Best Way to Power an ASIC / Free Power ?

[DeathAndTaxes]

If your in the US try one of the kits from Harbor Freight. Its like $150 for a 45 watt kit. Add some deep cycle golf cart batteries and a inverter. Im going to try it out this weekend. I have a BFL jally and a netbook that draws a little over 38 watts.

You don't need an inverter.  Both laptop and BFL run on DC power.  If they don't run @ 12V (battery output) you will need a DC-DC powersupply to convert the 12V to what the laptop and BFL expect.

[1715493205]

1715493205

[Takeshi_Kovacs]

What about using the wasted electricity to heat your shower water? Or to cook?

How would one do this?

Easy enough with a GPU, harder for an ASIC as you would need a custom water cooling block for the ASIC.

With a GPU, you just pop on a water cooling block in place of the air cooled heatsink. You would need to have a hot water tank with an indirect heating coil. Essentially that is just a coil of copper pipe that is inside the hot water tank and the ends of that coil are external to the tank. You would rig a pump to pump the hot water coming off the GPU into one end of the coil and then rig up a return pipe to take the water coming out of the other end of the coil and run it back into the GPU cooling block. When you start out with a tank full of cold water, the water coming back out of the coil will be cold and will go straight back into the GPU. Over time, as you heat up the water in the tank, you will see that the temperature of the water coming out of the coil will warm up and eventually be too hot to be fed back into the GPU. So, you will need one other component in the system, a water/air radiator in the line between the coil exit and the GPU input so that you can still cool the GPU even when the water in the tank is hot.

[Pinwheel]

some German made batteries have life time up to 10 years. And there is also combined system of PV and wind turbine. Wind turbine can supply electricity at night.

[yamancool63]

What about using the wasted electricity to heat your shower water? Or to cook?

How would one do this?

Easy enough with a GPU, harder for an ASIC as you would need a custom water cooling block for the ASIC.

With a GPU, you just pop on a water cooling block in place of the air cooled heatsink. You would need to have a hot water tank with an indirect heating coil. Essentially that is just a coil of copper pipe that is inside the hot water tank and the ends of that coil are external to the tank. You would rig a pump to pump the hot water coming off the GPU into one end of the coil and then rig up a return pipe to take the water coming out of the other end of the coil and run it back into the GPU cooling block. When you start out with a tank full of cold water, the water coming back out of the coil will be cold and will go straight back into the GPU. Over time, as you heat up the water in the tank, you will see that the temperature of the water coming out of the coil will warm up and eventually be too hot to be fed back into the GPU. So, you will need one other component in the system, a water/air radiator in the line between the coil exit and the GPU input so that you can still cool the GPU even when the water in the tank is hot.

OK, but scalding water is like 42C, brisk for a GPU and acceptable for an ASIC. Your hot water regulator could be a computer-controlled diverter valve with a fan and radiator (heated air for the winter, could just be exhausted in the summer) to keep it in that range.

[colinistheman]

Anyone actually bought a solar kit and hooked it up? I am curious about the real-life results.

[Bitcoinorama]

Anyone actually bought a solar kit and hooked it up? I am curious about the real-life results.

There was a guy that was doing it with a Jalepeno a while back, and def another who had his GPU farm running with solar ages ago. The latter must have been quite energy intensive, though I rem he was in the South of the US and it was hot hot hot there...