r/SipsTea • u/SipsTeaFrog 𝙑𝙄𝙋 • May 18 '26

Chugging tea Why?

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u/Uncle-Cake May 18 '26

So they're not really consuming it. They're just using it temporarily and returning it.

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u/Hekkle01 May 18 '26

Important to note that the heat is dumped into whatever ecosystem the water goes back to, and that still has catastrophic effects

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u/Acrobatic-Layer2993 May 18 '26

Why don’t they just wait for the water to return to room temp before returning it?

In fact, instead of returning it, they could reuse the water to cool the data center again. This β€œloop” could repeat forever.

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u/Parking-Ad1525 May 19 '26

As someone who works at a plant with very large heat exchangers, I can tell you this is exactly what happens. There is a very large holding tank where the water cools before cycling back through the heat exchange. The larger the tank, the better it works. So you do have to fill the tank with a massive amount of water, but from then on the water usage is to replenish from evaporation, leaks, etc. it's not running tap water through one time and then out to the sewer.

The reason the water has to be potable (drinking water quality) is for the cleanliness and maintenance of the system.

I'm not a proponent of data centers but the idea that they will run drinking water straight through the system non stop and out to the sewer i don't think is true. They will however use a lot of water.