Bitcoin Forum

Hi,
Woke up this morning to the fire alarm and couldn't understand what it was :/
When i then walked downstairs to my miners black smoke came out from the door.
Lost ~15 BTC worth of mining hardware and have to restore the room again.
Those cubes are not safe at all !!! the funny thing is that the fuses and case is all that survived!
Luckily my last antminer hasn't arrived yet!!
so back to the old days without any mining equipment.
Probably will quit mining after this experience or move it outside in a box.
The funny thing is i just got new hardware and its all gone :(
Just wanted to share my story to warn people that mining is not the safest thing to do in your basement!!
Make sure that you have your cables managed  and proper cooling!!! I personally thought that i had done a good job at this, however was proven wrong today.
Time to move on!! was kind of lucky im going on holiday in a few days and had planed to let them run!!
If you feel generous and want to help me build it up again:

Thanks,
JT

(mod note: removed bitcoin address, no begging)



EDIT:
This threat has become a place of sharing your experience on  how to prevent accidents like fire.
Fell free to share your experiences with all of us !
Thanks,
JT

I never heard of such case!
What mining hardware are you exactly using???

1 rig with 4 giga 280x
1 rig with 4 asus 280x 
5 antminers running 205ghs
10 cubes
server 32gb ram quad cpu xeon
costume psus, ups systems, 24 port gigabit switch

now everything is in the trash!!!
could save some cube blades and a single cube!!!
have to test them thought!!

what unit caused the fire? I just ordered myself an antminer

not the antminer only the asic cubes can post a pic of it later

Pics, or it did not happen !

Man, so sad to hear that has happened to you. I didn't even know it is possible to have fire while mining coins

Wow that sucks..But thank God you are ok and the rest of your house hasn't burned down.
Could you post some pictures of the damage?

maybe your power lines were not up to the task?

only have a pic of the sucre of the fire.
Everything else in in the bin and could save some stuff one cube 6 blade out of different machines if anyone wants them pm me!!
The pic of the asic cube that started the fire i think:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vb5ck6dovusesmp/2014-03-16%2010.35.21.jpg

As you can see on the pic the fire was caused by the asic cube shorting the wires and they overheated and started the fire!
Sorry for not taking more pics.

Kinda offtopic here, but why is there a usb port on that psu? For monitoring purposes?

Can I take a wild guess????

You had them all on an extension cable right?

No i had them on different cables.
For safety reasons i have just bought a cheap shed on ebay to host my future miners as i got a little scared for fires.

It sounds like an overload to me (but I could be wrong).

Thats what i thought too!! however it had been running for a week since the new miners came in. So how can it overload like that??

How did you put it out? Water?
The fire was in a state which would have caused your house to burn down if you weren't there to intervene, did I get that right? Really sorry to hear that, that's something I'm afraid of all the time. And one of the reasons I won't go big with mining..

i was mining ltc on 2 7950s and 2 7970s and one night i charged my phone in the plug next to my bed instead of the pc and it was very warm..... went out the the rig and it was on the same circuit and that plug was very warm as well. sold 2 of the cards so far.... not worth it and i do not know much about the wiring other than it prolly hasnt been updated in a long long time. i watch over the little gear i have like a new born baby because i cant afford new anything if my place went up in smoke and jusrt for piece of mind.

another time something didnt seem right on that set up and it seemed i was maxing out the psu because the cards werent acting right... 5 min later i had a faint electrical smell, not burning just the real hot smell. ran out to the living room and touched the psus and one was soooo damn hot if i didnt check it it prolly would have started a fire that night.

That's why it's very important to use high quality a-brand PSU's and not let them run 24/7 at 80%+ load.

Yeah thats right!! I was so happy that i had put up smoke detectors in that room!! or i wouldn't have noticed. used powder fire extinguisher  to get it out!!  



For the PSU thing you might have had a cheap one or it was overloaded!! have never heard before that the plugs in the wall get hot :/ that must be dangerous !!!

seasonic, corsair.... ect. i figured 2 7950s not being pushed would be fine on 750 watts. psu must have been a little older than i thought or had an issue. the 2 7970s and system was running on a 1000 watter.

i live in a trailer.... not by choice...... kinda got fucked over and lost all my money but its like a 1960 model and im sure the wiring hasnt been ever touched other than a screw fuse box that was put in years ago to upgrade from the cardboard tube type fuse.

How do you guys feel about opening a new thread for collecting fire countermeasures? I am sure
this is of interest to many. I imagine almost everyone says "So, let's hope nothing bad happens"
when leaving a newly prepared multi-KW setup unattended for the first night.
Also, I saw people making observations in different places (e. g. powered
vs unpowered risers etc), so why not collect them?

Of course, I have a sticky mega-thread in mind with listed incidents, postmortems, general advice etc
:D But it would be already nice to collect some thoughts under a thread name that can be
found easily by those interested..

