Mining room Cooling

[Icarusfixius]

I am trying to work on a new strategy to cool my rigs. As usual I start down a path and it just isnt working as effectively as I would like it to. Things were working out alright when I was able to pull in -10C intake air from outside. Today it is 17C outside and it just isnt cutting it. It seems like there are two main approaches to take. You can contain the airflow to carefully direct it through all the cards or circulate so much air in the room that it doesnt matter. I figured I would post a few pics and see what suggestions others had.


Front of the rack, I was thinking of taking the rigs apart so I can space the cards out a bit more. Seems like if I could give them a bit more air space heat may be less of an issue


View of the rear of the rack and exhaust fan. I was planning on maybe upgrading this to a 24" fan that moves x4 air. As well as maybe putting an intake below that and ducting it to the other side of the room I have also considered putting some 30" warehouse fans behind the rack to move air through things better.


This is my current exhaust/intake. It seems that I have better luck when this fan is being used as an intake

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[philipma1957]

Great name for heat issues.

How many cards do you have and how many watts?


How much cfm for the exhaust fan?


I see at least 50. Cards.

So if they are 1080ti. You are 10000 watts

That needs at least 3000 cfm.

Lower the intake and make an awning over it.

I will find a photo.

[jimmykl]

All the hot air is probably stuck in top of the room. While the fan is pulling fresh air in from outside it will stay near the floor and not forcing out the hot air trapped above. So you're heating the room slowly from the top down. The rigs mostly being higher up in the the shelving will increase this effect.



You could probably improve things a bit by moving the rigs as low on the shelves as possible. But that will make access harder and they'll get more dust near the floor too.

First I'd say try extending the ducting and relocating the fan to extract the stale hot air from the top of the room as quickly as possible:



If that works you could even make a rough 'hood' to increase the exhaust area and catch as much of the air rising directly above the shelving as possible. You could also try changing the location of the fan along the ducting to see where it pulls the best.



If you can add another exterior vent for the exhaust then you could keep the existing intake and might get it working like this:

[xxcsu]

maybe a stupid idea but im going to give a try for this soon
"zero-electricity air cooler made from plastic bottles"
if i can lower the "incoming air" temp just with 5C during peak summer heat , that would be a great help

[philipma1957]

he has intake and exhaust on same wall






intake  must be lower

exhaust must not  suck  intake  up and out


@ op is this close to what is happening?

[TheYankeesWin!]

So  op buys  a second rack  rolls it against the intake

then tarps it
                                                     >   exhaust







equipment  rack   < air tunnel rack   < intake window

[MagicSmoker]

Good advice so far, I would just add that there are two components to cooling things like this (I'm an EE that specializes in power electronics for my day job so I have some relevant experience): first is to remove heat from the cards themselves, which requires fans blowing directly on them - either at the rear or the top - and second is to remove heat from the room, which requires an intake vent and exhaust fan separated as far apart from each other as possible. Ideally, the room ventilation should cause air to flow diagonally from floor to ceiling, crossing over the miners along the way.

[ciborgue]

I am using my old marijuana grow tent with lighting removed.
2 x 4 ft tent holds two 8 GPU rigs no problem with an old exhaust.

[TheHas]

I remember watching a youtube clip of someone with a mini mining factory, and he said one of his greatest lessons learned was the importance of 'keeping heating off' instead of 'putting cool air on'. I guess if the cool air you're putting on is -17C from outside that might not apply quite as much.

[philipma1957]

 I think his air flow is this :




If he  takes   theyankees   idea and does this

add awning for sun and rain shield
make inside cold air tunnel
add a floor fan  he should be good.

[Za1n]

I had this issue before too and the "solution" is to remove the hot air that naturally rises in your room. While you do need some intakes, trying to cool this intake air is not as important as just simply removing the heat.

The solution I found that worked for me, both in wintertime and during 100 degree plus summer days is to move the exhaust fans as high as you can. Going through the roof would be ideal, but at a minimum the height they need to be at is above the height of your highest rig.

It may seem strange, but even 100 degree F (38C) intake air will cool your GPUs as long as you have adequate exhaust ventilation at or above the maximum height of your rigs. It is best for the air intakes to be positioned lower toward the ground, but even if they are higher the main factor was keeping the exhaust fans high.

You will also need to calculate the CFM of air movement that you will need. I only run one out of three exhaust fans I have during the winter, but each of my fans is 20" and can move up to 4000 CFM on high. I went with the shuttered wall mount fans and had to frame in the openings, but ever since I put them in all my heat issue went away as my rigs will run around 60-70 degrees C even on 100 degree F (38C) days. In the winter they run a mild 30C.

