Mining Electrical Fire!

[esconceptsz]

https://imgur.com/a/vQECC

Anybody else having this kind of issue?

I've been working the last couple months to have 400a electrical service installed to my house. A 200a main panel + a 200a sub-panel dedicated to mining (I'm also using 2x 30a circuits from the "main" panel for mining because my home doesn't use much electricity). My house could have been burned down... see photo.

My house is setup for 150a service. The hardware for 400a service has been installed with inspector approval. However, the power company has not run the new feeder lines... so until they do I'm limited to the 150a.

I've been very careful about circuits and loads. I'm currently running my whole home @ 26,000w max., most of which is my mining equipment. I'm running my mining equipment @ 240v on 30a circuits. My power company has good stats online, I can prove the ~26,000w maximum I've been running, which is below the 80% (or 28,800w) maximum recommended for 150a service.

Here's the kicker - the fire occurred at the splice point between the meter and the panel with wire rated for 200a!! The splice is temporary until the power company runs the new feeder lines. My electrical load, while it may have contributed to the fire, is not the real cause - the splice should have been able to handle the load! My analysis is the splice was not done very well - and that's the real reason the fire occurred.

The electrical company I hired to do the install came out immediately (@ 10PM) to resolve. This time they essentially bolted the splice together using a block (which they probably should have done to begin with). I've been running the same load since for nearly a week, no issues.

Anybody else have electrical issues? Am sure it's not just me! Be safe out there! And not to mention my wife is super pissed!! I had to turn in a few of my guns to the police station to destroy, to help with the situation a little (she's very anti-gun).

[1715514504]

1715514504

[adaseb]

When was your place built? Was it during the housing boom?

If so much work back then was half assed and rushed. Even the inspections were rushed.

They got away with it because they assumed no house would even run a close to full load.

[T-Gee05]

It must have been loosely spliced causing it to heat up and burned the insulation.

That is why it is very important to do the splicing properly as recommended by the electrical code.

[Undefined31415]

Perhaps that's a sign you should consider an alternate location or downsize your mining operation.

To be frank, don't defecate where you eat. I wouldn't push my own home that hard for the sake of running my mining rigs. They might be extremely profitable, but I wouldn't want to risk damage to my home, with my family inside.

[Marvell2]

scary, yeah im moving all my miners to the garage this fall, had some close calls with risers and cards exploding

Home mining with many rigs is just too risky

[jmigdlc99]

scary, yeah im moving all my miners to the garage this fall, had some close calls with risers and cards exploding

Home mining with many rigs is just too risky

Cards exploding..? Really? Care to share your story..?

Anyway sorry for the OP. It was very nice of your electric company to come to your home even at 10 PM in the evening.
Are you paying a premium on your electricity rates? Our local provider here doesn't give a shit about its customers because they have everything monopolized lol. $0.2/kwh. Good thing I offset with solar

[dagarair]

Splices are always the weak point.  You say it should handle it but I am here to tell you whoever did that and did not use lugs to hold down that splice is an idiot.  anything over 50-60 amps should have it.  It is the safest way to make a splice. 

Also if it was a weak splice the looser it becomes the more resistance thus higher amperage at that location until....boom.

[lokinator]

Clearly a splice issue. Not your fault. They half assed the splice and like another poster said, it caused the joint to heat up and melt the jacket. It sounds like it is properly spliced now so you should be good until they finish installing the final solution.


That being said, the real important part of this post is that you allowed your wife to turn your guns over voluntarily? You have got to be insane...
Nothing like voluntarily relinquishing your constitutional rights. You going to allow the government to microchip you next? How bout we take away due process and freedom of speech while we are at it.  Maybe we should remove the verbiage about illegal search and seizure?

[Za1n]

https://imgur.com/a/vQECC

Here's the kicker - the fire occurred at the splice point between the meter and the panel with wire rated for 200a!! The splice is temporary until the power company runs the new feeder lines. My electrical load, while it may have contributed to the fire, is not the real cause - the splice should have been able to handle the load! My analysis is the splice was not done very well - and that's the real reason the fire occurred.