Yeah this would be fantastic!! however have no hardware to test with anymore :/

Yeah.. I can understand that you're sad about the equipment. But you should really consider
yourself lucky that you weren't on vacation yet, that you had installed a smoke
detector and that you had a fire extinguisher ready. :)

I don't know if it's possible to change the thread name afterwards.. What do you
think about "Avoiding fire: Sources of risk and how to keep your mining operations safer"?

Damn, that's a miner's worst nightmare...  Sorry to hear about your loss :(

I know !!!! the only way it could have been worse would have been if the whole house would have burned down!!!
This just means a  fresh start in the mining world (More or less) now waiting for my shed i ordered on ebay today for the new stuff (not going to risk it again)!!!
Thanks for your support man!!!

 

At least you are safe, your house is still there and you still have your coins. It could be worse, a lot worse.

What is an "asic cube"? Was it the power supply that was at fault?

Asic cube = Miner
Was a Dell server psu However that was not the one that was the fault

i also have fire.but i be lucky because i be in room whit rig
.
i bay from ebay cheap 6-Pin 8-pin PCI Express Power Adapter Cable at this cabel adapter starting fire.
now i bay orginal seasonc cabel and adapter http://www.seasonicusa.com/accessories.htm

I see you changed the name of the thread, jeppe. So do you want to make your
thread into a collection of incidents and tips? I just ask because I was about to
open another thread, and we don't need two of them^^

dmeter: Was the diameter of the cables of the adapter not sufficient? Do you know how many
watts the card was likely to be pulling through your adapter? I always buy the cheapest
adapters from ebay, maybe I should stop that..

This person has been scamming this board for a long time coming up with different stories every time you know what give you away asking for help that is a dead ringer for a scammer. The thing is this when someone wants a dollar they tell them why they need a dollar when a person could use a dollar they hope someone would give them a dollar without asking.

Yeah, I got that. But who makes the "asic cube"? Is it product from BFL, Avalon, KnC, etc ?

Asicminer, The same company who makes the small 333mh/s USBs and the 10-12gh/ blade systems

Ah ok

Those wires looks really thin.

Honestly, this looks more like a wiring problem than a cube problem.

Yeah, that would actually be a great idea.  I'd be really interested in reading/following a thread like that.

I have a question somewhat related to this topic for tips on how to stay prepared for the worst case scenario.  Does anyone have recommendations for miners or me (who mine at their house) to insure their equipment for a worst case scenario (theft, fire, flood, etc)?

I called my insurance company regarding what is covered and was told that my current policy only covers $5k total for electrical goods in the house.  Even before mining I was in excess of that amount due to TVs, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc.  I asked for information regarding how to insure my ‘custom computers’ and was told that I needed a ‘personal article rider’ for each computer.  For everyone who may be curious, I have State Farm insurance and was quoted a price of $2.2 for every $100 for the ‘personal article rider’.  At this time I do not have the policy as I have been trying to figure out of there is a better alternative and am looking for whatever advice can be given.

Ive had PSU cables melt, and boards and cards blow out and a fury of smoke.

Its definitely an issue. You need to have smoke detectors, preferably the kind that email/text you if you are away from home.

Also, a fire extinguisher. Those things can save your miners, your house, or people lives.

some of the first KNC miners had burn/smoke problems.  

its probably a good idea to keep the miners away from combustibles in case they do catch fire.  I've seen the USB miners on ceramic plates :)

So, I have noticed that both the ASICMINER Cubes and the KNC Jupiter asic miners pull a lot (>30) of amps over the PCI-E connectors.  The wiring gauge for that amount of amps is 10 gauge wire as a minimum, but the cables are often short so the gauge should probably be even higher. I've been noticing lately that the power supply manufacturers are using small gauge "flat wire" connectors from the power supply to the PCI-E conenctors. I have noticed that the PCI-E cables for these kinds of miners can be warm. The danger here is that the insulation melts, the connectors short and then either catches fire or causes the PS to catch on fire. 

A miner consuming over 2kw is always a fire risk. Try one those cute mini miners next time

ah man this really sucks. Good thing you lived to tell the tale though..
Anyone else got in danger?

much wow

Let's talk about preventative measures.  I have 6 Antminers of my own in my apartment and I am always checking their temperature.  I think the general consensus seems to be to keep the miners 50 degree celsius or below.  Also, use the formula Watts= Amps x Voltage and stay below 80% of max load.  I have a fan blowing into the room and a exhaust duct blowing out of the dryer duct.  I currently have a 4" inline fan from Home Depot powering the duct but it sucks so I ordered a more powerful one on Amazon.  I may even hire an electrician to check the setup.  Glad you are okay dude.

https://i.imgur.com/aM0x2FL.jpg            https://i.imgur.com/pBsP9Uw.jpg        https://i.imgur.com/GgLt5eR.jpg

The ventilation as-is is not enough.  Right now the outside weather is cool and I have the mining room door wide open with a fan blowing in.  I'll see how things go when the more powerful inline duct fan comes in.  


edit:  I just unplugged my Antminers and will remain so until further research into safety.  Thanks for sharing your story.