Here are similar fans to what I bought, not the exact same as I bought mine from a local building supply company but very similar. http://www.airdistributor.net/p-414-ves-environmental-solutions-brand-3-speed-shutter-mount-direct-drive-agriculturalindustrial-wall-exhaust-fan-cfm-range-880-4874-sizes-12-thru-24.aspx

[Icarusfixius]

he has intake and exhaust on same wall






intake  must be lower

exhaust must not  suck  intake  up and out


@ op is this close to what is happening?

I was afraid this is what may happen. Right now all I have is that one 12" intake fan. There are 80 cards in that room as well as a server rack behind there. Total power consumption in the space is close to 20-25Kw. The fan was supposed to be an exhaust but since it is so cold outside I had better luck with it setup as an intake

[BennyT]

Lots of clever engineering ideas. Wouldn’t a 24” fan blowing on each rig not only solve the air issues but also be easier?

[MagicSmoker]

Lots of clever engineering ideas. Wouldn’t a 24” fan blowing on each rig not only solve the air issues but also be easier?

No, and the reasons why have been covered in many of the above posts. You need to get the heat out of the room, not just out of the cards.

[ajqjjj]

he has intake and exhaust on same wall

intake  must be lower

exhaust must not  suck  intake  up and out


@ op is this close to what is happening?

I was afraid this is what may happen. Right now all I have is that one 12" intake fan. There are 80 cards in that room as well as a server rack behind there. Total power consumption in the space is close to 20-25Kw. The fan was supposed to be an exhaust but since it is so cold outside I had better luck with it setup as an intake

You mean is that you are using the exhaust fan to exit the heat out from the room? I am right. You are also have the set up same thing like me. Keeping the rig towards the window will be give better way exhaust out the heat.

If you are affordable to set up the air conditioner to the room you completely have the rig. You can have that on 27 degree temperature means that is enough the keep the 3 rigs safe with in the room.

[crazydane]

Great topic about air flow and cooling so I figured I'd post about my plans here.

As I prepare for summer, I need to figure out what to do with all my rigs.  I'm at around 16kw right now, but anticipate being well above that by the time summer (and heat) rolls around.

My plan is to get a 40' shipping container (about $2,000 delivered) and ask if I can get it in white.  If not, I'll have to paint it myself.

I plan to install 3 10,000 CFM 36" exhaust fans, evenly space along the top, along one of the long walls.

These guys:

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200422375_200422375

Full specs here:

https://www.jdmfg.com/wall-master-exhaust-fan

They are very efficient and move about 20 CFM per watt.

On the opposite long wall, I'll cut out 6 24x24 inlets, evenly spaced along the bottom.  My mining racks will then go right down the center with a 36" isle on either side.

A 40' container is about 3,000 CF, so 30,000 CFM should be able to replace the air volume 10 times a minute.  That would be enough draft I would think, that I would not have to worry about any additional cooling, even when it is 100 degrees outside and the sun is baking down on top of the container.

Good idea or bad idea?

[dagarair]

I am using my old marijuana grow tent with lighting removed.
2 x 4 ft tent holds two 8 GPU rigs no problem with an old exhaust.

Win

[bitcad4u]

he has intake and exhaust on same wall

intake  must be lower

exhaust must not  suck  intake  up and out


@ op is this close to what is happening?

I was afraid this is what may happen. Right now all I have is that one 12" intake fan. There are 80 cards in that room as well as a server rack behind there. Total power consumption in the space is close to 20-25Kw. The fan was supposed to be an exhaust but since it is so cold outside I had better luck with it setup as an intake

You mean is that you are using the exhaust fan to exit the heat out from the room? I am right. You are also have the set up same thing like me. Keeping the rig towards the window will be give better way exhaust out the heat.

If you are affordable to set up the air conditioner to the room you completely have the rig. You can have that on 27 degree temperature means that is enough the keep the 3 rigs safe with in the room.

Keeping your rig near the windows will reduce the heat.Keep the rig with the cooler is the best option,instead of Air-conditioned room.You can try of coolant set up for the rig.I think this is not make huge difference.You expenses for cooler is cheaper than Air-conditioner.

[dhouse]

can anyone recommend a simple cooling setup for a basement, i have only a 3-gpur rig now but would like to add a bunch more. Would like to just to have them on those plastic shelving units. They are in an unfinished basement area right now. There's a small window with a window well that i could use, plus another one at the other end of the room.

I'm thinking roughly of some sort of box/container/tent to store the rigs and thus confine the heat, with some kind of exhaust system that could pump air in and out of the window. Any ideas of where to start on this? the more straightforward the better.

[P00P135]

can anyone recommend a simple cooling setup for a basement, i have only a 3-gpur rig now but would like to add a bunch more. Would like to just to have them on those plastic shelving units. They are in an unfinished basement area right now. There's a small window with a window well that i could use, plus another one at the other end of the room.

I'm thinking roughly of some sort of box/container/tent to store the rigs and thus confine the heat, with some kind of exhaust system that could pump air in and out of the window. Any ideas of where to start on this? the more straightforward the better.

