[Alaska] GPU mining is pretty much the cheapest way to produce heat :)

[JoeMattie]

You guys complaining about GPU mining not being profitable apparently don't live in Alaska

Up here, GPU mining is a godsend. I'll explain why:

1 gallon of #1 heating fuel weighs ~3.100kg and where I live costs roughly $5.85.
The higher heating value of #1 HHF is around 4.64x10^7 J/kg.

So, that gallon of #1 HHF can ideally yield 143840000 Joules of energy, equivalent to 39.96 kWh.

Power here costs $0.195 / kWh. So that $5.85 gallon of fuel has the same amount of heat as you could produce with about $7.79 of electricity.

You can see where I'm going with this.

Say I have a 1600W mining rig that pulls ~ 3.6Mh/s mining LTC: this rig draws about $7.80 worth of power per 24 hours, producing about the same amount of heat in the process as a gallon of fuel.  This puts my adjusted power cost for the rig at $1.95 per 24h.

So, given a conservative LTC price of $1.95/ea, this 3.6Mh rig only needs to be able to produce slightly over 1 LTC per day to be profitable.

That should be about the time the difficulty hits ~4000.

And I sincerely doubt that most other LTC miners will keep mining at that point unless the price of an LTC goes up.

In a given winter (6 months) a single family home up here will use 600 gallons of heating fuel, or $3500. This can be almost entirely replaced by around 5.5kW of GPUs (12.5 Mh or so).  In 6 months at a median difficulty of 2000 that will cost me around $4600 and net me 1100LTC.  Even at $2/LTC, that's almost $1000 savings over heating fuel.

Thoughts?

[-ck]

I used to get 1200W of heat from my GPU rig which mined 2.7GH of bitcoin. Now I get 1200W of heat from my ASICs mining 200GH of bitcoin.

[JoeMattie]

That's pretty awesome.

Sadly, I missed the ASIC boat by a long shot

Respect to you sir, your software is an integral part of something that is making my life easier. 

[-ck]

Sorry, couldn't resist. You didn't deserve that comeback 

[crazyates]

And what do you do in the summer? Turn your rigs off?

[mufa23]

Maine guy here, and I love the free heating in the winter as well. I'm going to be using the GPU (litecoin) rigs to heat up my rooms come Winter again.

EDIT:

And what do you do in the summer? Turn your rigs off?

Still mining right now, even though it's 90'F. I put everything in the garage. It's always hot in the Summer there anyway. I have them setup with a few box fans to keep the air flowing. Getting anywhere between 75'C and 85'C temps.

[JoeMattie]

And what do you do in the summer? Turn your rigs off?

Thankfully, litecoin difficulty is low enough to cover the 3KW of air conditioning I'm having to use on it right now heh.

Summer is short though.

[crazyates]

Maine guy here, and I love the free heating in the winter as well. I'm going to be using the GPU (litecoin) rigs to heat up my rooms come Winter again.

EDIT:

And what do you do in the summer? Turn your rigs off?

Still mining right now, even though it's 90'F. I put everything in the garage. It's always hot in the Summer there anyway. I have them setup with a few box fans to keep the air flowing. Getting anywhere between 75'C and 85'C temps.

Ya I liked when the rain came, and dropped it back down to the 70s. Supposed to be back into the 90s all this next week.

Box fans for everyone!

[Trillium]

My GPUs keep my apartment at 27 deg C ( 81 F ) even when it's 10 outside. This means I can have summer all year long...! 

[HellDiverUK]

My LTC rig keeps my downstairs temps the same as upstairs.  Before it was 18C downstairs and 22C upstairs during spring and autumn.  Now it's 23C downstairs and 24C upstairs.

Saves a fortune in heating oil.

[Moogle]

Interesting way of looking at it! My single GPU used to keep my bedroom at a did 27 degrees c. I hate the heat though. Keep all the windows open now haha

[Littleshop]

You guys complaining about GPU mining not being profitable apparently don't live in Alaska

Up here, GPU mining is a godsend. I'll explain why:

1 gallon of #1 heating fuel weighs ~3.100kg and where I live costs roughly $5.85.
The higher heating value of #1 HHF is around 4.64x10^7 J/kg.

So, that gallon of #1 HHF can ideally yield 143840000 Joules of energy, equivalent to 39.96 kWh.

Power here costs $0.195 / kWh. So that $5.85 gallon of fuel has the same amount of heat as you could produce with about $7.79 of electricity.

You can see where I'm going with this.

Say I have a 1600W mining rig that pulls ~ 3.6Mh/s mining LTC: this rig draws about $7.80 worth of power per 24 hours, producing about the same amount of heat in the process as a gallon of fuel.  This puts my adjusted power cost for the rig at $1.95 per 24h.

So, given a conservative LTC price of $1.95/ea, this 3.6Mh rig only needs to be able to produce slightly over 1 LTC per day to be profitable.

That should be about the time the difficulty hits ~4000.

And I sincerely doubt that most other LTC miners will keep mining at that point unless the price of an LTC goes up.

In a given winter (6 months) a single family home up here will use 600 gallons of heating fuel, or $3500. This can be almost entirely replaced by around 5.5kW of GPUs (12.5 Mh or so).  In 6 months at a median difficulty of 2000 that will cost me around $4600 and net me 1100LTC.  Even at $2/LTC, that's almost $1000 savings over heating fuel.

Thoughts?

I have a house that is heated by propane.  Natural gas is not available.  So there also it would be cheaper to install rigs in the winter.  They only need to cover half the electricity cost to beat propane.  Right now they still make a profit with litecoin so most probably that will be the way to go for a little free heat as well.

Of course I am now considering a small grid tied solar panel or two 500W-1000W that would always be fighting the meter just a little bit. 

[dht7479]

Are there any technical spec about the released heat from hd7950 in kw or kjules?
I plan to put my 12hd7950 in duct system: fan -> air filter -> rig -> outside
Thanks

[Trillium]

Are there any technical spec about the released heat from hd7950 in kw or kjules?
I plan to put my 12hd7950 in duct system: fan -> air filter -> rig -> outside
Thanks

You can assume all electrical energy going into a computer is converted to heat. The TDP of a 7950 is 200 watts. It will be more if you overclock. It might be less...

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

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

I'm sure some people here can tell you their own experience with how much a 7950 uses, most likely measured on the AC mains side of the PSU. So it will vary a bit with the efficiency of the PSU too.

200 watts = 0.2 kW = 0.2 kJ/s {since 1 watt is 1 J/s}

[HellDiverUK]

My rig with 2x7950, an i3-3225, P8B WS board, 2x4GB RAM and a SSD drive is using 650W from the wall.  I'm running an old 1000W Zalman PSU, which is about 82% efficient.

[VolanicEruptor]

install your rig in line with your heat pump/furnace, just make sure your thermostat is off so the furnace doesnt kick in on a cold day and melt your rig.   keep the blower fan on constant setting