WOW, Glad you and your home are OK....



To 2nd kthejung, this is a great thread to drive home some basic safety stuff for all of us....

Here is my list to get started, would love to see other contributions:

Prevention:
1. Monitor your machines.
2. Get a kill-a-watt meter to see what your drawing at all outlets/circuits: https://www.google.com/search?q=kill+a+watt
3. Add an external digital display thermometer to each piece of equipment that does not have one (image below)
3. Love your PSU's as much as your miner:
- Don't exceed the ratings on quality units (I like corsair), and on lower quality PSUs stay below 75% of rating
- cables from PSU to wall should remain cool to the touch or room temp
- cables from PSU to miner *may* be warm, but should never be hot
- miners are very susceptible to power spikes and dips, a good power conditioning UPS can eliminate spikes to your equipment.
- having an efficient and sufficient power supply system will reduce your ongoing power costs, prolong the life of your equipment, and keep your mining profitable longer.
4. Heat is a fire starter, monitor your rig temps everywhere you can and keep them within manufacturers spec
5. Heat is a fire starter, its going to start to warm up soon (hopefully) for much of the mining world, keep an eye on your temps as the ambient temp increases
6. Heat is a fire starter, if you overclock, provide the needed extra cooling
7. GFCI outlets are never a bad thing
8. Have a smoke detector you can monitor away from the mine (eg: https://store.nest.com/product/smoke-co-alarm/ expensive, but cool)

In the event of electrical fire:
NOTE: DO NOT PUT WATER ON AN ELECTRICAL FIRE IF THE POWER IS ON!!!!
1. Call the fire department if the fire has spread from your equipment to anywhere, seriously.
2. Don't fight a fire not worth fighting.
3. Shut off the main building power breaker if possible, if you can not access the building main breaker the breaker in the fuse box (DRY HANDS, not part of fire). This alone will stop most electrical fires in their initial stages.
4. Use a Fire Blanket, it will save what is left of your equipment and is the most effective way to put out the fire. You can find a 4x5 foot fire blanket for under $20
5. Use ONLY Class "C" or multipurpose "ABC" fire extinguishers (you have a couple nearby right?)
6. As a last resort, AFTER THE MAIN BREAKER HAS BEEN SHUT OFF, you can use water.

Yes, this costs a little money, yes it is worth it.

IMO properly providing and monitoring clean power with overrated cable is the best way to prevent fires.

I run overclocked AntMiners at 200GH/s (400 MHz) with a 2nd 120mm high volume fan added as an exhaust off of Corsair RM 550W power supplies, the PSU and all power cables remain cool, miners run steadily at 38C (100F) in a room kept around 20C (68F) during winter and around 22C (72F) during summer.

Here is a shot of a external digital display thermometer monitoring 2 AntMiner S1s:

http://www.coincadence.com/images/AntMiner_Temp.png

This is concerning, I have a Terraminer IV currently in my bedroom pulling around 2.2kW from the wall, sitting on top of a small stack of dead laptops with the batteries removed (so that it's not sitting on carpet). It's in the middle of the room but still in fairly close (~1 meter) proximity to potentially flammable items. The temperature where I am is still fairly high at around 30°C (86°F) and quite humid but I have both windows open and the ceiling fan on 24/7 circulating all the hot air out. Are there any more effective cooling measures other than placing more fans/an air-conditioning unit in front of the intake fans? I've been contemplating placing the miner inside some kind of top-loading freezer (electricity is very cheap where I live) but I'm not sure how effective that would actually be if at all.

You have to consider the condensation that would occur if you place a miner in a cold environment without proper ventilation.  You have a 2.2kw Terraminer IV in your bedroom?  Most bedroom are equipped with a 15 amp but I guess yours would have to more to power that miner; I'm guessing it can't be more than 20amps though, I would check on that.  20amps x 120volts= 2400watts.  Running a 2.2kw miner on a 2.4kw socket may be pushing it.  Continuous load recommended is 80% of max load.  I'm no expert, just pointing out something that you may want to research.

If you are referring to the pic the OP posted, that isn't a psu.  It's an Erupter Cube.

The usb port is for debugging and firmware updates. 

To the OP, sorry for your loss, but at least it wasn't much worse. I'm only running one cube but I've now placed a smoke detector very close to the cube, just in case.

Looks like its not the computer equipment or GPU that started the fire but instead a poorly designed ASIC cube.

At first I thought it was a PSU that melted but thats an ASIC cube probably made somewhere with no regulations for safety.

