Thread

1. tptacek · 1791145040 · focus · HN ↗

   So, basically, not a meaningful amount of water at all. Credit to the story authors for taking the time to frame what 13MM gallons actually works out to.

   1. mrb · 1791146490 · focus · HN ↗

      Yes. As another comparison point, 13 million gallons per year amounts to 24 gallons per minute which is about 5 (five) bathtub faucets running 24/7/365.

      The water bill alone would be only $100k/yr assuming average US domestic rate of $8 per 1000 gallons.

      1. bix6 · 1791148781 · focus · HN ↗

         Remind me median income?

         1. creato · 1791151630 · focus · HN ↗

            Remind me who leaves 8 bath tub faucets running 24/7/365?

            1. bix6 · 1791154097 · focus · HN ↗

               Me?
         2. Dylan16807 · 1791153645 · focus · HN ↗

            $87k household. So that's 6 median incomes of water being used up by that datacenter. Put that way it doesn't sound bad, especially when you glance at the electric bill.

            Also when it evaporates instead of going to the sewer that drops the price in half.

            Edit: Oops I got that mixed up and was treating it like a per-faucet cost. So actually it's one full household income converted into water to handle the entire facility.

            1. bix6 · 1791154071 · focus · HN ↗

               Yeah I’m sure someone on median income feels the same

               1. Dylan16807 · 1791154461 · focus · HN ↗

                  Probably, yeah.

                  Do you think people look at big facilities and calculate that they're spending whatever times the medium wage on a crucial service and get mad about it?

                  Converting things into median wages is a way to put them into scale. They spent this many wages for construction, they spend this many on supplies, they sell this many in product, they hire this many people to work there. If anyone thinks its bad for anything a company buys to exceed a median wage, that's a very silly expectation and I wonder where they got it.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.