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Hello,

It has quickly become clear that running a bunch of Antminers in my house is not going to work. Beside the amount of heat and noise they give off, I do not have enough power/circuits to run a meaningful amount.

I currently has a small shed attached to the back of my house near the back door. It is sitting on a cement slab, but only using a little of the slab. I have always wanted to tear it down and use the whole slab and make it larger. So I am going to make it bigger. Shed will be roughly 7x9 feet. And if/when I am ever done mining, I will now have a more usable shed for other things.

I also have a spa which has 60a 220v run to it in a sub box. I dont really use the spa much anymore (tired of maintaining it and waiting for it to warm up), so I am going to use that power for the shed. I will break it down into 2x 30a 220v circuits, get PDUs, and run the Antminers off those until I need more power. I should be able to run 12 ants per circuit safely.

I plan on cooling the shed using something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Conditioner-Dehumidification-Ventilation-Installation/dp/B0095V0OYM/. A split a/c system. In the summers here it gets 100+ degrees so it will be necessary. During the winter and fall, it doesnt get hot. But the antminers give out a lot of heat. So for those time I was thinking about having a built in fan, maybe 2. One to suck in cold air and another to draw the hot air out.

So, given the desire to have a few ventilation fans and an a/c system, how do you suppose I should lay this out? I know hot air rises, so I probably want to put the vent out fan towards the top of the shed? Put the a/c vent near the floor?

Any other suggestions or things I should thing about?

For ventilation at the top, maybe something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ventamatic-1300-CFM-Power-Attic-Ventilator-Gable-Mount-CX1500UPS/202913798

Now if the A/C and a ventilation fan were running at the same time, would the cold air be sucked out too quickly to do any good? Should the AC be run by itself on hot days?

Hot air rises so extractor fan opening at the top rear, cold air intake at the bottom front.
Sheds get hot in the summer so you might want to make it windowless, or paint it white/silver, or position it in the shadow of another building, to stop solar radiation getting in. You shouldn't need to waste electricity on air conditioning unless you live in a desert.

I live in Texas lol... it stays 100+ degrees for 60-100 days of the year. But see this picture? Where the small shed is where the new one will go:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-H2kRrcTRgDk/UyoabChe4RI/AAAAAAAALdI/tVCbtKQXP1w/w1461-h822-no/CAM00349.jpg

okay you have a  car port.

low to the ground on the side of the shed that faces the carport have an intake vent.

high facing the rain barrel do the outake fan.



consider  having a white or light color netting for the summer. stretch it from the carport over the new shed to cast shade.   low cost item we used them in the desert and on Diego Garcia when I was in the Navy.

I have a garage not a car port. But the garage gets super hot and would be too difficult to keep cooler and run more electricity to.

sorry read my post again I thought that roof on the other side of the fence near the old shed was a carport

Covered patio/back porch :)

yeah my bad .  but you should be able to do a nice setup .  here is a link for heat sinks . the Chinese seller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cooling-kit-72pcs-For-Bitcoin-Miner-Antminer-ASIC-180GH-s-DIY-Aluminum-Heatsink-/121278456585?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3cc26309
 and the american seller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Kits-Heatsinks-for-Cooling-USB-ASIC-MINER-Block-Erupter-Bitcoin-Heat-sink-/301104638522?ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME%3AX%3AAAQ%3AUS%3A1123&item=301104638522&nma=true&si=Paiv8iBFyVEPiajPwWcu1SCRzbE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I purchased  from the usa guy
with all the fans on the ant miners pointed at the cover back porch they will blow air at the rain barrel .   so A high vent should help. let me read the link on the ac unit. that you posted.

put the ac unit high on the same side as the intake vent.  i.e. the side of the covered porch.

when it runs that air will fall down on the fans of the ant miners. and the ant miner fans will lift air from the low intake vent.

my guess is a timer could be helpful as you may be able to use the intake vent alone in the summer from 3am - 7am.

Yeah rain barrel is going to go. Im going to use that whole slab to build a bigger shed.