I'm also wondering what insurances would say if a house burned down for mining. I think if a fire
is caused by e. g. a Wifi router or a TV set in standby mode while you are away, this should be a covered
risk by standard fire insurance plans, right? If you start like aluminium smelting operations in your 1-room apt
and max out each and every fuse, then (I guess) this is considered grossly negligent and you don't get a penny..

So, what about small-scale (like something between 1 and 3 kw) mining? Did anyone inquire their insurance
company? Sure, better to prevent a fire in the first place, but I'm really wondering what insurance
companies would say..

I would think they would deny coverage.  It's not like we are using the PSU's as they were designed to be used.  Here in Canada everything has to be CSA approved.  Not sure about anywhere else, but I would think all Countries have similar laws.  I highly doubt any of the equipment meets the safety standards required.

i have 3 miners in working and above the 2000w there is a chance (offcourse very little) that the rigs will catch fire, try to keep the distant from each other if you have any room, put a metal plate under each rig just in case one rig does cath fire you save the other rigs from going down with it... and especially saving ur home.

Wow thanks for these details!!!
I really like the way this threat has turned out to be a place to share experiences on preventing fire.
Thanks to everyone,
JT


Edidt:
One more thing where did you get those thermometers ?? Ebay??

You might be overreacting. Put them on metal plates or floor tiles just to be safer.

Antminers weren't the cuprit here for the OP, Block Erupter Cubes were.  The Bitmain gear is better designed, has better quality control and are better built.  I've never seen or heard of an S1 catching fire - but that's not to say they wouldn't if you have them overclocked and running on a crappy PSU.  However, having said all that, I don't believe you will have a problem with your setup.  As long as you are keeping an eye on your equipment and have a fire extinguisher nearby just in case, you should be just fine running Antminer S1's 24/7.

Ya, but that's a bit of a problem. When I'm at work (for example) the best fire extinguisher will be useless :D There's no way around, you have to make the decision if you take the
risk and leave them alone without being able to intervene at all..

CSA only approves mass-produced devices. If it is no longer being produced, it is no longer CSA approved.

For that reason UL approval is also accepted.

That still means one-off jerry-rigs may not be covered if they cause a fire :P

windpath -
Where did you get those temp displays?  How much they run?  Those are sweet!

One thought though - is that the modular 550W Corsair supply that has both PCI-E 6-pins off one cable?  If so I would find a different way to wire it!  (see my 8-pin mobo trick mentioned below)
My policy on ANTS is to have dedicated wires to each module.  I ended up going with Corsair RM650 supplies ($40 refurbs off eBay) as I found the RM550 was only giving me 11.55V and I get 11.8V on all the 650s.
-----------------------------------------------


Good prevention list (even though I didn't quote it) --  Between a buddy and myself we have purchased 5TH of ANTMiner S1s and have a few other ideas to add:

1)  Buy a Voltmeter.  Check the voltage each PSU puts out every now and then.  The first sign of a failing PSU is generally a voltage drop.  Have a supply drop from 11.8V to 11.2?  Take it out of service!  I think 11.6 or 11.7V is the lowest "tested at the ant" voltage I feel comfortable with.  My buddy runs a few with 11.5V just fine.

2)  Buy a Killawatt meter.  Check the draw from the wall.  I had an old SilverStone 1KW supply I had mined for two years on with GPUs (very abused) before I re-purposed it for an ANTMiner.  After two months I noticed the output air was warmer then I remembered.  Because I had tested it before and knew it did @ 420W the wall I was shocked to see it now drawing 450W!  The PSU was dead a week later...

3)  DO THE CIRCUIT MATH!  I wired in some extra 20A breakers and run 4-ANTS per line, but split off to two surge protectors/strips.  So I know I am drawing ~1680W from the outlet (rated 2400W max), but only ~840W through each power strip.  You don't want power strips getting warm and drawing over 1KW constantly on a standard 15A strip is just asking for trouble.  Also a nice trick I learned if you aren't sure what circuits wire where - if you plug in a Killawatt meter and turn on a large load (ie vaccuum, toaster, etc) on the same circuit you will notice a voltage drop.  I.E. I knew I was in trouble when I had 3 ANTS on a circuit and watched the volts drop from 118V to 115V when the wife plugged in a toaster on a rarely used outlet in the kitchen!

4)  PSU Rails on multi-rail PSUs.  How are they wired?  Had another buddy fry a 1KW supply because he didn't realize it had 4 rails - two for all PCI-E conections, one for all molex/SATA, and one for motherboard.  So it really was only a 500W supply on the PCI-E connections!  A voltmeter and the voltage drop concept again can help "map" a PSU's rails even if the manufacturer doesn't list the config.  Note you can also use a motherboard 8-pin as PCI-E 6-pin if you reverse the polarity and use the mobo rail/cable that is wasted on some supplies BUT test everything with the voltmeter for and KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING (ie at your own risk, YMMV, etc)!

