Test Trial to Use Computer Servers to Heat Homes Post News Group [Video]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An energy company is joining forces with a tech startup to harness computing power to heat homes in the Netherlands.

Eneco, a Dutch-based energy company with more than 2 million customers, said Tuesday it is installing “e-Radiators” — computer servers that generate heat while crunching numbers — in five homes across the Netherlands in a trial to see if their warmth could be a commercially viable alternative for traditional radiators.

The technology is the brainchild of the Dutch startup company Nerdalize, whose founders claim to have developed the idea after huddling near a laptop to keep warm after their home’s thermostat broke and jokingly suggesting buying 100 laptops.

“Ten minutes later, we thought: ‘That’s not such a crazy idea,’” said Boaz Leupe, one of Nerdalize’s founders.

Nerdalize says its e-Radiators offer companies or research institutes a cheaper alternative to housing servers in data centers. And …