Thanks for giving it a go, I mostly hoped there might be someone who had some experience in the area who could shed some light. But the numbers were certainly interesting. Then the pivot to AI post went up 30 mins after I posted and shed a little light on the while thing too.

It would seem odd to put the heated water back instead of cooling it off and re-using, but I don't have faith in any kind of sustainability designed or built into the system, so that would make sense for impact.

If they're being quiet about it, it means one or two things. Either they're actually considering it proprietary new tech, but there would almost certainly be patents filed somewhere for that case, and/or they have something they're not proud to announce. I have no idea what words would be used for a patent here, being an area well outside my expertise, but I've not heard any patents mentioned, so I'm going to assume it's squarely the shame reason.

The protonmail thing... I just assume nothing I do is private and keep all my services as decoupled as possible to make me more annoying to track down, should the situation arise that I become somehow not boring. One day I'll set up something more private and annoying, but I have a long list of todos that never become todones...