4)  Write everything down!  Collect all the data mentioned above, then save it in a spreadsheet or a notebook.  Then when you check on things in a couple weeks or a month you'll notice what changed and start seeing trends...

Other good tips:
Always have an extra PSU or two handy.  N+1

Dont buy cheap china crap!!! That's my rule of thumb..

So you basically don't have anything then?  ::)  Freaking everything is made in China now - especially mining equipment.

Oh wow... check your miners.
Where do they come from?

I wonder how many fall under UL approval?

Which I bet they would consider most mining rigs and set ups.  I've seen some pics of peoples set ups and I cringe. Even the good ones look still like a mess of wires that I'm sure insurance companies would shy away from.

Definitely not something I would want to leave in their hands, pretty sure they get paid to find any reason to deny a claim.

What temps do you run your antminers (s1) at??
Always wonder, my ones showed ~64C on average however, when touching the heat sink it was like touching the asicminer 333mh usbs :/
Have you had the same experience??
Thanks,
JT

My miners are running between 39-46* C.  Do you have any extra fans pointed at them?

NAhh did not use any extra ones. Would a 120mm for push pull work ?? Waiting for my new ones as the other ones are gone.
for the ones i had before i just had a large separate fan blowing on all of them and that was enough.
 

Yes, a 120mm fan on the front in a pull configuration with the rear fan.  I also have installed extra small heatsinks on all the visible chips and have fans on the right, left and top blowing on to it.  Overclocked to 190GH/s I'm running those temps. :)

Approval involves paperwork and probably testing

The only reason I know you can't get one-off devices CSA approved is I looked into the certification requirements (http://www.csagroup.org/ca/en/services/testing-and-certification/the-certification-process) once. I appears I was mistaken though: There is a "model certification" option (http://www.csagroup.org/ca/en/services/testing-and-certification/service-options). I tried looking up the file number of some old equipment and did not get results: even though the UL number still works (will have to investigate further).

In general, hobby electronics projects will not have approval.  This means you have to take extra precautions to avoid causing a fire. This may include keeping it on fire-proof materials, and unplugging it when not in use. Obviously, miners are not very useful unplugged. Edit: another way to limit risk of fire (hinted at here): reduce power draw as much as possible. Less power, means less heat; implies less fire risk (with miners that means: no overclocking).

Edit: I also wonder if the OP's miner was mis-wired. Each wire pair from the PSU can safely carry about 5 Amps. That implies 6 wire pairs or 12 wires total going all the way back the the PSU. Splitters are a no-no (unless you are cutting off the common end).

easy adjusting voltage = shorting boards out, buring wires, happened to me'
board/wires were running fine for a week, but board smelled like it was burning, had power board li on +20 like many people say to set it to (do not do this), a week later brand new 850 watt power supply burned out, I got new one, and wires melted/started sparking against case.

I still think it is a good idea to run your 110v/240v through a hold on contactor, connected to an axillary relay of a smoke detector.

Smoke detector activates - rig powers down.

Maybe I will look into making some kits up. Although its difficult as each persons situation is different.

May also be worth adding an Emergency Stop button at the door of the room to activate that contactor manually.

Edit : These could be done relatively simply with wireless battery smoke detectors ( from memory they cost around $100)
         and a wireless relay unit attached to a custom contactor box, with 3-4 10A input/outputs. So a basic system would be in the region of $300 - $400 + $100 for each additional detector ( placed anywhere in your home) sounds expensive but if your using detectors that cost less than $70 then you may as well not bother cus there cr$p.
These are of the top of my head figures for 240V version ( not aware of suitable products for 110V) if there is interest I will investigate further and make a demo unit with proper costs.

Edit 2 : Maybe a pain in the ass when the kids burn there toast and it shuts ur mining rig down, so dont bank on putting xtra detectors near the kitchen.

I don't really understand why the mods deleted your donation address, i've seen some really stupid threads with unbelievable stories begging for Bitcoins and they don't get their addy deleted.

I read some reports of the OP trying to scam people before with made up stories, maybe that's why.

wow, i have newer scammed people!!! you can see that in my feedback!!
what posts are you talking about??

This is exactly why I installed a 50 amp breaker in my panel and im running the wires tonight after work. This is pretty much the only way to continue to mine bitcoin at today's levels. 15 amp breakers on your normal outlets is a huge fire risk on anything over 2000 watts. It's not only the miners that is the problem its overloading the wires in your wall wich can catch the whole house on fire...  Also you can run your power supplies at 240 volts wich is more efficient and will produce less heat ...

Mine came out of an old PC case I had laying around, here is a starting point: https://www.google.com/search?q=CPU+digital+display+thermonitor

You're probably not the first to have run temps that high but it seems that the general consensus among miners is keeping the device 50C or below.  Maybe you should think of adding a duct system behind the miners to pull the heat away from the device and out of the house.  Not scientifically researched, just my observation.  Also, don't buy cheap miners.

