Bitcoin Forum

Is there anyone have experience in setting up outdoor housing?

1. rain/snow resistant
2. dust resistant
3. good ventilation


I found it extremely difficult to fulfill all the requirement at the same time, if I cover the open frame shelf with transparent foil, then the ventilation will be so bad that the card get much warmer

I even thought about a stove like design to push the warm air out through a chimney, but then I need to vertically place the cards so that the exhaust point upwards...

A friend of mine used one of the plastic sheds you can get at a home improvement store. It needed quite a bit of caulking to get it more air tight. He bought one with a window and a skylight in it. He brings outside air in from the window and has some kind of exhaust fan going out the top. He uses furnace filters on the in take to reduce dust.

He built a wooden shelf unit to be able to put a decent sized air conditioning unit into the window for summer running.

One of those plastic sheds, or similar, with 2 squirrel cage fans - one near the top for exhaust, one intake on the bottom blowing over the gear would do pretty well

While dust can be an issue, it's mostly an issue for your fans.

Here's some ready made solutions for telco outside plant applications - you might be able to get some ideas here:
http://www.americantechsupply.com/newbasispolymerconcrete.htm
(I'm liking the idea of getting one of the in-ground vaults, and burying the mine! ;D )

In some municipalities even putting up a doghouse requires a permit.

I do look forward to seeing the first solar-based FPGA mining operation run out of a HexaYurt in the middle of the desert:
 - http://hexayurt.com/

Have you looked at the tent type garages? They are sold like for less than 200€ at cheapest ...
Tho i would strengthen the joints, but then again we get quite nasty winters and i've seen one holding just fine through winter.

I get the impression that building an outdoor mining would require a tremendous amount of planning, not just pitching a tent and passing a power cord, obviously. I know some sites like Amazon sell Shelter storage sheds, but the floor inside is meant for grass. I guess ventilation, heat (solar/climate), humidity, life (pests?), dust, and flooding/blizzards might pose a problem. Other ideas possibly more costly is to liquid cool the miner with outdoor passive radiators, or using a series of specific designed roof vents (roof-like)?

IMO, the proper place for mining equipment is the datacenter.

Barring the availability of a datacenter, a "wiring closet" with plenty of cooling/ventilation is the next best thing.

If you still want to go outside with it,

A big doghouse, or a small metal/wood shed would work fine. Make sure the building is parallel w/the sun's path - the long face perpendicular to the sun will get too hot. Glass is poor insulation. No windows is best.

I'd hesitate to use anything that could collapse in a strong wind. I can't think of anything worse than trying to save my mining gear from rain when my mining tent blows apart.

All that said, I can imagine running a mine in the jungle out of a tent on natural power. It's doable, just take some effort and skill. This is probably too much of a challenge for the average urban dweller.

I wouldn't be surprised to see someone mining at Burning Man. Local blockchain power would be beneficial, and it wouldn't surprise me to see someone promote bitcoin that way there. Get a big army mess tent, some wind & solar power, cooling fans, and probably build it all in a nice plexi box with dust filters on the intake, and as much exhaust pressure as will still allow the intake to work.

A semi trailer, or an ocean container would make a killer mine room. It could be mobile if you wanted to drive the mine to cheaper power ;) Or, if you excavate, and bury that, you'd cut your cooling costs a lot ;D

But, yes, all in all, it would take a tremendous amount of planning - essentially the same amount as constructing a building for the mine.

one word "condensation"!!

I use one of those tin shed type things you can buy and there is almost always condensation on the roof.... cold roof, sun hits it etc etc.

Not so bad in my case as the roof is a classic apex design so condensation tends to run down the inside of the roof to the walls.... not good for "live" PCs tho!

"DampRid" works great.

If the problem is too serious hang carpet with the fuzzy side against the condensation. Ensure it dries regularly to prevent mold.

I posted this last summer. It worked great but took me a long time to built.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27764.msg349364

Why is condensation a problem? PSU, MOBO, cards always have a warm to hot temperatures, AFAIK, condensation won't happen on this kind of surface.

Condensation on the inside of the metal roof (like say when outdoor ambient temp is cool and below the dewpoint) which then drips liquid water onto the electronics.

Sure, dripping is always bad, it's much easier to prevent though.

Oh, quite impressive, a very good noise canceler,  how do you keep a good ventilation?

Interested in this topic, just following for now.

My open frame rig is always running on the balcony, so there is some rain/snow protection, but when it is windy occasionally the snow flakes/ rain drops will still make their way into the motherboard and hard hang the machine. Another possible good place is an open type of garage or shelter

I'm planning a tower shaped case, about 1.5 meter high, and to test if it can provide better cooling than total open design, it will be fun  ;D

No, I'd rather not to place any expensive stuff outside of my house

And I really hate those nasty bugs, they love the blinking leds

a number of my cards are experienced bug zappers from last summer...  they are still hashing away.

get a shed, run some copper to it. leave the door open with an exhaust fan blowing the hot air out the top of the open door!

All I'd have to say is, lock all of your shit up. I used to keep server equipment out in the frozen 2-story garage for winter, and had a bunch of it stolen by some guy who just drove up and walked right on in. (Also stolen; bikes, ladders, drill, food, toilet paper, and my gas can for the mower) As of now, I wouldn't even CONTEMPLATE outside as an option, winter or summer.

Get a large watercooling or duct system, and out the window with all the joules! That's what I'm building for the horrid summer heat.

I ran a number of 5830s out of the garage over the summer and asides from a thick layer of pollen and a few mangled bugs everything was fine. If I were to do it again though I'd duct the rigs with cardboard and use some box fans w/ chopped up furnace/AC air filters to filter the air a bit. Will have to find a similar solution for this upcoming summer as the rigs migrate outside the house again.

No offense, but there are good reasons to not do 24/7 unattended electrical operations with flammable materials.

While I've been known (in my much younger past) to run a machine in a static wrap bag (to decrease cat hairs) in a cardboard tray, I would not attempt to run my mining gear this way. I thought it was dangerous to make that PC work that way - 24/7 equipment that runs at full tilt boogie can experience unexpected events. I have responded to alarms on gear that turned out later to have melted, or caught fire in the switchroom/datacenter.

I appreciate your concern but perhaps I should have been a bit more clear in my plans. I have a wood/steel shelving unit that I will be shrouding the sides in cardboard and placing a box fan at the entrance of this wind tunnel. I've abused enough hardware competitively overclocking over the last half decade to see how fets fail and occasionally roast. Caps no longer explode and proper power supplies have OVP/OCP/short protection(that I have frequently tested due to MB/GPU fets exploding). I have greater concerns over GPUs dying and taking out a rig than a fet shorting to ground and potentially causing a short lived burst of flame.

This is the simplest solution to venting around 7 kW of heat outdoors. Contain and vent rather than vent an entire building.

This one is really cheap, less than 25$. Put in a mining rig, it even works as a warm house for flowers during winter, but how to modify it  ::)

http://www.jula.se/mediaarchive/6122541/zoom/716001-jpg.jpg

I am in the last stages of completeing such a project, it's been hashing in my balcony for roughly a week now, in temberatues of between -5 and 16 degrees celcius . I have taken tons of photos and notes and intend to write an article on it, will post link in this thread once I do.

A design with some real data collection and proof of what it can do.  I'm excited to see it.

As promised here's what I got running in my balcony:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76008.0