I actually picked up an 8000 BTU portable AC unit that draws lower watts than the one I linked for $79 from Sears Outlet. I think *IF* I need ac I will use that.

On those heatsinks, how much do they help?

 testing as I type.  on my 2 over clocked units I placed 48 heat sinks.  i did the last 3 rows of 4 that is 12 on each card 2 ants = 4 cards.
  temps dropped 1 degree and the auto fan dropped from 3280 to 3060  on one unit and on the other temps dropped 3 degrees with the fan dropping from 2780 to 2580.

I have a pulling fan also.  I will photo. give me 5 minutes

2 over clocked one to 393 second to 400 stock is 350


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1280x1024q90/31/kwme.jpg

all 4 units bottom 2 are over clocked

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1280x1024q90/20/ioyb.jpg

Rather than go through all that extra trouble and cost I would rather just buy an additional ant especially if you are running a larger amount like 10+. Waste of $ imo.

heatsinks on 3 rows

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1280x1024q90/20/ac73.jpg

Are you talking in regards to the heatsinks and fans?

well the op is going to struggle to run this gear in the texas summer.

I would argue he should buy a s-2  and not get a lot of s-1's.

but putting out 4k for the s-2 is not easy to do.  op what is your power cost?
 

I'm OP. I plan on getting some S2s. But the problem still is going to be limited power inside the house. Either way I wanted to build a bigger shed. Not its just running power as an extra cost. Plus I will be housing a friend's collection of miners and he is paying half construction costs.

pull the heat from the antminers from the back of the unit and blow it out of the shed.  

https://i.imgur.com/7jsTN6e.jpg    Powered by 4" inline fan by Ventech  https://i.imgur.com/CQXM4Au.jpg?1                https://i.imgur.com/VpDLlDj.jpg

Nice! I like that! I will go price out what that will cost. How well does that work? How much power does that inline fan take?

Can you post bigger pictures somewhere? Like a link?

https://i.imgur.com/yOqJpDX.jpg                     https://i.imgur.com/CQXM4Au.jpg?2


It's 6 Antminers stacked on its side(ethernet port on the outside) and lashed together with zip-ties that came with the psu; the small holes at the tips of the frame are what I lashed together.  The vent at the back of the unit consists of vent scoop, reducer, and a 90 degree elbow.  The fan is a 4" inline duct fan by Ventech I bought on Amazon for $60 and it blows the heat out the dryer vent pipe in my apartment.  The tubing is a 4" semi-rigid aluminum dryer hose.  Everything is held together with metallic duct tape.  I got everything but the duct fan at Home Depot in the same aisle.  I previously had the vent placed at the top of the room but found that it is MUCH more efficient at removing heat when placed behind the unit.  Don't buy a cheap duct fan, the more powerful, the better.  You can improve the design by having a bigger scoop behind the antminers; big as the entire miner rig.  I just worked with the biggest scoop I could find at Home Depot.       After installing the improved system, heat in the mining room is very manageable.  Don't go cheap on the inline duct fan!

   I only wish I had the spare coin for a couple of S1's but if I did...I would be thinking of going to the automotive junkyard and buy two radiator fan shrouds from the same kind of cars like a pair of pick ups or SUV's that came from the factory with electric fans. The nice thing about auto fans is that most are reversible so you can easily have one shroud pull in while the other pulls out. SUV's and pickups usually have 21"+ size rads so you would have plenty of room. Then I would buy a sheet of aluminized foam board from home depot. Cut the foam to fit the shrouds and tape with the metal tape. You could even trick it out with a household a/c vent filter on the intake side and use household size A/C round flex vent tubing to direct the output directly to an attic vent. You can buy auto fans in a range of cfm's for most sizes and even look for lower amp units if you want.

Mining isn't all that it's cracked up to be...  I spent over 7btcs on equipment and supplies and the rig is quite noisy.  It's almost like picking up a part time job because of the extra stress and concern that I have due to the miners; and I'm only going to profit about $800 at the end of 3 months time of continuous run.  I have no idea how long it will stay profitable.  I have learned a lot about electricity and its components from it so I guess it's a good learning experience.  Hopefully, I at least make my money back.

