While Jean-Paul is warm on his sofa, his radiator is doing complicated calculations. Of which the sexagenarian ignores everything. For more than a year, this retired driver has lived together, in his bedroom and in his living room, with two large black appliances, sober and elegant topped with their wooden shelves. Jean-Paul was amazed at the start that it took two big guys to carry them and install them. This is because these are not vulgar radiators with a little more design than the others. Packed with electronics, they are in fact mini “data centers” which process data as soon as they are turned on, giving off heat from their overheated microprocessors.
“The calculators are there but we don’t know for whom, or where this complex data goes”, explains Pauline Dussol of the Rehabilitation Center of the Les Chalets Group. When redesigning the Les Sables de Launaguet residence, near Toulouse, the social landlord wanted to focus on thermal insulation but also on innovation. This resulted in the transformation of old bathtubs into “collective planters” at the foot of the two buildings and in the choice, rather inspired two years after an unprecedented energy crisis, of these “digital radiators”. The devices are marketed by the Parisian company Qarnot, whose other activity, the main one, is to sell “computing power”. The one that is partly relocated to Jean-Paul and his neighbors. At “2,542 euros” of investment per apartment, the basic equipment is much more expensive than the norm, but Les Chalets benefited from a “NoWatt” subsidy from the region for this experiment.
293 euros annual savings on average
The real saving is for the tenants. “They turn the radiators on and off whenever they want and by registering, by simple mail or by email, with the operator, the consumption of the appliances is reimbursed monthly”, explains Solène Chupé, the manager of the residence. “That does it since my monthly electricity payments for the winter months have gone from 51 to 29 euros”, rejoices Jean-Paul, who has not pushed so far as to control his high-tech radiators with his smartphone and ended up taming their latency. “No need to push all the way, it takes a little time to come on and go off,” advises the retiree who condemned, or even had the other classic radiators of his T3 removed. Like him, 75% of the 49 tenants warm themselves to microprocessors. “Over the first year of use, the average saving is 293 euros per tenant,” says Pauline Dussol. Some are even so keen on the bargain that they take advantage of it. “It’s 28°C at home and they walk around in T-shirts”, guarantees Jean-Paul who suddenly, sometimes, doesn’t even light up at home anymore.
The lessor now wants to continue, by way of small posters, or thanks to its concierge, its “pedagogy on the uses of these radiators”. Both to avoid overheating and to convince the 25% of inhabitants who are still legitimately resistant to this bonus. It’s not easy to tell yourself that you’re going to host a data center in your living room. In addition, the general inflation of electricity bills in collective housing makes the operation less readable for tenants who, while consuming less, often pay more this year.