BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 13, 2011, 05:58:19 PM Last edit: June 13, 2011, 06:23:10 PM by BombaUcigasa |
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This is a stretch but the basic idea is this: I want to build a small self-reliant automated low-maintenance "computing center" in the confines of an estate in the country side, 30km away from my city. It looks like this: ![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-P48rGMh4zrg%2FSe3HdsglKlI%2FAAAAAAAAJiA%2F3gDOoO4Su5s%2Fs720%2Fgradina.jpg&t=665&c=OJau0euRcCSm_w) It's a panoramic HDR rendering, as you can see it's pretty sunny. The catch of the project is: solar and wind power only. Assumption: Bitcoins can be sold for more than the cost to produce.I want to come by weekly and bring supplies, perform some maintenance and exchange hardware as needed. The project would first use some solar panels that could generate up to 2kW of power, a similar power rating wind turbine, lots of batteries, maybe a backup petrol generator, inverters, monitoring and control systems, cooling systems, and 2-3 rigs doing a total of 1200-1500 Mhash/s. I estimated the costs of such an operating cell to be at around 1$/W for the solar and wind capacities (so over 5000$ for the power generators, associated install costs), 1500$ for the video cards, 500$ for the PCs and accessories, and the rest for up to 10.000$, including some controllers, a control box, GPRS internet installation, inverters, etc. Also, I forgot to mention, Romania, 45 degrees latitude, temperamental weather (-20C snowy winters .. +40C dry summers), cloud cover ~35%, wind speeds ~38kmph (24 mph). The project should not require any extra costs, be modular and upgradeable/downgrade-able for the next 5 years. I can replace the cards as needed, even increase capacity later and so on. The hardware should already be purchased second hand, or if new it should be resold as it becomes less than optimal in 2-3 years. At current bitcoin prices, it should make around 16$ a day, or 5840$ a year, if the bitcoin market_price/production_cost ratio remains the same. The advantage: no power costs. In case it fails, I would recover 70-80% of the costs in the first year by selling out all the hardware. If it succeeds, I could get back three times the investment cost in 5 years or continuously increase it's capacity by selling the bitcoin and retaining it's value in hardware. Would anyone be interested in following/improving/implementing/working on such a project?
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Third Way
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June 13, 2011, 06:11:54 PM |
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How much will it cost to build the walls?
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blease resbond -> 1BYJKxpntNn6TZbM5M5CWkEb8vr8vDcBrr
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BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 13, 2011, 06:18:17 PM |
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How much will it cost to build the walls?
We consider the re-purposing of an existing shack, using the existing underground den or indeed creating a new one-room building or underground den for security against entry and the elements (something around 1000$ would be sufficient with local materials and workforce). This is something I need to think about, as good thermal insulation is required as well as maybe a separating air frame (indirect cooling/ventilation) to prevent humidity and dust/bugs from entering the housing. Also, I forgot to mention, Romania, 45 degrees latitude, temperamental weather (-20C snowy winters .. +40C dry summers), cloud cover ~35%, wind speeds ~38kmph (24 mph).
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hamdi
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June 13, 2011, 06:52:54 PM |
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cool project keep us up to date
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Stefan Thomas
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June 13, 2011, 09:01:05 PM |
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underground den Bitcoin bunker? Very cool project. Can you post a BTC address for donations?
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Twitter: @justmoonPGP: D16E 7B04 42B9 F02E 0660 C094 C947 3700 A4B0 8BF3
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grue
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June 13, 2011, 09:15:35 PM |
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i think it would be more profitable to build self contained, self powered mining modules that connect using wifi ![Tongue](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
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Basiley
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June 13, 2011, 09:23:21 PM |
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nice idea, IMO. p.s. north Europe[including Russian part]expect data-center boom in future ![Wink](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
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BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 13, 2011, 10:05:24 PM |
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underground den Bitcoin bunker? Very cool project. Can you post a BTC address for donations? TO THE BITCOIN BUNKER!... that sounds like a cool idea to focus on. If the project starts anytime soon, I'll ask for donations for hosting and maintaining the sub-community dedicated to such endeavors. I will most likely start on the documentation and prototyping of the system by next month, I'm waiting to see if bitcoin can gracefully handle the popularity down-slope from the recent events and press, my current assumption is the long-term investment stability. i think it would be more profitable to build self contained, self powered mining modules that connect using wifi ![Tongue](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/tongue.gif) Yes, I thought about making low-power long-term autonomous mining "bird houses", the main issue with those is there are not many hardware devices that can handle the role, either they use little power but need 20 years to pay off the hardware (by which time they basically break down), or the cost is too prohibitive for a device that could be jacked in two hours. Mining rigs hardware pays for itself in less than two months on the other hand... and having both redundant and centralized components allows for balancing efficiency. nice idea, IMO. p.s. north Europe[including Russian part]expect data-center boom in future ![Wink](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/wink.gif) I am sure this will happen, there are many fortune aspiring young lads that could ride on the recent natural resources boom in the Eurasian area.
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Yeti
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June 13, 2011, 10:37:35 PM |
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With the current hostility going on (DDoS attacks on pools, accounts being hacked and BTC stolen, speculation driving the price around like crazy...) you surely need a guard on watch 24/7 that can thwart any invaders. If you "only" use an alarm system, by the time you get there all your precious hardware will be gone or just blown to smithereens.
