Home heating server

• US 8,548,640 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Belady, Christian L., James, Sean, Liu, Jie
• Primary Examiner(s): Padmanabhan, Kavita
• Assistant Examiner(s): Everett, Christopher E
• Application Number:
  US12/973,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20120158190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,015 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 700/300
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 12/00 Other central heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 19/1066 for the combination of central heating and domestic hot water
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 19/1084 for air heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 2200/29 Electrical devices, e.g. computers, servers
• CPC Class Codes: F24D 5/00 Hot-air central heating systems district heating systems F24D10/00; central heating systems using heat accumulated in storage masses F24D11/00; air conditioning F24F; Exhaust gas central heating systems
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 5/0096 combined with domestic apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1934 each space being provided with one sensor acting on one or more control means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/201 Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2829 involving user profiles according to which the execution of a home appliance functionality is automatically triggered
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 30/70 Efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant flow, motor or heating

Abstract

A server computer may be located at a home or business and may be used for heating the home or business. The server computer may operate a distributed cloud based application and may generate heat in response to application load. The server computer may have an air or water based heat exchanger that may integrate into various heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to use the heat generated by the server. In some embodiments, a thermostat may regulate the application load on the server computer as controlled by a cloud based controller.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a controller, the controller communicatively coupled to one or more computer systems at each of a plurality of different premises, each of the one or more computer systems at each premise configured to execute assigned workloads to generate heat for satisfying a heat demand at said premise, each of the one more other computer systems at each premise having a heat transfer mechanism that transfers heat from said computer system to a building heat system on said premise, each workload including at least a portion of a distributed application, the controller configured to;

receive an indication of a heat demand at each premise from among said plurality of different premises, said heat demand being a heat request for a building heating system on said premise, said heat demand not based on cooling costs at said premise; and

load balance a plurality of workloads across said plurality of different premises considering said indicated heat demand at said each premise as a load balancing criteria, including;

for each of the plurality of premises, adjust a number of workloads assigned to said one or more computer systems at said premise based on said indicated heat demand at said premise, said number of workloads adjusted to cause components of said one or more computer systems to generate heat to satisfy said indicated heat demand at said premise and heat said premise.

2. The system of claim 1, said building heating system having at least one regulating valve.

3. The system of claim 2, said building heating system having a heat vent configuration that removes heat from said computing device and exhausts at least a portion of said heat to atmosphere.

4. The system of claim 1, said heat demand at at least one premise being determined by a thermostat located within said premise.

5. The system of claim 4, said controller receiving output from said thermostat.

6. The system of claim 1, said heat transfer mechanism using a liquid as a heat transfer medium.

7. The system of claim 1, said building heating system having a secondary heat source.

8. The system of claim 1, said building heating system having at least one filter.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a first premise indicates a first heat demand and a second premise indicates a second different heat demand, said first heat demand demanding more heat than said second heat demand, and wherein for each of the plurality of premises, assign a number of workloads to the one or more computer systems at said premise based on said indicated heat demand at said premise comprises:

assign a first number of workloads to said one or more computer systems at said first premise; and

assign a second number of workloads to said one or more computer systems at said second premise, said second number of workloads configured to generate less heat than said first number of workloads.

10. At a computer system, the computer system communicatively coupled to one or more computer systems at each of a plurality of different premises, each of the one or more computer systems at each premise configured to execute assigned workloads to generate heat for satisfying a heat demand at said premise, each of the one more other computer systems at each premise having a heat transfer mechanism that transfers heat from said computer system to a building heat system on said premise, each workload including at least a portion of a distributed application, a method for allocating execution of one or more distributed applications, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a heat demand at each premise from among the plurality of different premises, said heat demand being a heat request for a building heating system on said premise, said heat demand not based on cooling costs at said premise; and

load balancing a plurality of workloads across said plurality of different premises considering said indicated heat demand at said each premise as a load balancing criteria, including;

for each of the plurality of premises, adjusting a number of workloads assigned to said one or more computer systems at said premise based on said indicated heat demand at said premise, said number of workloads adjusted to cause components of said one or more computer systems to generate heat to satisfy said indicated heat demand at said premise and heat said premise.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

detecting a fault with a first computing device at a first premise; and

notifying a user at said first premise.

12. The method of claim 10, said one or more distributed applications including a delay tolerant application.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein load balancing a plurality of workloads across said plurality of different premises includes assigning an identical workload to the one or more computer systems at a first premise and a second different premise, the first premise and the second different premise selected from among the plurality of premises.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

receiving a first response from said first premise and receiving a second response from said second premise; and

comparing said first response to said second response to determine that said first response is equivalent to said second response and accepting said first response as a valid response.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein a first premise indicates a first heat demand and a second premise indicates a second different heat demand, said first heat demand demanding more heat than said second heat demand, and wherein for each of the plurality of premises, adjusting a number of workloads assigned to the one or more computer systems at said premise based on said indicated heat demand at said premise comprises:

assigning a first number of workloads to said one or more computer systems at said first premise; and

assigning a second number of workloads to said one or more computer systems at said second premise, said second number of workloads configured to generate less heat than said first number of workloads.

15. A system comprising:

a premise having one or more computer systems configured to execute assigned workloads to generate heat for satisfying heat demands at said premise, said assigned workloads distributed from a controller, said one or more computer systems communicatively coupled to the controller, said controller configured to load balance assigned workloads across said premise and one or more other premises by adjusting said assigned workloads based on indicated heat demands at said premise and said one or more other premises, said premise including;

sensor components configured to indicate a heat demand at said premise to said controller, said heat demand being a heat request for a building'"'"'s forced air heating system at said premise, said heat demand not based on cooling costs at said premise; and

a computer system having a heat transfer mechanism incorporated into said building'"'"'s forced air heating system that transfers heat from said computer system to said building'"'"'s forced heating system on said premise, said computer system configured to;

execute workloads assigned to said computer system to cause hardware components of the computer system to generate heat for satisfying the indicated heat demand and heat said premise.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising a second premise having one or more computer systems configured to execute workloads distributed from said controller, said second premise included in said one or more other premises, said second premise including:

second sensor components configured to indicate a second different heat demand at said second premise to said controller, said second heat demand being a heat request for building heating system at said second premise, said heat demand not based on cooling costs at said second premise; and

a second computer system having a heat transfer mechanism incorporated into a second building'"'"'s forced air heating system that transfers heat from said second computer system to said second building heating system on said second premise, said computer system configured to;

execute second workloads assigned to the computer system to cause hardware components of the computer system to generate heat for satisfying the indicated second different heat demand and heat said second premise.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the indicated heat demand demands more heat than the second indicated heat demand and wherein the workloads assigned to the computer system are configured to generate more heat than the second workloads assigned to the second computer system.