I never said you scammed somebody, just reporting back what I read:

I'm interested in your power config here.  Are you running multiple lines off the same 50 amp breaker or several lines off several 50 amp breakers?  How are you setting that up?

ouch that is scary ... I always turned my rig off when levaing the house for moer than a day just b/c of my paranoia with a fire.  I guess there is a danger.

Do you have a pic of your setup before the fire?

Im running 8/3 gauge wire to a 8 outlet 240 volt plug in box that my power supplies will connect into. Im also thinking about picking up a 40 amp fused disconnect box like what you would use for a hot tub power setup, that will be installed befor the outlet box. I work as a industrial electrician so my set up might be a little over kill but it will allow me to run at least 5000 watts of mining power...  After all the miners are running on the 240 volt supply all you have to do is put a amp meter on the line and find out what you current draw is to figure out the size of fuses to install in the disconnect . The calculation is pretty simple ..

Total line Amps x 1.50 = size of fuses to install to protect wire feed incase of overload or power supply failure.
 You can also do the calculation at 1.25 if you want to be even more on the safe side :)

wow this is certainly something I will be looking into more with my own setup.
I now have alot of reading to do :( i wanted to go to bed.. its 3am..

i've got 6 290's burning, well I should not say burning anymore. Mining perhaps is a better word for them.
no fires yet!

Oh ok, cool.  So you're running a single line of 8/3 gauge wire to an 8-outlet 240v plug.  From there, are you plugging your power supplies directly into the 8-outlet plug or do you use power strips or a UPS in between?  Can you even use power strips or UPS's on a 240v line?  Shows what I know about wiring..lol

  To tell you the truth im not doing it exactly to code lol !! Im actually just using industrial grade 120 volt outlets that the power supplies can directly plug into with out having to chop the cords and put a huge 240 volt plug on it !! Each power supply dont pull that much current, not nothing like a dryer would so you can get away with it. So basically the 120 volt outlets will just be supplied with 240 volts instead of 120. Just make sure you make it clear that its 240 volt plugs dont plug in a 120 volt fan or anything on accident lol ...  I also highly recommend the fuse box or atleast some inline fuses that will give you added protection. Remember that 50 or 60 amp breaker you install won't trip untill it goes over the Amp rating.. That could be enough current draw to hurt your power supplies or miners in the case of a short,overload or failure of anyway...

I want to see a burnt miner.

Pictures please.

64C ?????

I had a 20ft 16 gauge extension cord that melted, but didnt catch on fire or anything....  uh, the socket of the power supply or whatever melted out.  

I use 12 gauge 50' extension cords now.  these:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_67439-16503-UTP511830_4294722561__?productId=3203689&Ntt=12+gauge&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3D12%2Bgauge&facetInfo=

except when I bought them they were only $50/ea.

oh, this was just from your typical household socket here in the US (rated for 15 amps)

I very good lesson for all of us. I guess it's only a matter of time before something like this hits the mainstream news as another blight on bitcoin.

Sounds like you had bad wiring in your house, and once you put a constant 80%+ amp load on the circuit the wiring heated up and eventually caught.

Just because it ran for a week doesn't mean your OK, you need to make sure you don't exceed 70-80% of the circuit amperage.

I've seen many houses in my area catch on fire from electric heaters.  Those big ones pull 8A - 15A alone from the socket and easily overloads it.

They do make North-American (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector) 240V power connectors that are not much larger than the 120Volt connectors. Not sure what premium the power supply cables with a 240V plug would carry though (If you are an electrician, you would be able to just replace the plug).

Somebody up-thread was talking about 2 30 Amp PDUs on a 50Amp breaker. I suspect it would not be too hard to find a 20Amp breaker for one of the PDUs.

thank god you are still alive. not just for your own sake either. if you had died than the government would have ceased the opportunity to ban bitcoin saying "sorry we had to ban it but its only for your own safety, you have to understand, bitcoin burns people alive".

I think I have read that already somewhere...

So widly over size my PSU.. done.

Don't forget the "high quality" part. Cheap PSUs tend to have inflated ratings.

I bought the smallest capacity PSU I could find (380W) and am still nowhere near 80% load (drawing less than 200W).

I suspect you can run a quality PSU at 100% 12V load as long as you do not exceed the limits of the 12V rail. For example, My PSU (without checking) probably allows only 300W to be drawn on the 12V line. The other 8OW would be from the 5 and 3.3 Volt lines.
 

Wow, source?

