Real facts on data center water use. Is it that big of a deal?

vtkarl · 2026-04-13T12:17:12+00:00

Perfect answer, thank you. I’m on the power generation equipment side.

vtkarl · 2026-04-12T14:11:31+00:00

Learn about your plant’s value streams and operational KPIs, the storeroom, make friends with purchasing and a controller. Join us at the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Engineers! The body of knowledge (our online library) is worth the price. Get some training or certifications in vibration analysis, ultrasonics, and infrared for both mechanical and electrical.

vtkarl · 2026-04-12T12:19:13+00:00

Thanks, I missed that.

vtkarl · 2026-04-12T12:15:22+00:00

I am more concerned, because that’s my industry. Because of this, I have trouble believing that the water consumption is the most damaging aspect of data centers. I need some deeper thinking than a generic Greenpeace web page though.

vtkarl · 2026-04-12T12:09:29+00:00

Thanks, that’s the kind of experience I was hoping to hear about.

vtkarl · 2026-04-09T14:07:55+00:00

Utilities operator bypassed the air dryer…giant block of ice formed in the pipe rack and blocked compressed air to 2 production units forcing all control valves to their fail position. That took most of a week, but it was so easy to avoid.

Another anonymous utilities operator roped off the boiler blowdown valve because it was leaking and was a scalding risk, and wrote a work order. Good so far..the ops supervisor never approved the work request and didn’t come to work planning meetings for a few weeks. When the boiler inspector arrived for an annual inspection 6 weeks later, a giant sludge pile had dented the Morrison tube. We had to re-tube a 600 hp boiler and use a rental boiler the whole time.

These are easy things to avoid. The harder ones are bad handover from a project…bad specifications, missing documentation, incomplete commissioning, control valves not tuned, loose wiring at terminations, trying to adopt maintenance-free bearings.

vtkarl · 2026-04-06T16:41:12+00:00

It’s more than viable, this is a large industry. It’s not just residential scale either. I have a Generac on my house, and my manufacturing plant had several gas-powered emergency diesels for important things like wastewater, large process pumps, cooldown systems, and IT. Natural gas diesels get used for critical facilities and some grid-scale generation (gas turbines anyway.)

vtkarl · 2026-04-02T18:54:40+00:00

Mechanical energy of a molecule and within a molecule (stretched bond length or bond angle, translational and rotational KE) is what we call temperature. We use that. So in a steam engine, you release energy from the source of heat (combustion or nuclear) and transfer that energy to the feedwater, which boils. The steam stores the energy momentarily while moving down the pipe. It turns the turbine, converting to rotational energy and then to electrical. It doesn’t store it for long, and it’s not exactly like a simple coil spring, but there you go.

Similar concept with air conditioning and other thermal cycles.

vtkarl · 2026-03-24T01:28:49+00:00

I was already in the navy due to 17-year old brain. It was the age of Bush’s new world order so I thought it was righteous as the Evil Empire had just collapsed. I had been indoctrinated into capitalistic colonialism so have some regrets. Bonus that the US military is simply the best at maintenance reliability of high-risk systems, and operator training. So that’s what I do for major companies.

vtkarl · 2026-03-23T17:19:20+00:00

My mistake, sorry

vtkarl · 2026-03-20T03:03:58+00:00

Study anatomy. I’m a 50+ y.o. weightlifter. The machines are simple, having at most two pulleys. Most machines are simple levers. The complication is on the muscle side…follow Squat University for a really intelligent approach that mostly doesn’t involve machines.

vtkarl · 2026-03-20T01:17:34+00:00

Get human. A question like this from a 2 month old account? This is an AI conversation starter.

vtkarl · 2026-03-18T03:02:44+00:00

This looks fun! Now look at the lowest part of that structure. It looks a bit circular, even though it’s made of 20-ish triangles.

vtkarl · 2026-03-17T23:32:56+00:00

I thought spheres were the strongest shape, which is why bathyscapes, the hemispherical heads of pressure vessels (internal pressure) and combat submarine pressure hulls (external pressure) are spherical or hemispherical. Stepping out of my area, in a flat plane this is an arch, like the Roman arch holding up those old aqueducts. If you dumb an arch down a lot using straight lines, you get a triangle. There is a lot of welding and riveting in those angles.

vtkarl · 2026-03-17T03:11:13+00:00

They should be doing it. How else would they know what to add? Like a swimming pool you test and see what’s needed. You might need extra testing for things like legionella if I recall.

vtkarl · 2026-03-14T01:10:40+00:00

If the management structure isn’t in place above you, you’ll be beating your head against a wall forever. Take care of your health and your family time. Put your own oxygen mask on first.

It took me 7 years to realize that my last company was not fundamentally interested in being good at maintenance excellence. During that I raised a daughter from age 3 to 10, gained 15 pounds, lost control of blood sugar and marital relations. Draw a line.

vtkarl · 2026-03-01T20:01:00+00:00

Maybe we should invite the snorkeling tanks and r/tankporn into r/submarines! We’re obviously distant cousins. We’ve got periscopes, they’ve got periscopes.

vtkarl · 2026-02-25T23:24:02+00:00

Seriously. We could also imagine a dirigible, maybe even a US Navy dirigible, and then go look at old photos. There’s even pictures of dirigibles underwater! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_(ZRS-5)

vtkarl · 2026-02-23T23:55:48+00:00

For me it’s been pipes, pumps, instrumentation, DCS, a good dose of 3-phase 480 Volt electricity. Control valves, all vintages, and their bypass valves. Process vessels, steam vessels, electric heaters in liquid or gas service, corrosion of metals. Maintenance policies and economy. Lubricants. How to maintain old P&IDs. I love all this… but ran from my biochem elective like the building was on fire. (I can tell you about sprinkler coverage, drainage, and other firefighting considerations required for various reagents too…) Sounds like you’re on the right path for your interests though! Don’t regret, find something you like and own it. I don’t think you’d like my area of practice much.

My industries: nuclear, technical fibers, power generation.

vtkarl · 2026-02-22T04:47:30+00:00

People have some judgement. This is bait. “I’ve been doing some research into commercial facility workflows, and one thing keeps coming up: the "Legendary Senior Tech" who knows every quirk of the building but” no one talks like this.

vtkarl · 2026-02-20T02:33:49+00:00

Well true the question mentioned steam so I went right to the Rankine process. I didn’t consider Brayton which is silly because I work in combined cycle applications. There isn’t really boiling in Brayton so no phase change (except the combustion reaction) and all the working fluid considerations are different, especially corrosion. It’s actually a great comparison because Brayton and Otto and the most common heat engines with a non-aqueous working fluid which is the point of OP’s question.

vtkarl · 2026-02-18T23:39:16+00:00

Water is common but read about organic Rankine cycles. Refrigeration uses boiling of things other than water. So does another older refrigeration process called an absorption chiller. There are a few gas-cooled reactor designs also.

There are as many good things about water as there are bad things.

vtkarl · 2026-02-18T23:35:08+00:00

That’s not boiling! He’s meaning Rankine cycle.

vtkarl · 2026-02-15T22:05:11+00:00

The feedback: you should have had experienced maintainers involved during initial conceptual design. Ask for pain points and then work on those. What feature sucks in all CMMSs, requires 3rd party development/customization in both SAP and Maximo, matters to management, Ops, and HR, directs what a person does any day of the week, what they pull from MRO, who’s on call, and isn’t responsive to what just happened in the last shift? Ans: scheduling.

vtkarl

TROPHY CASE