I have had this talk with friends before: How can the exhaust from computers be utilized? Right now, computer labs and server rooms are cooled at no small expense to the owners. What if the heat could be channeled?
Computers run hot. Thus, fans and air conditioning must be used to keep rooms full of computers cool. The exhaust of the computers is allowed to simply leak from the computers and into the air of the room. The AC needs to be kept high because it is constantly fighting the leaking hot air. There is certainly a better way to use this heat.
Recently, Microsoft has suggested heating homes with "data furnaces". I don't think that the monolithic software company is the first to suggest this method, but they are arguably the most powerful. Find the link, provided at SLASHDOT, here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/90992-microsoft-suggests-heating-your-home-with-data-furnaces.
I'm sure that the patent filings will follow Microsoft's suggestion. Soon after that will be the trademark filings with all the clever names inventors have assigned to their data furnaces.