I feel like I want to see some pictures of your burned miners to see where the overload or overheating occurred. I am happy it didn't actually burn your house down or get hurt. This definitely should be a fear for most household miners. I had 4 cubes simultaneously running since they had first come out until a few months ago when I turned them off. The cubes themselves never got too hot but the cheap PSU's I had powering them would get hot cables due to me running them on a single rail. I ultimately changed the PSU's out when they died (somewhat quickly) and never had an issue with them after that, although they did occasionally blow a fuse.

Out of curiosity, were you running the cubes overclocked?

Wow, that really sucks!

What was the source of the fire?

Where was the mine located?

Any other photos?

Plans to rebuild?

Well I appreciate your help with keeping the difficulty down but my post was directed towards the OP and those cubes   ;)

However, if you have burned down 3 places, you may want to add in some remote cameras and sensors for temperature monitoring into the budget??    :-\
Seems like a pretty large loss of equipment..... were all 3 places loaded with these sp30's?

Barbeque much? ;D
Some ps30 look ok on the outside!

That's what I call an expensive bbq !

#peercoinuserunaffected

but seriously though, ouch!  did you have insurance?

So you claim this mess as your own?

All Sp30's  taking up 3 buildings  using 5mw for about 1400 plus sp30's


Not that I do not believe you, but show us more of the disaster please.

found confirms on sp30 thread  sorry for your loss

Were all of these buildings connected?  Mighty strange they all went up in flames.  My condolences, hope you were insured.

That looks like a huge nightmare, I sure hope you were insured as well. How much hashpower was located in those three buildings if you don't mind me asking?

he may be 7 to 8 ph.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=521520.msg9450123#msg9450123



pre fire

http://storage.googleapis.com/spond_public/images/cowboyminer%20wall%20of%20SP30.jpg

sp-tech confirm

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=521520.msg9451562#msg9451562


it was in the thai news


http://www.thairath.co.th/content/456629

chrome may translate it for you

may be arson

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. What do you plan to do next?

Wow, that's crazy... Can not imagine the disappointment.

Translated the article, looks like it was in the Philippines, near Manila. The mine had been operating about 4 months, cause believed to be a short circuit, 2 guards were on duty when the fire started... The investigation is ongoing.

Thanks for keeping the difficulty down! :P
Sorry for your loss though.

I don't think insurance would have helped the OP, as most homeowners insurance will not cover electronic devices unless they have a special rider and the insurance company receives documentation regarding the value of the electronics prior to any loss

It is NOT a house...it is a BUSINESS ...mining farm...not homeowner but business insurance...Capisco... ???

Wow so sad, that is a tremendous amount of work down the drain..


 I really feel for these guys... :(

Yeah I don't think they could have any insurance being ok with this kind of business too. It looks too shady and anyway we are talking about experimental pieces of hardware that have a very limited lifespan or use anyway and you probably should have a place up to the task for it to be accepted.

It's possible, in the future that miner manufacturers might include a trojan box on some large orders hoping to set fire on customers' farm.

Fires are not cause by the mining machines themselves, they're usually caused by non-electrically trained people overloading the electrical capacity of their cables, or people not maintaining their equipment and cleaning the dust out of it.

 ::)

Oh dude, how you did not have another wallet backup. Epic.

Well, I have seen GPU capacity burst out in flame, although its not long but if the fire catch something else then its gone..

I wouldnt believe it otherwise but Ive seen a fire start on a graphics card that was mining.   It was only brief and came from a small capacitor I think but I suppose its possible for it to spread if cabling were not done right.   A house operation may have too much dust, where as a proper setup with correct air management would probably help prevent heat build up better then your little small miner with it sitting on a carpet

One thing is bugging me about the recent fire: Why is ~5% of the world hash-power all in one place?

Edit: the German news article said the farm used about 5MW, which would only be 10Petahashes/second at most.
I suppose if I want to be unlazy, I can look up how many machines were supposed to be in the facility.

This thead is since yesterday in the Golem
Sorry cant post the URL - Iam mobile.
Best regards
Christian

Here is the (German) Link (http://www.golem.de/news/asics-grossbrand-durch-bitcoin-mining-1411-110366.html)

Just goes to show ya... you have to think of everything.

Cubes should have been turned off long ago.

A simple auto-shutoff (Thermostat) system would have saved your mine and part of your home; Costs $100 for a really good one.

There's really no reason to stack those 9 high with that much space. Despite that supposedly not being the issue.

GPUs are not equal to ASIC mining rigs.


News flash for you!

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/11/06/knc-miner-to-build-another-20mw-for-bitcoin-mining-in-sweden/

Because they can.

Note I do not say do any of the below ideas. I am a peaceful person:

And as the wonderful brilliant states-person Sara Palin says lets  target them

http://www.harpyness.com/2011/01/08/congresswoman-on-sarah-palins-target-list-murdered-at-political-event/


So that is a 30mw  plant running 40 to 50ph in hash .  So   one burned  down in Thailand with 6-8ph.

So how wise does having all this hash in one spot look today? I wonder how well they are sleeping in Sweden today?

