Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys,

I am a total electricity noob. I know a bit, but could use some help.

I bought 12 HashFast Babyjets, that use 350 Watts each. (4.2Kw/hr total)

I wanted to know if it was possible to pull that much electricity out of 2 wall outlets (2 with 2 ports each).

Right now, the breaker trips at ~1400 Watts. (15A breaker)

I have 3 locations I can host these at, but would prefer them to be all in my room.

I know I am going to have to upgrade the breaker (calling electrician tomorrow), but is this possible? Is there a limit?
Would anything have to be done to the wiring?
Would this cause any problems throughout the house?

Thanks!

Your going to be limited to 200A is most residential breaker boxes, with 15A normal breakers plus water heater furnace etc.

Your going to have alot of trouble running that from one location power wise, let alone heat and noise.

Thanks for the reply. But is it possible? Considering I pay an electrician to upgrade the breaker.

By room, do you mean you intend to sleep in there?

(sorry for first reply - I misread)

Your biggest issue will probably be that the physical lines carrying electricity to the ASICs aren't rated for 25A+ each, which'd probably require a good chunk of change to replace. Especially because you're running them 24/7, anything which may disallow the line from adequately dissipating heat could be dangerous.

You'll probably need extension cords to split the load up among four different lines.

Yes. I managed last winter with 4 watercooled 7970s (1250 watts). Even with those running, room was still cold. My room used to be a garage, gets cold. I will find another location for these in the summer. But for now, yes, my room.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

Also this.

I ran special 20a lines per outlet specifically for the 1300+w loads.... It's just not safe unless done properly, and that is very expensive to do residentially. Extension cords carrying that load will also get very very warm... Not a very long term solution.

Gocha. I have 5 wall outlets (plus 1 in the bathroom, in my room), each of course with 2 sockets each.

So if I'm getting this right, I can save on just getting an electrician to upgrade the breaker, then split the power between the lines?

Instead of splitting the load on 2 lines that would have to be upgraded.

First, Watt (W) is a measurment of power and Watts x hours Wh (or kWh) is a measurment of energy.

1 Watt = 1 Joule/second

kW/h is meaningless.

Now that we have that out of the way.

350 W x 12 = 4,200 Watts which is in deed 4.2 kW, the amount of power you need.  If you run this system for one hour you will use 4.2 kWh of energy.  At say $0.12 per kWh this would cost you 4.2 x $0.12, about $0.50 per hour to run.

Assuming 120 Volt outlet x 15 Amps give you about 1800 Watts.

Unil it became totally unprofitable I ran my 1800 Watt mining rig off of one 20 amp breaker and it worked just fine.

4.2 kW / 120 Volts about 35 Amps so two 20 amp breakers should do the trick.

But you might want to break your units into three groups of 4 and run each group of 4 units on a separate 20 amp breaker.

You could even use four 15 amp circuits if you want to just use the outlets you have.  Just use 4 groups of 3 units each.  You have to make sure that each group of units is on a different circuit and different circuit breaker.

3 units x 350 W = 1050 W / 120 V = 8.75 A = small enough to work on a 15 amp circuit

Well - that assumes every outlet is actually on a unique line, which often isn't the case. How many outlets are supported by one line is generally determined by building code, which means it's usually determined by when the house was built. Best (tedious) way to check is to just flip breakers on and off until you figure out exactly which lines support which outlets.

Thanks for the input, guys.

We build the re-molded the house last year. Put new wiring. I'm gonna go in the attic and check which kind it is..

I now see I took too long to answer...

2.5 mm cables are rated at 20a @ 110v thats 2200w @ 220 is 4400w, check the cable diameter to see how much you can load it and change the breaker accordingly. If you have 220 the it will suffice with 1 line, at a bulb and the breaker will jump. You will have to see what else is connected to the lines and plan accordingly...

You can also draw 220 from the breakers if you add another one to hook them up in series, that way you can save in cable supplying a 4400w line instead of 2 2200 and probably the psu will be able to handle both voltages. Just remember regular sockets are rated at 10a, so you will need to put 20a sockets, like the ones the air conditioner uses...

I would put them near the breaker because cable is expensive and miners are noisy though, also if heats get crazy you may suffer a stroke and brain damage:

http://www.zdnet.com/a-minor-bitcoin-miner-injury-4010023013/

???

You just need to look in the breaker box and like Kluge said figure out which breakers go to which outlets.  I don't think you need to go into the attic to do that.

1 breaker goes to all the outlets in my room. Just checked. :o

That is normal and expected.

Just have a dedicated line run from your panel to wherever, preferably somewhere where the noise isn't going to be a health issue.

Actually explain what you want to do, emphasize 24/7 and don't cheap out. Electrical fires are terrifying.

So I had another product in mind, did you just buy 70 grand of hardware sight unseen without considering where you'd plug it in?

