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Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage

356 points · 458 comments · sensanaty

  1. aliasxneo · · focus · HN ↗
    I lived in a smaller rural town near a Google datacenter. During my career there I had routinely come across some outlandish accusations made about our water/power usage from the locals. But for obvious reasons I could never dispute them. I remember we hired a local who'd grown up in the town and he was "really surprised" when he started to see what we were doing to remain efficient.

    The current data center craze just feels like the same thing but on a bigger scale.

    1. WarmWash · · focus · HN ↗
      The current hysteria has little to do with datacenters and a lot to do with societal unrest about AI.
      1. lokar · · focus · HN ↗
        The noise issues seem real, but don’t impact whole cities
        1. bryan_w · · focus · HN ↗
          Is it? Can you give me a link to a video that shows the issue in a straightforward manner?

          Most of the shorts I've seen about this use an overlayed sound or synthetic sound of some sort.

          I've also seen ben jordans price on "infrasound" but that was inconclusive (and not very scientifically rigorous).

          I did see one video that measured 60db from the front yard, which I can admit could be problematic, but that fails to show that it's a pervasive or unsolvable problem

          1. toddmorey · · focus · HN ↗
            the generators and cooling equipment on some data centers are certainly audible.

            <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;AAQsnrAHy5Y?si=vgmEGHS38mzzs2G9" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;AAQsnrAHy5Y?si=vgmEGHS38mzzs2G9

            1. georgemcbay · · focus · HN ↗
              Another video of the same data center:

              <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;interesting&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uleoa2&#x2F;sound_emitted_247_from_a_30_megawatt_data_center&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;interesting&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uleoa2&#x2F;sound_...

              Sound meter shows &quot;only&quot; ~60 db, but that constant audible hum is, IMO, the data center actually assaulting those residents and apparently doing so 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

              If someone who lived near that place set fire to the data center and I ended up on the jury and heard these recordings I would do everything in my power to nullify because that seems like a completely justified response to me in the face of the company running the data center not shutting down until the problem is fully fixed.

            2. Gigachad · · focus · HN ↗
              This is so much worse than I was expecting. You&#x27;d pretty much have to move out, and your property would be worthless for anything but industrial use at that point.
            3. tripledry · · focus · HN ↗
              Is this something that happens by accident in the sense that the decision makers didn&#x27;t know how it would sound or is there actually someone in a room at some point going &quot;fuck it&quot;.
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