Bitcoin Forum

Hi all

We're almost in October, and as the seasons change and it starts to get cold I'm wondering what would be the best way to heat my home cheaply.  Electricity and gas are both very expensive where I am, but I was thinking that GPU mining with some old 5850s I have lying around could heat a room at a cheaper cost than gas heating (taking into account the return from selling the mined coins).  I ran some numbers, and it turns out there's not that much of a difference between using mining for heating vs traditional heating in costs, but traditional heating probably does a better job of keeping a room warm.

So I was wondering if there are other solutions that produce a lot of heat energy, but without using much electricity.  Would Block Erupters be a good buy to fulfill that purpose?  Does anyone have any good suggestions for what might work well for this purpose?

Many thanks

i have heard this is great for miners in cold climates, no experience, though. always been jealous of those Canucks!  :D

But any idea which is the best mining hardware to use for the best 'lowest-electricity-usage vs highest-heat-generation' need?

Block Erupters?  ASICs?  GPUs?  If so, which GPUs?  I hear the HD 7750s use very little electricity, but not sure whether they put out much heat either?

You should use traditional heating, it is designed for it.
And if your mining rig is over heating, or after a few months, it could just broke up. It is not designed to heat a room at all, and needs to be cooled down

Your miners will deliver a large amount of heat in a very small space, which the opposite of what you would want to heat a house.

True.  How about if you put a small fan on them blowing outwards, then in theory it would help spread the heat around the room?

yes they will heat your house if you have enough of them  no card will produce more heat than the electric it uses I would sugest that tou mine altcoins as you will make more money back :) 

I think heaters are more efficient at heating than miners...

Block eruptors aren't good idea for heating. You have to buy Tahiti LE GPU (7870XT). But remember, there is no way to read below the   physical laws. More heat - more power consumption!

Why pick that GPU? Does it heat the most?

Yes, it is for sure.
I never heard about this crazy idea.


And I don't think that anyone is using a mining rig to heat a house :D

What about the poisonous gases which are generated as a result of mining?

poisonous gases from what? hot metal/plastic?

 Last winter my area of the world reached lows of -28/-33 with daytime highs of 0.

I have two coal/wood stoves and gas heating.  Trick to saveing is to plan in advance I'd you can. Out here one can cut wood/gather dead fall for a year paying the BLM $25 for a permit.

Two truck loads of wood and one truckload of coal

Rough numbers
---------
Fule for the truck -$60
Coal - $75
Wood Permit - $25

The end result was a toasty warm casa and a happy family.  Now you must realize as well I do mine crypto so throwing a rig in a common room helped in those late hours when I would fail to automaticly wake up and stoke the fires. They atleast took the edge off. 

If you do this close the door to the room (common sense). Trap that heat and enjoy.

Mining does not generate any bad gas ...

i have heard of this and i think it is awesome!!! unfortunately i don't know anything about mining rigs, so i can't help you there, LOL. but good luck!! i wish i lived somewhere where i could offset my mining costs like that!!

No. Mining doesn't. However, the computer you are running releases Co2. Depending on the energy consumption.


But, it doesn't seem to be harming anyone thus far (short term). Let's say 0.2KW and 500g/KWh, we can very roughly estimate 100g of CO2 produced per hour of computer usage.

Thank you :)

But usually, we aren't THAT cold in some places.
I don't know much about mining - but I DO know that they can break - so not exactly reliable heating - and wouldn't they produce radiation?

Funny, you have some experimental biological computer then  :)

But high voltage may create bit of O3, which react extremly well with any biological material we are made of

crazy, never would have thought this! awesome idea!! i have to look into mining now, hehe.

Too funny!!!  ;D ;D ;D

heat is so expensive in my current place, and now that we are heading into fall i need to start thinking about this. thanks for the heads up!!!

it probably will damage your hardware if it is too hot, and heaters may be more efficient.