Calculating heat generated.

[cbeast]

I see that there are spreadsheets for calculating the BTC/Electricity to determine profitability. I live in the Southern US where it gets very hot in the summertime. I will also need A/C to vent out the heat from the GPU/CPU cooling system. Any idea on how much heat is emitted in terms of BTUs?

[bobR]

I see that there are spreadsheets for calculating the BTC/Electricity to determine profitability. I live in the Southern US where it gets very hot in the summertime. I will also need A/C to vent out the heat from the GPU/CPU cooling system. Any idea on how much heat is emitted in terms of BTUs?

btu's are heat
every Watt used per hr is 3.414btu per hr
the heat has to go somewhere... you can't cool something with warmer air

[cbeast]

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for when using an A/C rated in BTUs.

I imagine in cold climates that the electric used for the system converted to heat would equate to home heat savings.

[allinvain]

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for when using an A/C rated in BTUs.

I imagine in cold climates that the electric used for the system converted to heat would equate to home heat savings.

Umm yes and no. What you're doing is using electricity to heat your home instead of natural gas. In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs. The thing is that you'd have to figure out some way to push all that heat from the miners and circulate it around the house. I wonder if anyone has setup a ghetto rig to push the heat into a furnace's ducts.

[xenon481]

In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs.

In my part of the US, Heating/Cooking/WaterHeating with Natural Gas is significantly cheaper than doing the equivalent with electricity.

[w128]

In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs.

Where in the world are you?

There is absolutely no comparison between gas and electric heat where I am. I paid about $60 a month to keep a 4000 sq. ft house toasty warm with gas last winter.

I'd be better off burning dollar bills to keep warm than paying for electric heat.

[benjamindees]

Electricity can be cheaper if you use a heat pump.

You can use Google to convert Watts to BTU/hr:
http://www.google.com/search?q=188+watt+in+BTU%2Fhr

One Ton of cooling is 12,000 BTU/hr:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton#Refrigeration

Remember electric heaters are nearly 100% efficient, while gas can range from 40-100%.

[cbeast]

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for when using an A/C rated in BTUs.

I imagine in cold climates that the electric used for the system converted to heat would equate to home heat savings.

Umm yes and no. What you're doing is using electricity to heat your home instead of natural gas. In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs. The thing is that you'd have to figure out some way to push all that heat from the miners and circulate it around the house. I wonder if anyone has setup a ghetto rig to push the heat into a furnace's ducts.

I have a fireplace with a heatilator (sp?) circulating system. I suppose I could place the mining rig there and use a video monitor to display a GPU generated fireplace display. 

[SgtSpike]

I don't understand the conversion of watts to BTUs with regards to A/C units...

I have a Window A/C unit rated at 10,000 BTUs, but it only draws 9 amps max, which is equivalent to 1,080w.  Yet on the wiki site, it says that 12,000 BTUs is 3,517w.

I would have expected A/C to be LESS efficient than heat at the same wattage, not more... so is it true that a 12,000 BTU A/C unit can remove 3,517w worth of heat?

[allinvain]

In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs.

Where in the world are you?

There is absolutely no comparison between gas and electric heat where I am. I paid about $60 a month to keep a 4000 sq. ft house toasty warm with gas last winter.

I'd be better off burning dollar bills to keep warm than paying for electric heat.

I'm in Canada. You know what let me check my gas bill cause I may have spoken with my ass lol :p..one moment plz..nope I was correct..I pay $0.14 per cubic meter of gas, but pay only $0.06 in the winter for electricity.

[allinvain]

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for when using an A/C rated in BTUs.

I imagine in cold climates that the electric used for the system converted to heat would equate to home heat savings.

Umm yes and no. What you're doing is using electricity to heat your home instead of natural gas. In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs. The thing is that you'd have to figure out some way to push all that heat from the miners and circulate it around the house. I wonder if anyone has setup a ghetto rig to push the heat into a furnace's ducts.

I have a fireplace with a heatilator (sp?) circulating system. I suppose I could place the mining rig there and use a video monitor to display a GPU generated fireplace display. 

Well, what you ideally want is to circulate the heat throughout the whole house not just in the room where the fireplace is. Otherwise your miners will be eating that hot air. Ideally what would be best like I said is to put the miners in the basement and feed the hot air the give out straight into the furnaces air circulation system (it's a giant fan lol).

[inh]

I don't understand the conversion of watts to BTUs with regards to A/C units...

I have a Window A/C unit rated at 10,000 BTUs, but it only draws 9 amps max, which is equivalent to 1,080w.  Yet on the wiki site, it says that 12,000 BTUs is 3,517w.

I would have expected A/C to be LESS efficient than heat at the same wattage, not more... so is it true that a 12,000 BTU A/C unit can remove 3,517w worth of heat?

Your A/C isn't a heater or a cooler, its  a heat pump. It moves heat from one place to another. Takes the heat in your room and pumps it outside It's not converting the electricity in to cold and pumping it in. The electricity is used up whiel the A/C does the work of moving the heat from inside to outside.

