[LINK] Co-generation Cyber-Cafe Internet coffee appliance

[Sylvano]

I vote we award Tom with the best Friday "relief from work Link posting" 
award! Particularly as it's on topic and right on the carbon offset 
discussion.  Wonderful!!

Sylvano
-- 
Gnomon Publishing
http://www.gnomon.com.au/

On Friday 30 January 2009, Tom Worthington wrote:
>          LinkGram - Media Release from The Link Institute
>
>          Co-generation web coffee appliance announced
>
> Canberra, 28 January 2009: The Link Institute today announced a
> breakthrough in energy saving to combat global warming: the
> "Cyber-Cafe". This unit provides web services for a home or small
> business and uses the waste heat to keep coffee warm.
>
> The inspiration for the Cyber-Cafe came from two sources: research
> which found that web searches use enough energy to heat
> water
> <http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.e
>ce> and The Trojan Room Coffee Machine at University of Cambridge
> Computer Laboratory <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/coffee.html>.
>
> Chief Scientist Professor Klerphel reasoned that if a web search
> generated enough heat for a cup of coffee, it might as well be used
> to heat a cup of coffee. The University of Cambridge produced a
> computer equipped coffee pot in the 1990s, but it was powered by
> conventional greenhouse gas producing fossil fuel derived
> electricity. The co-generation coffee pot reduces greenhouse gas
> emissions by 50%.
>
> The web coffee appliance consists of a modified desktop PC. The
> processor chips have been connected via a thermal bridge to a coffee
> pot warming plate. A thermostatic fan has been added to cool the CPU
> if the processing load is too high (or the coffee pot runs dry). A
> supervisor program monitors the coffee temperature and will run extra
> tasks indexing local data and for the global computing cloud, to keep
> the coffee warm, if the processor is not otherwise needed.
>
> The server runs a web site which reports on the current status of the
> web coffee appliance and a how much coffee is left in the pot.
>
> Research has shown that the ideal temperature to serve coffee is 80
> to 85 degrees Celsius
> <http://www.hollandbymail.com/coffee/coffee_preparation.html>, which
> is within the operating range of many commonly used CPUs
> <http://www.technibble.com/what-is-my-computers-maximum-cpu-temperature/>.
> The use of a solid state cooling device to pump heat from the CPU to
> the warming plate is also being investigated
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect>.
>
> Google is rumored to have licensed the technology and is in
> negotiations with a major global chain of coffee shops. "It makes
> sense: the more people who come into a cyber cafe, the more web
> searches and the more coffee they drink." Klerphell said.
>
> ;-)
>
>
>
> Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
> Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
> PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
> Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
>
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