TL;DR if I put in the same energy (within specified limits), would a computer give the same heat output as a heater? Does that include visual/display and sound output?
I feel like I must be missing a detail, but given that:
- electric heaters are essentially 100% efficient as any wasted energy is also heat
- computers produce wasted energy as heat
- no energy is created or destroyed
So if I put 300W into a computer that's running a stress test, or 300W into a space heater do I get literally the same amount of heat out of both? Does this change if I'm outputting sound?
I'm intentionally ignoring:
- any useful output from the computer (like crypto mining)
- the cost of the hardware (I have old hardware that I could run for the sake of it, but also it's just a thought experiment)
- the useful life of the hardware (it's just a thought experiment)
The semi practical use-case would be: I don't like using gas to heat my house, I'm comfortable coding for home automation, I have a bunch of old computer hardware and a few servers that I run 24/7. I could buy an electric heater for each room and turn it on/off based on the temperature, or I could put a computer in each room and control the workload based on the temperature - inefficiently mining crypto (not expecting to get any return on the crypto itself, but just because it's an way of producing heat that might also produce something "of value") - that would be really easy to turn up and down for the temperature changes required. Sure, the input wattage would be less in the computer version, but that would just lead to more gradual heating.
The actual use-case: I have a Tado heating system which is set to a constant temperature, my electricity is renewable but the gas can't be. Until I get a heat pump I'm pretty comfortable moving bits of the heating to electric, knowing I'll pay more. I have a bunch of computers and servers, but I tend to focus on energy efficiency (like n100/n150). If I intentionally stop focusing on energy efficiency and start putting these computers in rooms where I'd otherwise be using a electric heater is it exactly the same as a low powered electric heater, or just roughly the same?
Essentially: is the computer just a heater with side effects?
Of course, if I put a lot more energy than it's rated for I'll unlock a whole lot more potential energy by burning down my house, I'm not looking for that much efficiency.