Jesus fucking christ.

Just have them hosted.

Here is another thing to think about:

Imagine running a standard hair dryer in your room, full blast, on the highest setting of 1400 Watts.  Leave this hair dryer on all the time 24 hours a day 7 days a week in your room.

Now turn on three of them and run all three of them all the time, in your room...

Pretty toasy eh?

This.... I almost got a dedicated facility for my personal miner then decided to branch into hosting.

Okay. Does this seem better:

4 rooms, 3 rigs each, 3 houses total (1 Breaker in each house, of course).

NO! Just fucking host them!

http://www.phrases.org.uk/images/my-cup-of-tea.jpg

Here is some tea

Have you ever been in a server room? The step is quite steep versus watercooled stuff.

If you split it up like that I don't see an immediate problem... Bit did you get MPP? If so your power usage will go up when you upgrade.

I worked at HP for a year, server tech. Server rooms the size of football fields. lol. What do you mean the step is quite steep?


I am in batch 1, so yes.

A watercooled computer is more or less silent. 12x 4U boxes are nothing near silent.

Don't fuck up your ears is all I'm saying.

Yeah my 4x 7970s were water cooled. Loved it. Just low speed fans.

Can someone tell me the the phrase to search to find places to host physical rigs? I forgot what it was called.

I can help you out with hosting, check the link in my sig.

Do you need 4.2 kW or 8 kW like it says in the title?

4.2 kW is easy, that's less than an electric oven or an air conditioner.  You just need to get an electrician to run 240V @ 40 A.  You can do 50A if you want 8 kW.

If you have anything else electric (dryer, oven, AC) you'll probably need 200A service.

Jeesh, I had enough problems with heat running 4xGPUs.  Small, timber frame, very well insulated house.  The 4 GPUs were raising the temp of the back bedroom by 5C compared to the rest of the house.  The noise was shocking too, and the GPUs were in quiet cases (Fractal Design Define XL). 

Even in the winter, that room had the radiator turned off and the window open, and it was still too warm.

Those things would be best run in a garage or a shed in the garden.  Not in your house.

It all depends on the socket wire diameter and the ampere of it. A heavy duty socket can go up to 10kwh.

The wiring behind the socket is massively more important.

If you're thinking of having an electrician come in, have them install a 220V line with a 30A breaker. That should handle the majority of your load, and be a little more efficient at the same time.

Like fingernails on a chalkboard to an EE.

"the ampere of it"  Arrrggghhhhhhh!  Ouch.

kWh = units of energy

kW = units of power

I am actually referring to that. The wiring diameter. Calculator here http://www.csgnetwork.com/wiresizecalc.html

It's a disposable socket.  Change after every 10 kWh.

You need to map out the breakers in the house.

1. Go to circuit breaker box, turn ALL the breakers off except the main one.
2. Number the breakers.  One two three four etc.
3. Turn on ONE breaker.  Go through the entire house with a small light or something, plug it into every outlet, and see which outlets have power.  Leave all light switches on so you can see which lights are on which breakers.
4. Write on the wall cover plates of each power outlet which breaker number feeds them.
5. Repeat until every breaker is mapped out.
6. Then, AND ONLY THEN will you be able to split the load properly and safely.

If you don't do this, YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!

Be sure to know what your doing, you don't wanna burn something.

Wow this was all informative and also humbling for 1 the amount of combined knowledge on these forums and 2 that a guy that seems to only have 1 room in a house can afford that many asics and I can't...lol.

If you want to see raw mathematical knowlege check out, read and try to follow this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=289795.0

It is one of my favorites of all time and really does show the level of crypto knowlege that we have here in the Bitcoin community.

*yawn*
X Kw in any room is possible with proper wiring, upgrading your breakers at the panel won't let you run 8kw from those miners all on one line however. lets work it backwards from your existing setup
you have 8kw worth of mining equipment, you need  ~67AMPS available to you, without having one of these to check it's inrush current i'm going to say you actually need 80 insted. if your house is wired with 12gauge wire(as opposed to 14, how cheap was your electrician) you could use 4 20 amp breakers. Assuming your electrican used 15 amp outlets you'll need to replace them as well, then it's just 3/line(so 2 lines per outlet)

or as mentioned instead of rewiring a room and running 80/200 amps residential get them hosted

The cost of the electrician alone, atleast based on local numbers here, would be greater than 2 months of hosting for them.

The cost decision is up to him, myself? I'd do the wiring(as opposed to an electrician), but I know the difference between 12 and 14 gauge wire but considering what copper wire costs on it's own some days(yay shitty economy and commodities market) plus the cost of electricity and cooling(yes you'd probably want a window AC unit to cool that room so add another line just for that) hosting does certainly look attractive

Since you are asking this question, I suggest asking a electrician to check your house for you.

Not if you run at 240, see my post above.