Thermal Shock?

[Za1n]

Thermal Shock may or may not be the best term to use, but what I am referring to is a sudden temperature change that miners can be exposed to.

I live in a cooler climate and with Winter setting in the outside temperatures are starting to drop below freezing. This year, I have moved many of my mining rigs into my garage due to the tremendous heat they produce if all were left inside the house, even in the Wintertime. However, while it is a good place to move some miners to I would still like to use my garage for its intended purpose, namely keeping my cars inside. So when it is below freezing outside, my garage remains close to room temperature inside when everything is closed up. I do keep a Window open slightly but overall it is pretty cozy in there.

My worry is as outside temperatures continue to drop, at which point do I need to worry about the extreme changes? So say if it is 10-20°C inside my garage and I open one of the doors and the outside temperature is -30°C, would the sudden inrush of cold air cause any issues? The miners are inside the garage a bit, along inside walls, so I assume there would be a sort of "air bubble" protecting them somewhat, but there would still be a significant rapid decrease in temperature.

So my question is is there a safe tolerance or is it any concern at all? My one thought is to keep more windows open and try to keep the average ambient temperature lower all the time, but on the coldest of days (it can get as low as -40°C on extreme nights where I live) I think I would still have a significant temperature drop should I open a big garage door under such conditions.

Any thoughts or experience on the matter are appreciated.

[adaseb]

Yes the sudden temperature change might causes issues since metal expands and contracts. This is the reason why many people had to "bake" their GPUs in the oven to get them going again because the huge heavy heat sinks broke some solder jolts between the PCB and the GPU solder balls.

When you quit mining OR gaming the GPU temps go back down slowly, when a window is open and extremely cold air enters you can actually HEAR the metal contracting.

[64dimensions]

Look up thermal mass. The thermal mass of air is much smaller than the thermal mass of your equipment.

Would another concern be condensation?

If your mining equipment is cold and suddenly placed in a humid environment would condensation be a concern?

[Za1n]

Personal experience: living in Fairbanks, Alaska, where -40 is common...

What height are the miners situated? At ground level? or on a workbench or something?

If they are above ground level, I don't think you have much to worry about. People think that having the door open, means the cold air comes in evenly, but it doesn't. The cold air will 'swoop' to the lower levels and fill your garage up from the bottom up.

If you're worried about it, you could test it out. Time how long it takes you to open your garage door, drive your car in, and close it fully. Maybe 60 seconds? Now go and stand by the miner that is closest to the garage door, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts or something. Open the garage door and pretend your driving in / closing it. You'll feel your feet and knees get very cold but from your waist up, it will still be room temperature for a while (longer than 60 seconds). So if your miners are elevated I don't think the cold air will even get to them before the doors closed again.

Yes, all the miners are at bench level or higher in the garage. I have noticed the effect of what you mentioned, as we often use the garage as an overflow refrigerator in the winters. Our canned items, soda, beer, etc are usually kept quite chilly when placed near the floor level, while you can feel the heat on your face as you open the door from the house. So I do know this layering effect is indeed happening. Thanks for the first hand experience feedback as it is more reassuring.

As far as the expanding metal, while I am sure this can happen, it is not like I am shutting them off and tossing them in a snowbank or something. I assume even with cold air coming in a small protective bubble of warm air develops around each one as long as they remain running. I also like to think keeping them grouped together offers some protection as well forming a layer of warmth as discussed above, but again hearing as many different opinions as possible is helpful.

[joblo]

There are already temp diffs within the system of 30-50C, another 20-30 isn't that much of a big deal.
You could vent the heat from the garage to reduce the effect, a cold garage is usually better to prevent freeze/thaw
cycles accelerating rust.

About condensation, a customer was reporting frequent HW faults on their system. It was discovered they would shut
off the AC at night and open all the Windows to reduce cooling costs. This was in Florida. Ticket closed.

[Za1n]

There are already temp diffs within the system of 30-50C, another 20-30 isn't that much of a big deal.
You could vent the heat from the garage to reduce the effect, a cold garage is usually better to prevent freeze/thaw
cycles accelerating rust.

About condensation, a customer was reporting frequent HW faults on their system. It was discovered they would shut
off the AC at night and open all the Windows to reduce cooling costs. This was in Florida. Ticket closed.

Yeah, I am already venting via keeping a window open, so it stays above freezing but not at room temperature or anything. I do not think condensation is an issue as the miners will always be on and warm, plus in winter the air is pretty dry. Also with the garage basically being heated it should drop the humidity down even more. I would guess the only issue maybe if the cars come in with a lot of snow to melt off or something, so I will try to keep that to a minimum.