So it sounds like you had a contractor do a substandard job for a temporary splice, most of the rest of your post is a lot of how to do about nothing. The issue you experienced, while definitely frightening and rightly so, really has little to do with mining itself as any activity that draws significant current could have caused the same situation.

Anyway, not that I am unsympathetic to your situation, but it sounds as if you already have it well under control and unless someone were to be in that exact situation with a substandard temporary splice, I really do not see the need for the tone you took to issue a desperate warning.

As far as the last part of your post, it really sounds like you just need to grow a pair all around. Your beef and rants should be directed to the contractor who almost caused your house to burn down, not to the mining community. Also you need to tell your wife much the same, I do not even see how that last part even figures into this at all. If anything demand the contractor subtract all or a portion of the bill for such shoddy work endangering your life and that of your family's and keep your guns locked up. Really two separate issues, but it may be one in the same as it sounds like your wife doesn't really put a lot of confidence in you.

Finally building a 400 amp mining farm inside your house putting lives at risk doesn't sound too inspiring. That kind of hashpower needs to go into a detached garage or shed so if it does burn down, you might at least be able to save your home. If you have little kids around even more so.

[BitThreadz]

OP,

Care to share a pic of your farm?

[maxmad_x]

Clearly a splice issue. Not your fault. They half assed the splice and like another poster said, it caused the joint to heat up and melt the jacket. It sounds like it is properly spliced now so you should be good until they finish installing the final solution.


That being said, the real important part of this post is that you allowed your wife to turn your guns over voluntarily? You have got to be insane...
Nothing like voluntarily relinquishing your constitutional rights. You going to allow the government to microchip you next? How bout we take away due process and freedom of speech while we are at it.  Maybe we should remove the verbiage about illegal search and seizure?

Oh SHTAP you dingbat gunnut.. !  HE is doing the right thing. He cares about his wife and her happiness more than his guns, I am proud of OP for that.

[philipma1957]

https://imgur.com/a/vQECC
...

Anybody else have electrical issues? Am sure it's not just me! Be safe out there! And not to mention my wife is super pissed!! I had to turn in a few of my guns to the police station to destroy, to help with the situation a little (she's very anti-gun).

Smart turn in a few and keep a few.

Clearly a splice issue. Not your fault. They half assed the splice and like another poster said, it caused the joint to heat up and melt the jacket. It sounds like it is properly spliced now so you should be good until they finish installing the final solution.


That being said, the real important part of this post is that you allowed your wife to turn your guns over voluntarily? You have got to be insane...
Nothing like voluntarily relinquishing your constitutional rights. You going to allow the government to microchip you next? How bout we take away due process and freedom of speech while we are at it.  Maybe we should remove the verbiage about illegal search and seizure?

Oh SHTAP you dingbat gunnut.. !  HE is doing the right thing. He cares about his wife and her happiness more than his guns, I am proud of OP for that.

as for the two of you  both wrong  you  need to meet in the middle.

I am soooooo tired of the far right and the far left.

On guns   > no machine guns  please 

A six shot pistol
A few rifles
a few shotguns   no worries.

 My wife and I have two shotguns.  No big deal.

both of you should see the op met in the middle on the gun issue.

[matuson]

Need to see how was organized the connection. Did the terminal block such a load. There are cases when applied to wires of different section and of different material. For example copper and aluminum. If so then heat is inevitable. You need to check the wire size. 200A is not enough. You need to have the project at home where there is a section of electric distribution.

[joshuajones02]

curious to see your mining operations OP

[64dimensions]

The problem is the resistance at the splice. Copper oxidizes when exposed to air. The copper oxide is still conductive unlike aluminum oxide which is an insulator.

Say you are running 120A through the splice.

Roughly, the power dissipated is P = I2R:

R = 0.001 ohm P= 14 watts. One milliohm still generates some heat.

Now the problem is with conductors, the resistance goes up with temperature.

So as the splice and the surrounding wire gets warmer the resistance increases.

If you can't dissipate the heat, you have a runaway situation.

[Elder III]

Shoddy electrical work. Whichever company did that job should be repairing everything for free and probably would be fully liable if your house had burned down (thankfully that didn't happen).

I bought my wife a gun for our first anniversary and we both have CCW licenses now.