Bitcoin Forum

I live in a apartment where I pay all utilities separately. Winter is coming and soon I will also have to pay for the heating. I was thinking to build some more mining rigs to reduce heating fees.
Main ideas is based on the fact that the profit from mining with the rig will be more then the heating cost! If it holds, it's should be great idea for all who live in cold winter region like me!

Any thoughts on this? Anybody planning the same or have done it already?

It's a reasonable idea except that once winter is over you will have expensive equipment sitting around earning nothing.

But at least for the winter, it's should be pretty good idea i guess!

But it won't pay for itself if you just run it in the winter (unless you have very long winters).

hmm,
living in canada and having to use heaters for about 7 month in a year it doesn't sound like a bad idea!

If you get a few R9 390's, you will have a hell of a space heater.

The uses of crypto are limitless haha  ;D .

Sounds like an interesting idea though, could be cost effective as well.

It's a very good idea. Haha let's make a coin called heater coin. Mine for heat and get coin. Miners as heaters is a good idea beit gives use to otherwise useless mining equipment. You could also mine new altcoins before the difficulty goes up and maybe stand to make a killing.

Mining at a loss is fine because you reducing tour electricity bill which you would otherwise have to pay 100% of but maybe mining you've the same hear and even 10% off is still worth it.

I have a single GPU and I don't have to warm my room in winter when the GPU is running with the windows closed in my bedroom.
And you can shift it to other utility room in summer to save your bedroom from heating.

I am thinking the same, even checked ant s9 but then I checked a youtube video and it sound like a jet engine !

He can always sell the miners on ebay in Spring and get some money back. Actually it's possible to make decent money this way.
I'm not doing it because It's difficult to heat up a large house with miners, I'd need a heat distribution system that would blow air to every room, but if OP has a small apartment it's totally doable. The only problem will be the noise.

This is possible.  Remember than even regular electric heaters are much more expensive than using natural gas heating. At least where I'm located. 

exactly. It will definitely cut down your heating fees but increase electric fee. However, the profit you get from mining will be more then the fees!

It is a good idea but how will you withstand the noise it makes. I think using earmuffs could help but you it cost you some money. I'm not opposing but how could you execute than plan of yours.

thats "Two birds with one stone" ;D

By no means a perfect solution:
If your mining rig is in a case or cabinet (that you are willing to mod) you could use duct hosing to pass the heat outside during the summer and muffle/baffle during the winter.

Smack an air filter and throw a wifi card/wireless bridge in there and you got a portable air purifying/heater.

Now all you need is to find a way to make it cool(darn thermodynamics) and you've got an air conditioner that pays the bills! :D

I've thought about this myself. Using my rig in my office instead of a space heater. haha
I'm sure it would help.

This is true. Maybe underclocking them would help. It will make less noise. I wonder if anyone else can think of a possible solution to that problem.

Lol great idea. Too if it gets too warm u might affect the performance of the chips you are using.

It reminds me of a program where police used to find pot growers using infrared cams to detect the plant warmers within buildings.

I actually did this a few years ago when bitcoin spiked in late 2013. I bought 50 x 290x video cards. Had a semi truck show up delivering pallets of goodies. I had over 100 AMPs of power draw all winter long. The boiler never kicked on. I spaced them around the house and kept them out of the bedrooms enough to not be overly loud and I still had to open windows since it was too warm otherwise.   I had to put a few machines other than the house as I ran out of breaker space.   Once the weather got nicer I sold most things on ebay and craiglist for what I paid for.  I primarily mined MAX as that was rather profitable, changing it up when other coins were worth mining.  I came out money ahead so it was a nice experiment but after that winter alt - ASICs were hitting so it wasn't worth doing any longer.

The whole winter I half expected cops to knock on the door because of the spike in electrical use and the non-standard heat making it look like a grow house!

I have a mining rig in my house in germany right now. Well it is Summer but its getting realy hot. I can imagine, that i dont have to turn my heater on in winter that often as usual. BUT, it is very noisy :/ cant sleep with it.

nice idea and with your experience its giving me something inside my mind of trying it but still needed to consider my budget and how can I find profitable coin to mine as its just for a season and I don't know if that will work but seriously I got some good inspiration just in case I do find some budget for starting this set up.

I dust off all my obsolete miners in the winter and run them for heat.  I'm in an average size house and I scatter them around the house but never in the rooms I'm in while I'm in there.   I keep them in the hallways or the next room over so the noise is background level only. I never have turned on my homes heating system and am unsure if it even works because I didn't bother to test it when I bought the place because I didn't think I'd ever have to use it.

Good idea. Bad for me cause my country is hot.

i've done it already: a good way to save money. but in summer there is a problem with the removal of excess heat.

Underclocking to start.  Also, depending on how committed to the project someone is, can opt for liquid cooling or larger fans on the graphics cards.  If the mining  rigs are fairly compact you can create an enclosure to help with nose reduction but make damn sure you have excellent airflow in and out.

I have my miners in a separate room, in the summer I close the room off and open a window with a fan in it.  In the winter I'll open the door and let the heat circulate. 

Good idea if it works. You did a comparison between mining rigs and heaters electricity consumption?

You can't compare them as they are doing different task.
In heater we know how much we need. In case of miners, you'd want to keep how much you afford.
And miner pays for themselves while heater are just consumption.

only problem i see is noise, and you get lots of it!

I love that idea, its like killing two birds with one stone, but I feel that the idea has flaw, does the electricty for mining is lower than heater, remember your cpu might also damage while mining and I think heater is safer to use, but I cant be sure because I never used heater, I live in tropical island

My s5 worked beautifully as a heater for the house! I’ve sold it recently and waiting on delivery for new Avalon 741, and the wife is complaining that she can’t get the clothes dry anymore without it!

Even on the heating front, I figure that saves on the gas/electricity costs that would usually be spent on heating the house. I live in the north of the uk so heating is needed at least 50% of the year. Electricity cost is higher per kWh, but I’m mining bitcoins for the log run

Kind reminder: The noise is really unbearable. Try to run a Vacuum cleaner 24hrs and you will get what I mean.

Is it really that hot when they mine?

Do you really think that mining rigs will keep you warm instead of burn itself ?

Ya that's a great idea there are mining farms in places that are cold that do as well, but having that as a personal heater in the winter would be neat. Too bad it's not profitable anymore!

awesome!  just need a mining rig that runs on natural gas, haha!

so for the winter, keep them in your bedroom.  once it gets to end of spring, just move them to the attic or somewhere else to get rid of the excess heat!