Bitcoin Forum

What would happen if the miners were in an environment below freezing point i.e. 32 degree Fahrenheit?

Should be just fine, what could be a problem is if the temperature (and humidity) suddenly rise and cause condensation.

Another possible problem I could think of is that water in the air passing thru the heatsinks could freeze at some point, and continue freezing until no more air can pass through the miner. I think it is possible even if the air is moving fast

That would only be a problem if the miner isn't mining but the fans are still running. The heatsinks get hot enough to almost boil water during regular operation.

Then why do some manufacturers put minimum working temperatures like -5 or -10? From your perspective, the miners could run even on -40. I do not think the heatsinks will get that hot under such extreme temperatures even if the mining process is on.

And possibly under such temperatures, only the board itself will retain heat, and heatsinks will be cold

well  at -100f you may be correct.

the minimum number is more due for startup then an other issue.

if I have a piece of gear in a 20f room  for a day  and it is fully 20f starting it is hard on the gear.

I suspect expansion and contracting would be far more extreme  in a 20 f room when ever gear is turned off or crashes it will contract  quite a bit more  then it would in a 65f room.

I ran gear in the winter exposed to 5f temps.  let me find a photo.  if the gear crashed I had to shut the door to let the gear get warm enough to start back up



door open in winter
https://i.imgur.com/ysryBV5.jpg

door closed
https://imgur.com/qcbgINt.jpg

Temps are not a problem if the machines are running. The problem is if a machine stops hashing for any reason and the boards end up ice cold. The processing chips will RAPIDLY heat up while the rest of the board might take a bit. This temperature inequality will cause damage.

The change in temp is not great I am under the impression of..  Like -30 air hitting 40 degree metal won't go well.

Ask me again in a few weeks...

Are you in Canada?  ;D

Yes Ottawa

Fanatic, as long as we first let the miner get back up to room temp before starting, do you think things will be fine? I guess I mean, would the thermal cycling alone (even if not started up) possibly cause thermal stresses and issues with the solder or other circuitry?

I also have an application that the miner will get very cold when they are shut down. I do plan on waiting until they are at least room temp before restarting them however.

You should be fine if you can warm the units up before starting. Just remember that it might take a while to passively heat the units up if they were offline for an extended period of time. The heatsinks will retain cold just like they do heat.

Great news. Yes I am putting 30 Antminers in a shipping container, sometimes it will have complete loss of power, so I have been very worried about possible thermal cycling killing the units.

Cheers :)

I have heard that the hash rate of the miner goes down in a cold environment. So I guess one of us will need to experience this practically to figure this out.

30 Antminers? Nice :)

Won't 30 units heat that container?

What is average temperature inside and outside container?

p.s.Loss of power sucks... how do you solve it with that container?

Yes they will heat the container when running, that's not the problem. When it shuts down the temp can be as cold as -40 deg C (live in Canada). I am just crossing my fingers that the S9's circuitry can survive that temp...

What about summer ? winter mining is trivial , its spring and summer than separates the men from the boys

If they stay in cold inactive they will not switch on later until you heat them. But if they are active and working I believe nothing can go wrong. So it is important to have electricity 24/7.

I am very interested how loud my asics will work in freezing cold. I will check this during winter.

I am in story as well, testing this winter in Winnipeg :D

lemmy reaqctivate my cryolab1

I'm only a couple hours away, I'm planning on moving my miners into the basement and running them to my furnace intake. I know they were loving the cold nights the past few weeks. I never did start them in freezing temperatures though.