company's servers-- heaters, specifically by putting servers in people's homes to act as a cheap source of warmth.

As Nerdalize puts it, datacentres are actually a bad idea, as one shouldn't stack a bunch of heat-emitting machines next to each other. Instead such machines should be placed where the heat is actually wanted, leading to savings on datacentre construction and cooling, as well as home warning.

The company even claims its work-from-home servers power compute clouds comparable to any other while being 55% more affordable than traditional servers. The servers run on Docker, use SSD storage and carry up to 32GB RAM per CPU.

A chirpy promotional video has a researcher from the Leiden University Medical Centre saying datacentre location does not affect his research, while homeowners appear pleased enough with the heating the servers provide.

Currently Nerdalize and Eneco have 5 homes testing the server-as-heaters  (or "eRadiator") scheme, with plans for expansion should it prove successful.

Watch Eneco eRadiator

Go Nerdalize