Residential Hobbyist Miners: power concerns?

[jodybay]

how much is the maximum elec current in household?

i think its depend on how many electric appliances are running in your house

there should be an upper limit for maximum usage, right?

The limit for the entire house is based on the service (connection to the utility) that you have.  In the US this can vary a lot.  Generally older homes and smaller homes it is lower and for newer homes especially larger newer homes it is higher.  It can range anywhere from 75A to 200A.  Today most newly constructed homes are setup with 100A to 150A.  This is often not that easy to find.  You may be able to find it on the outside meter.  If your circuit breaker panel has a master breaker then the rating on the master breaker may let you know the service.  I say may because often these can be mismatched.  I have seen 200A breakers on a 150A service connection (that is a code violation btw and dangerous) and I have also seen cheaper builders which install a 100A panel when the utility dropped a 150A service connection because a 100A panel is $12 cheaper than a 150A one (this is not a code violation but it is horribly cheap).  If your panel has no master breaker (usually at the top center of panel) and it isn't indicated on the meter you can call your utility.

Obviously this is the max current for the entire house.  Your usable current for mining will be that minus whatever your house uses on peak load.  You can simulate it by turning on the AC, lights, and other appliances.  Then check how fast the utility meter "spins" to determine the total house load (current).  You could also use a multimeter to check the current across the main lugs on the breaker panel.  The later should not be done unless you know what you are doing and have the proper equipment.  Electricity can kill without warning.

here in country i dont have any problem with the electricity cost so i can plug anything as the main breaker is not going down

[zvs]

Hey everyone,

This topic is geared towards those of us who are mining in our homes, and how to distribute your mining gear within those confines.  What I'm really interested in finding out is how people who have multiple TH/s at home are doing it.  You so-called garage miners, hobbyists, etc, tell us how you've set things up!

Your standard residence has both 15 and 20 amp circuits.  Those 20 amp circuits are usually occupied by things like your electric range, washer/dryer, etc.  The 15 amp ones manage everything else - outlets, lights, etc.

Under continuous load a 15 amp circuit can provide 1440 watts.  Since you've got your miners running 24/7, that's what I'd count as continuos load .  We'll use the Antminer S1 as our hardware.  It's pretty cheap (about 0.5BTC) and at normal settings claims 360 watt power usage for 180GH/s, so it's a great candidate for the hobbyist.

I read accounts on these boards about folks with 6+ S1s running at their home.  At most you're driving 4 of them on a single circuit, which would max out that circuit's capacity for continuous load.  So, you'll need to consume about 1.5 circuits for your mining.  Do you all just shut those rooms down to anything other than mining?  Sorry kids, you can't have separate bedrooms any longer, daddy's gotta mine some BTC!

I'll share my setup, which is currently 2 S1s.  I have them over clocked and both are driven from a single Corsair HX1050.  Together they draw about 800-850 watts.  They are in the basement for a few reasons:

• It's cooler down there
• Not a lot of power used down there on a regular basis
• No more complaining from the significant other about "those damn mining things"

So, tell us your setups!  How'd you distribute your miners around the house?

Before I shut most of it down, I had them all in a single room, w/ an industrial fan blowing air in from the window (& the rest of that section sealed off that wasn't being used by fan), & then it would exhaust out of the top of the window.  Bottom was opened as high as needed for the fan, top was open about 2 inches.

They used four different circuits.  One was in the room itself, one was from a second bedroom that also had my "main" computer in it (so I only used about 700 watts on that one), the third and fourth were from the master bedroom.  Ranged from around 1200-1400 watts draw (besides the one room), depending on the temperature outside.

When I got enough stuff to need to use the 2nd circuit, I was using a 15 foot, 16 gauge extension cord that ended up having the plug melted out, lol.  After that I bought three 30ft 12 gauge extension cords.... think they were like $60 each.  Also need to make sure your surge protector uses at least 14 gauge cord (w/ the assumption that the power supply cord is 10ft or less).

[BCwinning]

Run a dedicated circuit and make it a 240V 30A.  Use a NEMA L6-30 outlet as most PDUs use that style plug.   It is good for 80%*240*30 = 5.76 KW.

I'd imagine that's a pretty significant expenditure to get installed.  I'm not an electrician, so maybe it's not a big deal to have something like that installed in my home.  Got a ballpark figure on something like that?

I don't know.  I did it myself.  It costs me maybe $60 in parts (I put in two outlets and two breakers at the same time) and an hour of work.   A lot depends on where the outlet will be relative to your breaker panel.  You mentioned having rigs in the basement.  If your breaker panel is in the basement, you have room for a new double pole breaker and you don't mind a surface mount box and surface mount wiring it will be a lot cheaper than if an electrician needs to juggle around breakers, put in a sub panel, run some wiring half way through the house inside the walls and through floors, etc.

The wire alone for a 50 foot run that can support 30 amp is over 60$

[DeathAndTaxes]

Run a dedicated circuit and make it a 240V 30A.  Use a NEMA L6-30 outlet as most PDUs use that style plug.   It is good for 80%*240*30 = 5.76 KW.

I'd imagine that's a pretty significant expenditure to get installed.  I'm not an electrician, so maybe it's not a big deal to have something like that installed in my home.  Got a ballpark figure on something like that?

I don't know.  I did it myself.  It costs me maybe $60 in parts (I put in two outlets and two breakers at the same time) and an hour of work.   A lot depends on where the outlet will be relative to your breaker panel.  You mentioned having rigs in the basement.  If your breaker panel is in the basement, you have room for a new double pole breaker and you don't mind a surface mount box and surface mount wiring it will be a lot cheaper than if an electrician needs to juggle around breakers, put in a sub panel, run some wiring half way through the house inside the walls and through floors, etc.

The wire alone for a 50 foot run that can support 30 amp is over 60$

10-2 should be about a buck a foot.  In my case I was able to put the outlets about 3 feet from the breaker panel.  The PDUs have "long" (12 foot? 15 foot?) power cables.

[GigaBit]

Question: What temp do most of you on average see as a good operating temperature for your S1's?

The highest I've ever seen on the S1 Miner status is 58.  So that's a good operating temperature for me.

Dear Lord!!!

I can never for the life of me go over 50, even 50's a record, usually 46-48 lol

[GigaBit]

Make do with what you can whilst you grow, just be safe about it. 

Move to a data center, commercial or industrial office space, small store when you can afford it though, no sense pushing the issue more than you need to. You can rent or talk to an owner about rental if there is no one using an expensive purchase.  Usually agents don't mind doing temporary rentals instead of letting a building not being profitable but not all do.  Some small but modern office buildings bill by the square footage too and are ideal to work with since you pay for what you need.

Let's face it, with mining, room isn't necessarily an issue.  When room size becomes an issue then I don't think that re-investment money's an issue either =D