[xenon481]

I don't understand the conversion of watts to BTUs with regards to A/C units...

I have a Window A/C unit rated at 10,000 BTUs, but it only draws 9 amps max, which is equivalent to 1,080w.  Yet on the wiki site, it says that 12,000 BTUs is 3,517w.

I would have expected A/C to be LESS efficient than heat at the same wattage, not more... so is it true that a 12,000 BTU A/C unit can remove 3,517w worth of heat?

Your A/C isn't a heater or a cooler, its  a heat pump. It moves heat from one place to another. Takes the heat in your room and pumps it outside It's not converting the electricity in to cold and pumping it in. The electricity is used up whiel the A/C does the work of moving the heat from inside to outside.

This is not true for standard Central Air Conditioning. (with the exception of heat pumps)

[SgtSpike]

I don't understand the conversion of watts to BTUs with regards to A/C units...

I have a Window A/C unit rated at 10,000 BTUs, but it only draws 9 amps max, which is equivalent to 1,080w.  Yet on the wiki site, it says that 12,000 BTUs is 3,517w.

I would have expected A/C to be LESS efficient than heat at the same wattage, not more... so is it true that a 12,000 BTU A/C unit can remove 3,517w worth of heat?

Your A/C isn't a heater or a cooler, its  a heat pump. It moves heat from one place to another. Takes the heat in your room and pumps it outside It's not converting the electricity in to cold and pumping it in. The electricity is used up whiel the A/C does the work of moving the heat from inside to outside.

Dang... well that's cool!  Thanks for the explanation.

[benjamindees]

Your A/C isn't a heater or a cooler, its  a heat pump. It moves heat from one place to another. Takes the heat in your room and pumps it outside It's not converting the electricity in to cold and pumping it in. The electricity is used up whiel the A/C does the work of moving the heat from inside to outside.

This is not true for standard Central Air Conditioning. (with the exception of heat pumps)

Wrong.  That description is perfectly accurate.

[allinvain]

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ac1.htm

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

debate over...

[keybaud]

http://home.howstuffworks.com/ac1.htm

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

debate over...

Or in simple terms, an AC also creates its own heat in order to move heat from somewhere else, so it needs to be able to cool its own output as well as the environment it is in.

[compro01]

In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs.

Where in the world are you?

There is absolutely no comparison between gas and electric heat where I am. I paid about $60 a month to keep a 4000 sq. ft house toasty warm with gas last winter.

I'd be better off burning dollar bills to keep warm than paying for electric heat.

I'm in Canada. You know what let me check my gas bill cause I may have spoken with my ass lol :p..one moment plz..nope I was correct..I pay $0.14 per cubic meter of gas, but pay only $0.06 in the winter for electricity.

You need to check your units.  a cubic metre of gas is a lot more energy than a kilowatt-hour of electricity.

On equal units:

a gigajoule of natural gas (26.3 cubic metres) costs me $4.55 ($0.1725/cubic metre)

a gigajoule of electricity (278 kilowatt-hours) costs me $24.93 ($0.09/kilowatt-hour)

Even using your prices, natural gas is still way cheaper ($16.68 vs. $3.68).

[mathx]

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for when using an A/C rated in BTUs.

I imagine in cold climates that the electric used for the system converted to heat would equate to home heat savings.

Umm yes and no. What you're doing is using electricity to heat your home instead of natural gas. In most places I know of electricity is cheaper than natural gas/heating oil so yeah I guess you would be saving $ on heating costs. The thing is that you'd have to figure out some way to push all that heat from the miners and circulate it around the house. I wonder if anyone has setup a ghetto rig to push the heat into a furnace's ducts.

Electricity isnt anywhere close to cheaper than natgas, or people would be running generators all the time to make electricity to save money. This would quickly make the prices equal (modulo some consideration for ease of use/transport, etc).

The other way around. nat gas is about 3.5c/kWh of heat here for us. Electricity is about 12c/kWh.

If you are going to run your rig on electricity, then your electricity for the rig in winter, assuming it heats the house in the right places nicely (perhaps not, fan noise keeps it away from humans and humans are the thing that need heating, most of the rest of the house would be happy at 35F/2C all winter), then that just makes your electricity cheaper - 12-3.5 = 7.5c/kWh of power.

In summer its the opposite, with nearly double the cost for power + cooling. Not to mention extra AC noise and capital cost for the AC.

[mathx]

I'm in Canada. You know what let me check my gas bill cause I may have spoken with my ass lol :p..one moment plz..nope I was correct..I pay $0.14 per cubic meter of gas, but pay only $0.06 in the winter for electricity.

Do you tihnk 1 cu m of gas = $0.06 whatevers of electricity? Need some units please. kWH are fine. its a unit of energy. Throw in efficiency of device after that too (as someone said, gas furnace is
about 40-98%, then there's 300W furnace fan for my 1800 sq ft house, but all of its waste heat goes into the house too, for the most part...)