Computer servers naturally give off a lot of heat — so much so that maintaining a steady 70 degrees is a major expense for data centers.

Remember Google's clever idea to float data servers on the cold sea, and pump all that deep cold water up and around their data farms to keep them cool? Well, here's an ingenious idea that takes Google's a step further.

Just as data farms need to have warmth removed, conservatories require a consistent supply of heat. Indiana's University of Notre Dame is housing its computer servers in a conservatory for cacti and other desert plants.  It's a perfect match. 

Notre Dame has placed the data servers where the heat they give off is removed and circulated throughout the conservatory, reducing both the $100,000 data cooling bill, as well as the $70,000 in conservatory heating costs that had been paid by the city.

Since the conservatory had been eliminated entirely from the city’s 2010 budget, the boot-strappingly frugal good idea actually allowed its continued existence. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.
 

Via Terrapass