Is a mining rig a fire risk

[MashRinx]

I think having the electrician friend come out is a good idea.  Regardless of what you read here from a bunch of strangers, someone in that business confirming that for you and your dad should carry a lot more weight, I would think.

I had electricians at my house earlier this week to install 4 additional 20 amp circuits to support additional mining hardware.  As long as you're not pushing too much through that one circuit, at 1000 watts, you should be fine, especially if you have a good PSU.  I keep as much of an eye on Amps as I do Watts.  You usually pay for power in Kwatt/hr, but it's the amount of amperage that trips circuits.  The machines I have that pull close to 1000 watts pull about 7.75 amps.  If you're on a 15 amp household circuit, you're pulling just over half of what that circuit is rated at, and the electrician's confirmed for me again this week that you want to keep amperage below 80% of a circuits max capacity.

Good luck and welcome to crypto!  Hopefully you can get your dad to feel okay about it.  If it helps, I have over 10,000 watts and 85 amps worth of mining hardware in my home (well planned) and I have a family that I have to keep safe too.

[GAML]

I think having the electrician friend come out is a good idea.  Regardless of what you read here from a bunch of strangers, someone in that business confirming that for you and your dad should carry a lot more weight, I would think.

I had electricians at my house earlier this week to install 4 additional 20 amp circuits to support additional mining hardware.  As long as your not pushing too much through that one circuit, at 1000 watts, you should be fine, especially if you have a good PSU.  I keep as much of an eye on Amps as I do Watts.  You usually pay for power in Kwatts/hr, but it's the amount of amperage that trips circuits.  The machines I have that pull close to 1000 watts pull about 7.75 amps.  If you're on a 15 amp household circuit, you're pulling just over what that circuit is rated at, and the electricians confirmed again for me this week that you want to keep amperage below 80% of a circuits max capacity.

Good luck and welcome to crypto!  Hopefully you can get your dad to feel okay about it.  If it helps, I have over 10,000 watts and 85 amps worth of mining hardware in my home (well planned) and I have a family that I have to keep safe too.

Many thanks. This was very, very helpful and reassuring to know.

[MashRinx]

Glad you found the reply helpful.  I re-read it and did fix a couple things for clarity, but the gist is still the same.

[Wendigo]

How do you disperse 10 kilowatts of heat in the summer? Oh my god?

[Duane Vick]

A typical house outlet in the usa is 120v and protected by a 20 amp breaker. That's about 2400 watts, or 2.4kw. That outlet is usually one of several in a branch of outlets. You have to factor for other loads besides your miner on that circuit. Total up all the watts on that branch circuit by turning off the breaker and seeing which outlets go dead and measure the watts consumed by each of those devices. While most properly wired homes have wiring that can handle 2x the breaker rating in terms of amperage,  you should not plug in more than 80% load for what that breaker is rated.

For a high drain device like a miner, it would be a good idea to have a dedicated outlet installed for it. If you go that route,  have the electrician run 12/4 wiring and put in two breakers and break the little metal tab off on the back of the electrical outlet. This will give you two dedicated circuits at one outlet for about 4800 watts.

[GAML]

If you have a newer house (built in last 20 years or so) I wouldn't worry. Don't be cheap on cables, buy good ones and have a good cooling, that is what you can do to reduce the risk.

Good cooling is key and place it in a garage, or something else not flammable.

Thanks. Good idea. I am looking at doing this

[roslinpl]

If you have a newer house (built in last 20 years or so) I wouldn't worry. Don't be cheap on cables, buy good ones and have a good cooling, that is what you can do to reduce the risk.

Good cooling is key and place it in a garage, or something else not flammable.

Thanks. Good idea. I am looking at doing this

Sounds great! wish you good job!

[Wendigo]

A typical house outlet in the usa is 120v and protected by a 20 amp breaker. That's about 2400 watts, or 2.4kw. That outlet is usually one of several in a branch of outlets. You have to factor for other loads besides your miner on that circuit. Total up all the watts on that branch circuit by turning off the breaker and seeing which outlets go dead and measure the watts consumed by each of those devices. While most properly wired homes have wiring that can handle 2x the breaker rating in terms of amperage,  you should not plug in more than 80% load for what that breaker is rated.

For a high drain device like a miner, it would be a good idea to have a dedicated outlet installed for it. If you go that route,  have the electrician run 12/4 wiring and put in two breakers and break the little metal tab off on the back of the electrical outlet. This will give you two dedicated circuits at one outlet for about 4800 watts.

Thanks for the great explanation mate

[MashRinx]

How do you disperse 10 kilowatts of heat in the summer? Oh my god?

 

In 2012 I had quite a few in an upstairs room where I also worked and it was hot.  I didn't mine much in the summer of 2013. 

Most have moved to the garage since then, and it does get hot in there, but I try to keep a lot of air moving.  This summer I may consider moving some machines to an offsite location, but depending on how the alt-coin world looks at that point, I may shut down some or all in the Summer.  Where I live power is 50% more expensive from June - Sept too, so that's a major factor along with heat.