Hah! Good point...I am not stressed but I find it fun. But it has helped me learn a lot about electricity :)

I bought one of those cheap 4x6 feet sheds on ebay. Used a day to build it and another one with silicone to make it water tight. I live in scotland atm with teps at max 20C. In the shed atm i have one ant for testing and its over clocked with only stock fan, it runs at 35-38C. If this works out well i will get another 7 ants up in there with a small aircon unit. I have been thinking if they can be overclocked more than the 205th/s??  I can install 2 push pull deltas :)
Good luck with your shed,
JT

Think carefully about fire safety.

If something catches fire in the shed, what else is combustible nearby?  How will you discover the fire?  Will it be when your house starts burning too, and your smoke detectors activate?

I would consider a simple sprinkler system.

Good point. Im going to call my home warranty and see if a fire would be covered. I might also put a Nest Smoke Detector in there which will send me alerts if any smoke is detected. Not sure if they make easy to install one room sprinkler systems. I cant find any at least.

If you have Nest or any smart smoke detector , you can built your own sprinkler...

Its very easy using RPi, Nest and 1 valve actuator.

Oh? Do share how!

No, please don't. Water and miners do not mix.

I recommended a couple of Brooks smoke detectors (wireless linked) one for shed the other in house.

You could mod this to shut off the supply or operate an Halon fire suppressant but sprinkler? I suggest not.  

Edit : small thought experiment

Metal Shed (or other with wet floor) + Electricity + Water + Mad nerd trying to save $$$ of miners on hearing Smoke detector

Shocking

Whats shocking is that you dont know what you're talking about.

Goodluck with your solution when you're not at home.

 :D Really

You best make sure that shed is bonded to earth and has an Residual Current Device on its supply  ;)

It will not be metal. I twill be cement board which doesnt burn. It will also be pretty water tight- about as tight as you can get. I have another shed on the opposite side of my yard that was custom build that doesn't leak a tad. I think it will be alright.

I found my stash of fans and a variac (speed controller)


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=537431.msg5919196#msg5919196

Looks pretty good! I think I am going to go with inline for sucking hot air through ducts and out the building

No worries, my comments where more in respect of those suggesting putting in a wet sprinkler system not the shed itself. I would recommend a co2 extinguisher by the door though.

Absolutely will :)


soo... Fire extinguisher, Nest Smoke Detector, remotely operated light switch and IP cmera to look and see inside if I get alerts. Should be good to go.

+100
I have little experience with the nest smokies so can't vouch for them (I have been installing smokies for over 10 years and no-one has ever asked for them) however am sure there good, all good quality mains smoke detectors have an option to interlink to each other with an extra wire ( so you can have one in the house that will activate at the same time) There are also some battery models that have a wireless radio link to each other. Like this http://www.sdfirealarms.co.uk/fire-protection/radio-wireless-fire-alarms/battery-only-radiolink-alarms/ei3105rf-radiolink-wireless-optical-9v-smoke-alarm.html (http://www.sdfirealarms.co.uk/fire-protection/radio-wireless-fire-alarms/battery-only-radiolink-alarms/ei3105rf-radiolink-wireless-optical-9v-smoke-alarm.html), wired link is obviously better but not always practical.

The nest will actually link to each other using the same wifi network I believe. I have another in the house by my bedroom. So with the phone alerts and link to that one I should be good. Im mostly worried about when I am out of the house.

If you already have nest in the house then yes, defiantly stick with them.

If your really paranoid ( no offense meant, I myself have turned mining gear off whilst away for a weekend) there are a few options.

If the nest has an auxiliary output you could switch a contactor with it ( if it activates your miners are shut down ) without electricity you will limit the damage.

If you really want some form of suppressant perhaps a large bottle of co2 ( ask in your local pub, they have bottles out the back ;) ) and a gas valve coupled with shutting off the electricity may do the trick.

something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFam1v4f1rA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFam1v4f1rA)