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opticbit
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June 13, 2011, 10:46:01 PM |
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I'd like to do something similar.
doubt you'll have excess power, but could also sell to power co.
would include mesh wifi, tor, i2p, freenet, pirate box, and maybe a thing-o-matic.
donation linke between "mine" contains donation addy.
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BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 14, 2011, 02:00:44 AM |
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With the current hostility going on (DDoS attacks on pools, accounts being hacked and BTC stolen, speculation driving the price around like crazy...) you surely need a guard on watch 24/7 that can thwart any invaders. If you "only" use an alarm system, by the time you get there all your precious hardware will be gone or just blown to smithereens.
Presumably I would have some form of remote desktop control, video surveillance and hire a local to investigate things on demand (when he is not drunk out of his mind). Damn it, now I need to think about backup uplinks and remote controlled locks. Common wisdom would be to use this location only for mining, any pool (personal or public) payments could be diverted to dormant wallets stored securely somewhere or everywhere. In case of break-in, they would just loot or destroy the hardware.
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bitcoinminer
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June 14, 2011, 02:08:29 AM |
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Can you not grow poppies there instead? lol
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.
-Warren Buffett
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BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 14, 2011, 02:16:42 AM |
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Can you not grow poppies there instead? lol
I don't use drugs, and nobody in my family or circle of friends does, it would be useless for me. And a field of ripe poppy seeds one hour away from my home surrounded by poor peasants that desperately need money to drink so badly they break any laws possible would not be a wise idea. Plus I think they're regulated, civilians can't grow plants with traces of drugs in them, you need a special permit.
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bitcoinminer
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June 14, 2011, 03:40:00 AM |
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Can you not grow poppies there instead? lol
I don't use drugs, and nobody in my family or circle of friends does, it would be useless for me. And a field of ripe poppy seeds one hour away from my home surrounded by poor peasants that desperately need money to drink so badly they break any laws possible would not be a wise idea. Plus I think they're regulated, civilians can't grow plants with traces of drugs in them, you need a special permit. Sorry, "Lol" is english slang for "I'm not being serious". Nobody who uses opium would have the motivation to plant, harvest, and process poppy plants.
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.
-Warren Buffett
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Mark Oates
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June 14, 2011, 04:13:17 AM |
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I think solar + bitcoin is a beautiful combination.
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mellowhead
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June 14, 2011, 05:45:50 AM |
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<-- Solar expert. No really, it's what I do for a living.
It's a nice idea. Just remember how much power a mining setup consumes every day though. If you're serious about it, I'd be willing to help with your remewable energy system design. I can help with wiring diagrams, system design, installation recommendations, etc. I have many years of experience putting systems together.
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11 Cheers for binary currency! 1BxQsmtVtzJD9uEe5MxcyqFaohpgb76ohs
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bitcoinminer
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June 14, 2011, 06:00:11 AM |
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<-- Solar expert. No really, it's what I do for a living.
It's a nice idea. Just remember how much power a mining setup consumes every day though. If you're serious about it, I'd be willing to help with your remewable energy system design. I can help with wiring diagrams, system design, installation recommendations, etc. I have many years of experience putting systems together.
How many BTC for a 1 KW panel setup, inverter, and charging controller?
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.
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Yeti
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June 14, 2011, 07:36:15 AM |
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Presumably I would have some form of remote desktop control, video surveillance and hire a local to investigate things on demand (when he is not drunk out of his mind). Damn it, now I need to think about backup uplinks and remote controlled locks.
Common wisdom would be to use this location only for mining, any pool (personal or public) payments could be diverted to dormant wallets stored securely somewhere or everywhere. In case of break-in, they would just loot or destroy the hardware.
Yeah, gotta love Romanian peasants! ![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif) (My wife grew up in Romania, so it's not that I'm xenophobic or anything...) Sorry if I sounded too negative before, actually it's a beautiful idea and I'm actually dreaming of my own solar powered mining farm, but I just wanted to caution you against an unmanned shack somewhere that could easily be torn apart if nobody watched for a couple of days.
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BombaUcigasa (OP)
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June 14, 2011, 11:17:09 AM |
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<-- Solar expert. No really, it's what I do for a living.
It's a nice idea. Just remember how much power a mining setup consumes every day though. If you're serious about it, I'd be willing to help with your remewable energy system design. I can help with wiring diagrams, system design, installation recommendations, etc. I have many years of experience putting systems together.
I consulted some "solar maps" and for this specific region and a typical 1Wp silicon monocrystaline cell, I would get during daytime about 1W in the winter and 4W in the summer, at a 45 degrees orientation. This works well for the summer, but for the winter I would get less than half my needed capacity. I guess it works out if I consider the cooling costs of running in the summer, and I can throttle my energy usage during the night. Thanks for the interest, I'll look you up when I'll start designing this.
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Basiley
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June 14, 2011, 01:32:14 PM |
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not much snow in Romania in winter?[sorry for asking, buy i never been in Romania "in person"] if so, update solar panels with cleaning machinery and/or use snow-proof installation[cost some power efficiency, usually]. or try diversify power supply between TYPES of generation, like add few vertical wind turbines or even build geothermal power station[thats more expensive, but have longer TTL].
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