A heat storage and transfer system incorporates a primary heat storage chamber that is thermally insulated and which in use, contains a heat storing liquid or solid and a thermal energy to electrical energy converter in or thermally coupled to at least one of: i) a secondary chamber external to and adjacent the primary heat storage chamber through which a liquid or steam to be heated is passed in use; and ii) a thermal conduction plate/surface external to the thermally insulated primary heat storage chamber or body. The system has a heat transfer feature to selectively transfer thermal energy from the heat storing liquid or solid of the primary heating chamber to the thermal conduction plate or the liquid or steam to be heated in the secondary chamber for the thermal energy to thence be converted to electrical energy by the thermal energy to electrical energy converter.

Computer processing systems are cooled and the otherwise wasted heat is extracted for space heating by providing a cooling dielectric liquid in a tank which passes from a manifold at the bottom of the tank through an array of tubular housings each having open top and bottom ends and containing row of the circuit boards. The housings sit on a divider sheet which has arrays of openings aligned with the housings allowing the liquid to pass from the manifold under little or no pressure so that the liquid flows through the housings by convection and stratifies to generate a layer of heated liquid above the open tops of the housings which can be tapped off to a heat exchanger. The liquid around the housings is not fed from the manifold and the power supplies for the circuit boards sit in this body of liquid and are cooled thereby.

Computer processing systems are cooled and the otherwise wasted heat is extracted for space heating by providing a cooling dielectric liquid in a tank which passes from a manifold at the bottom of the tank through an array of tubular housings each having open top and bottom ends and containing row of the circuit boards. The housings sit on a divider sheet which has arrays of openings aligned with the housings allowing the liquid to pass from the manifold under little or no pressure so that the liquid flows through the housings by convection and stratifies to generate a layer of heated liquid above the open tops of the housings which can be tapped off to a heat exchanger. The liquid around the housings is not fed from the manifold and the power supplies for the circuit boards sit in this body of liquid and are cooled thereby.