So is GPU as dangerous as ASIC or better?

As for the Cowboyminer fire, I'd like to point out that it's ~90F this time of the year anywhere near Thailand on a hot day. With little to no wind, I can imagine the fire simply fueled itself because the whole air source was simply stagnant hotter air becoming even hotter. Sure, they had fans, but they were probably just recirculating the same low lying air(I realize they are blowing out). They also mention they used some sort of glue with the insulation that may or may not have been fireproof. For power consumption, the whole operation doesn't draw that much compared to some small datacenters in the US. Not to mention the non usage of any fusing mechanisms and proper breaker shutoff systems between three(three!) buildings. That's if they were even using breakers at all. If something catches on fire with that much airflow with units stacked 7-9 high on top of each other, things are going to get very bad. As far as most ASIC companies go, safety probably isn't one of the first things these kinds of companies have a knack or care for (profit, cough cough). Sure, it's UL listed, and maybe had some QC stickers slapped on it, but that doesn't mean donkey dicks.

TLDR: It was probably due to a short or heat failure and inexperience took hold.

Safety should have had its own sub-forum long ago.

In Gold mining, your mine site still has to be "federally safe" and has to be part of your mine plan before you are allowed even mine.

If you own a mine, or mining claim, you'll know what a mining plan is and how important the safety aspect of it is.

It's sad to see someone's hard labor and investment go up in smoke...

Don't rule out sabotage, that's a lot of income, making a "poor" government jealous.

None the less, for those that are safety aware, here's the wiring section of my mining plan in a few words:

-Build an auto-kill switch system.
-When it comes to wiring, ALWAYS your largest gauge wire.
-Anything with Bitcoin mining should be 14 gauge minimum over 15 feet but 12 gauge is most desirable in any application and any length.
-The longer the extensions, the more you pay on delivery fees and the harder/expensive it gets to find large gauge extensions.
-I buy mine from Zoro, they sell good quality, large gauge, long extensions; good for USA and Canada. 
-Keep PSU wires separate or as far from each other as possible.
-Use white wires when possible since it doesn't attract heat like black does.
-Monitor cable heat by hand throughout the day, report unusual hot-spots.
-Make sure that if you have light coming in that it cannot cause hot-spots to wires or machines. (A Running Black PSU in the sun is ticking bomb)
-Use white foam cores to cover black areas from the sun if miners can become exposed to harmful sunlight.
-If PSU wires are too wimpy, buy larger ones, those should definitely be 16ga to begin with.
-Overpower PSU - Works less but costs a bit more, always at least 100W over maximum recommended, 150 is ideal, 200 is best, 250 is overkill.
-Overpowering PSU also reduces the overall power tension in the system since it works less for the same work.
-The best cooling is outside air because it's free and plenty but that may not work in areas where the outside temp is too high; IE: Florida
-Keep mine's temperature around 35 degrees; miners are their own dehumidifier, very dry conditions increase fire hazard too.
-Make sure your home's wiring is modern, meaning, newer than 1975 (Not 100% sure on the year).  If not, get it modernized.
-Make sure there is someone that can keep an eye on your mine if you leave for extended periods of time and train/pay them.
-Stack machines no more than 3 high for 1U's and do not stack 3U's at all.

Just because it's "computer mining" still makes it, mining.  Same offline rules apply here too, that is, shit's gonna break, your suppliers will screw you over, you're gonna swear a lot but you'll enjoy what you're doing.  There is a little saying in the Gold mining world we tell rookies.


I think your problem was a lack of an automatic kill-switch system.  Another type of miner that arose from Gold mining are "the hacks"... guys that do everything right all the way but hacks the last mile and loses everything. #ToddHoffman (A disgrace to Gold Miners)

Well, I hope new miners will read this thread before getting into Bitcoin mining, lots of good electrical and general safety comments in this thread.  Should be made a sticky in the Getting Started forum.

 :D  Todd Hoffman wasn't a hack at the very end, he was a hack the whole way.  And good ol' Jack:  "Sometimes you get old and you do dumb stuff".  :D

When I had my 12 GPU mining farm pimping away the coins for me, I only ever used Corsair single rail power supplies and a Kill-A-Watt meter.  Additionally, I mapped out every circuit breaker in the breaker box and drew a diagram of the house, so I knew exactly which outlets were being fed by which breakers.  I would use 12 gauge extension cords to bring power into the miners from other rooms, (I was single and had the place to myself) so nothing was ever overloaded.  I'm a bit anal retentive, but I never had an electrical problem except for paying the power bill.

Don't even get me started on that Todd Hoffman jackass.  I can't even count how many times he has "known where the gold was" or "had a feeling", or his favorite word - "guaranteed" to find gold.  I'd like to have a dozen guys hold him down and shave off that stupid ass chin beard of his, it looks so dumb.