Bitcoin Forum

This might be the wrong thread, but looking at what the cooling costs would be in setting up a larger mining farm.  Mainly just generalizations.  I realize there are 3.432 BTU/w but does that really translate in real world as to needing 50KW x 3.432 BTU to keep the units cool?  Any guidance or rules of thumb would be helpful.

BTW, what I've come up with so far seems to be figure an additional 35% electricity for cooling.

Focus on venting/exhausting the heat rather than trying to fight it with AC.  You'l have a much easier time of it.

I just set up a pair of ~9KBTU exhaust fans in our hosting running off a single 120V 20A circuit doing a reasonable job of cooling what is currently about 38KW of machinery. Once I finish ducting everything properly (hot/cold aisle separation helps a lot for controlling ambient temperature) it'll be even better, probably good for 50KW.

What kind of ambient temperatures are you dealing with? Are you going full AC? 35% seems like an embarassingly high number.

I think this question is really about 'what kind of ambient temperatures are you dealing with', as Sidehack mentioned. Depending on where you actually want to host all your miners, your costs for cooling down the devices will vary.

A rule of thumb I should suggest you, is also to look for other ways than cooling down with AC devices. AC is really expensive (in electricity costs), especially if it has to run multiple hours a day.

Have you already looked at placing your 50KW of miners into a hosted location / server building of someone else? It might be easier and cheaper to place your miners somewhere else than building and maintaining a whole climate system. (But yes, this might be risky).

Thanks for the above posts.  This is really what I was questioning.  We only have about 2 weeks a year with outside temps being 90F+ so I figured I could probably move enough airflow to keep things operating within range other than then.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if I strongly pull the exhaust out from the machines and building, a smaller space would work better than a larger space?

The machine I use as an at-a-glance reference for how things are handling heat reported about 8C lower on the hottest day we've had so far than it did on the less-hot-than-that hottest day I had before upgrading the exhaust about two weeks ago. I'm not sure if it matters how large or small the room is as long as you keep the hot side fairly well sealed from the ambient and have enough exhaust pressure to keep hot air leaking and mixing with ambient air to a minimum.

If you can't keep things sealed and ducted, I'd recommend a tall room with strong exhaust at the top.

We are on the same page there then.  If you would imagine a garden shed with a wall of miners cutting it in half and large exhaust fans pulling the air out at one end and vents at the other end to bring fresh air in.  Something like that on a larger scale.

Depends on location.  If you are lucky you live in a area evaporation cooling is possible.  If so it is much cheaper then regular AC.

I personally don't live in a great area for evaporation cooling so I use fan's to draw new air in and push old out.  Regular AC is just to expensive to use to cool miners with.

Agreed.  Same here too.  Way too much humidity during the summer months for swamp coolers.

Anyone know what kind of decibels your operations are creating outside the facility?  My other concern is the noise factor even though it's zoned industrial.

Are your concerns about the noise of your mining equiptment, the required fans or both?

I'm not sure where you live, but I think even in Industrial zones (in most countries) there are regulations about the maximum amount of decibel allowed. If so, I think you should already know about this regulations. Otherwise contact the municipality, or simply contact (loudy) neightbours in the Industrial zone that have to deal with the same regulations.

Depends highly on your location.   I am lucky and have my miners located in a area for regular crop farming.  There is just not a lot of regulations as far as noise and such. 

Go down the road a few miles into the town and there are tons of regulations.   So varies on where your located.   Very much a YMMV thing.

We're in an industrial zone and run 35K CFM fans and have never had a problem with a noise complaint. Mind you, we're next to an airport, so I guess that probably sets expectations well above the noise we make.

And we're far enough north we do not need evaporators or AC. Location, location, location.

Sounds like a great location for hosting many miners :).

Bgibso01, do you already know whether regulations apply for allowed noise limits in your area?
I know miners can make a horrible noise. So do big fans, but I don't think it is a really loud noise outside; how close is your location away from a neightbour / a public street etc?

This would be in an industrial park, so noise shouldn't be an issue.  Missouri just past some tax incentives for datacenters coming here or expanding and our industrial rate for DCs would be around $.0202/KWH.

Dude that's not even fair. Maybe I should look into getting a better rate for our setup since 80% of our power consumption is "data center" uses.

Someone mentioned you were in MO.  Where are you located?  I'm in CoMo.

Where in the show-me state is your data center?? 

Would you be interested in offering colo for our miners too??

Is that the electric company?  Wow did not know anywhere in MO had that kinda off savings.

Me neither. If I was running over 100KW service the rates would be about 6.5 cents and I thought that was pretty good for Missouri. Reckon he's up by the nuclear plant and probably government-subsidized to see numbers like that.

I've done a lot of research on global electrical rates and I believe he's mistaken. It does appear Missouri has pretty good industrial rates, and some tax incentives, but I couldn't find a rate in Mo under 4.5 cents/kwh USD, which given the strong American dollar, isn't attractive enough to build a large project.

But there's always a chance he found the loop hole. Either:

1) I've seen a few examples of "off the grid" private solutions where they find power, always seems to be a small to medium dam (sub 5MW), that was built to service a lumber mill, mine or other remote industrial facility. Except HaoBTC, who found a dam that was built for no good reason.

2) That, or, he found some crazy county that is selling power at a massive loss.

3) He's working in some sort of low cost government loan/grant into this and doesn't actually mean his bill from the power company will be 0.202/kWh.

He said "Missouri just past some tax incentives for datacenters coming here or expanding and our industrial rate for DCs would be around $.0202/kWh."

I found the bill with the tax incentives (passed and signed in April 2015). It exempts data centres from paying tax on electricity, but I didn't see any language in there that lowered rates. (Plus, from what I can tell as an outsider, it appears Missouri's electrical rates are not controlled by the state legislature.)

If anyone solves this mystery, let me know.

I just don't see it at that level.  Surrounding areas just make me suspect it's a possible someone read something wrong. 

I really hope I'm wrong and OP shows us where and how you can get this level.  But I just think final number will be around 3x or so what he said.

I agree. He's probably confused.