Heating homes with the largest particle accelerator
by elashri on 1/29/2026, 3:49:04 PM
https://home.cern/news/news/cern/heating-homes-worlds-largest-particle-accelerator
Comments
by: fph
Bitcoin-mining space heaters are out, particle accelerator exhaust is now every nerd's most loved home heating.
1/29/2026, 5:55:23 PM
by: mkw5053
Interesting that they're still providing 1-5 MW during the multi-year shutdown. The LHC won't even be running but the cooling infrastructure keeps going. Makes me wonder what the steady-state thermal output is across all of CERN. 200 MW peak during operations, but clearly something substantial even when the collider is off.
1/29/2026, 6:11:49 PM
by: 1970-01-01
Just need to find a way to recycle those 3.00TW beam dumps and they can claim they're a fancy, LEED certified green building.
1/29/2026, 6:37:53 PM
by: ck2
I had to check if maybe it was April 1st already<p>but that's actually pretty clever and thoughtful
1/29/2026, 5:46:00 PM
by: kakacik
I wonder how they will pick which homes to heat or generally how to share that with general infrastructure. Also wonder how much will go to Switzerland (which has much denser housing in that part) and how much to France.<p>I live not far, work in Geneva and have few colleagues living in/next to that circle. For sure they would appreciate using such source of heat if its frictionless integration.
1/29/2026, 6:17:05 PM
by: anon291
This is certainly not going to cause any conspiracy-minded nutjobs to go berserk.
1/29/2026, 5:08:43 PM