[Wendigo]

How do you disperse 10 kilowatts of heat in the summer? Oh my god?

 

In 2012 I had quite a few in an upstairs room where I also worked and it was hot.  I didn't mine much in the summer of 2013. 

Most have moved to the garage since then, and it does get hot in there, but I try to keep a lot of air moving.  This summer I may consider moving some machines to an offsite location, but depending on how the alt-coin world looks at that point, I may shut down some or all in the Summer.  Where I live power is 50% more expensive from June - Sept too, so that's a major factor along with heat.

So by mentioning alt-coins i suppose you are using a farm of graphics cards? does this mean you are selling them off if not profitable any more?

[MashRinx]

How do you disperse 10 kilowatts of heat in the summer? Oh my god?

 

In 2012 I had quite a few in an upstairs room where I also worked and it was hot.  I didn't mine much in the summer of 2013. 

Most have moved to the garage since then, and it does get hot in there, but I try to keep a lot of air moving.  This summer I may consider moving some machines to an offsite location, but depending on how the alt-coin world looks at that point, I may shut down some or all in the Summer.  Where I live power is 50% more expensive from June - Sept too, so that's a major factor along with heat.

So by mentioning alt-coins i suppose you are using a farm of graphics cards? does this mean you are selling them off if not profitable any more?

Maybe.  I will wait and see.  This past summer I stopped and didn't intend to re-start, but the expansion of the alt-coin market took off more than I expected and I started back up around thanksgiving when I saw some of my alt holdings were worth more than I expected.  I'm actually enjoying mining now as much as I did when I was mining BTC directly.

If you think of it, feel free to PM me in early or mid June if you're interested in adding hardware at that point and I'll let you know if I have anything I'd like to sell.  I'm assuming that's why you asked the question, of course.

[GAML]

A typical house outlet in the usa is 120v and protected by a 20 amp breaker. That's about 2400 watts, or 2.4kw. That outlet is usually one of several in a branch of outlets. You have to factor for other loads besides your miner on that circuit. Total up all the watts on that branch circuit by turning off the breaker and seeing which outlets go dead and measure the watts consumed by each of those devices. While most properly wired homes have wiring that can handle 2x the breaker rating in terms of amperage,  you should not plug in more than 80% load for what that breaker is rated.

For a high drain device like a miner, it would be a good idea to have a dedicated outlet installed for it. If you go that route,  have the electrician run 12/4 wiring and put in two breakers and break the little metal tab off on the back of the electrical outlet. This will give you two dedicated circuits at one outlet for about 4800 watts.

Thanks for the great explanation mate

+1

[GAML]

If you have a newer house (built in last 20 years or so) I wouldn't worry. Don't be cheap on cables, buy good ones and have a good cooling, that is what you can do to reduce the risk.

Good cooling is key and place it in a garage, or something else not flammable.

Thanks. Good idea. I am looking at doing this

Sounds great! wish you good job!

Thank you =)

[GAML]

How do you disperse 10 kilowatts of heat in the summer? Oh my god?

 

In 2012 I had quite a few in an upstairs room where I also worked and it was hot.  I didn't mine much in the summer of 2013.  

Most have moved to the garage since then, and it does get hot in there, but I try to keep a lot of air moving.  This summer I may consider moving some machines to an offsite location, but depending on how the alt-coin world looks at that point, I may shut down some or all in the Summer.  Where I live power is 50% more expensive from June - Sept too, so that's a major factor along with heat.

I am currently looking at portable air con units because the thought of summer filled me with dread.  It must be unbearably hot.

Air Con buyers guide


5 Star portable Air Con Reviews

[Alphi]

I am currently looking at portable air con units because the thought of summer filled me with dread.  It must be unbearably hot.

aircon will drastically lower your mining profitability and drastically increase your power bills. try installing some exhaust fans in e.g. like those used in bathrooms.
or if you live in a windy area try using passive ventilation like windows etc.

If you are GPU mining, you can also switch to lower intensity coins over summer to reduce heat... coins that don't use much memory like the SHA series of coins or those using multi algorithms (Quark etc) OR adaptive N Factor coins.. They don't push your cards as much so they don't generate as much heat.


I just went through a scorching summer and mining gear can run ok up to about 30-35C indoors.. humans however cant lol....

[Duane Vick]

look into evaporative coolers if you are in a dryer climate. They can typically drop the outside temp about 20 degrees. Also, since they move a high volume of air, they can move heat away from the GPUs pretty efficiently. Most run on about 1/2hp motor so maybe about 400 watts. You install them such that they draw in outside air and you have to have an open window or door that permits sufficient airflow to exhaust the air, otherwise you'll get a buildup of pressure, forcing the cooler motor to work too hard.

[GAML]

Thanks for the additional information regards air con.  It has given me much to think about.