Grow tent with 6 or 8" intake/exhaust fans.

[whoismoses]

Here is what I am doing. In the cold months, I have a damper I can open and close. I redirect the warm air into the return of my HVAC system. I use the mining heat to heat the house. It helps.

In the summer I send the heat out of the house.

[dhouse]

can anyone recommend a simple cooling setup for a basement, i have only a 3-gpur rig now but would like to add a bunch more. Would like to just to have them on those plastic shelving units. They are in an unfinished basement area right now. There's a small window with a window well that i could use, plus another one at the other end of the room.

I'm thinking roughly of some sort of box/container/tent to store the rigs and thus confine the heat, with some kind of exhaust system that could pump air in and out of the window. Any ideas of where to start on this? the more straightforward the better.

Grow tent with 6 or 8" intake/exhaust fans.

where do the fans go, how do i set them up in the window(s)?

[jimmykl]

@citronick's heat management post on @philipma1957's megathread is really useful so thought I'd share it here too:

I gone through the ups and downs of managing temps in the GPU farm.

The lessons I learnt as follows, hope it helps in your environment.

1. Hot air naturally goes up - so your vent/blower out should be on top to naturally move hot air out of the farm/room.

2. Floor standing fans pointed upwards are useful to get airflow moving upwards - get rid of hot air pockets forming at rig level.

3. Static pressure VS non-Static pressure - use them to help you move hot air quicker. Avoid having outake vents/fans without intake vents/fans. Always have IN and OUT airflow so that no hot air are recycled into the farm/room.

4. The fastest rigs, ie superclocked at supersonic speed, will create lots of heat (probably reduce the lifetime of your GPUs too) and your over stressed PSUs will also produce heat - Beware that most super fast rigs are NOT stable over time. My ETH farm in the early days was a monster of a setup 30-31MHs rigs screaming away and power bill was high. However, they do need reboots due to hang etc. I was using Windows then. Currently, my farm is all Linux using smOS. Only a handful W10 for NVIDIA and test rigs. ETH mining is very very stable, cool and steady hashrate at about modest 26-28MHs rigs resulting hashrate to pool's stratum servers consistently without interruption and zero stales. I stopped ETH mining about 2 months ago. Now NH/Cryptonite and later BTG.

5. I have 2 of those air extractors/blowers - I don't use them often but on very hot days I use them and position the orange hose on top the big rigs (12/13/19 GPUs rigs) zone. My big rigs zone is in the middle of the farm. The surrounding perimeter are all the 6/7/8 GPU rigs.

6. All Deltas and server PSUs are hung like bats -- exhaust pointing upwards.

7. The farm has CCTV and I can remotely monitor environmental like temps and decibels via the CCTV.

8. AC is not required - I tried it ... AC is useless. Unless you are using Data Centre grade AC then that's a different story altogether. Its all about INTAKE and OUTAKE (top) and moving HOT AIR UPWARDS to the top as fast as possible.

[jimmykl]

Great topic about air flow and cooling so I figured I'd post about my plans here.

As I prepare for summer, I need to figure out what to do with all my rigs.  I'm at around 16kw right now, but anticipate being well above that by the time summer (and heat) rolls around.

My plan is to get a 40' shipping container (about $2,000 delivered) and ask if I can get it in white.  If not, I'll have to paint it myself.

I plan to install 3 10,000 CFM 36" exhaust fans, evenly space along the top, along one of the long walls.

These guys:

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200422375_200422375

Full specs here:

https://www.jdmfg.com/wall-master-exhaust-fan

They are very efficient and move about 20 CFM per watt.

On the opposite long wall, I'll cut out 6 24x24 inlets, evenly spaced along the bottom.  My mining racks will then go right down the center with a 36" isle on either side.

A 40' container is about 3,000 CF, so 30,000 CFM should be able to replace the air volume 10 times a minute.  That would be enough draft I would think, that I would not have to worry about any additional cooling, even when it is 100 degrees outside and the sun is baking down on top of the container.

Good idea or bad idea?

Great idea. I know a group running ~100 cards in a 20' container (with room for more) and can't see any reason it wouldn't scale up.

They removed a section of side wall and fabricated some louvre panels with filters for the intake and mounted big 3-phase exhaust fans in the roof (not sure of cfm specs).

Their container is a red/orange colour and has stayed relatively cool on ~90˚F days.

[crazydane]

Great to hear they are running 100 cards in the 20' with no issues.  I should be able to scale a 40' to 200 cards easy then.  So here's the spot I have picked out:



The container is not quite to scale.  It is a little small.  The pole barn opening is about 14'.  North is pretty much straight up in the above pic, so the container will be in the shade during the afternoons.

And I'm only about 100' from the power pole:



Figured I'd have a separate 400A service run to the container.

So this is how I envision the ventilation system:



So air will flow from the low intakes to the high mounted exhaust fans on the opposite wall.  I don't anticipate needing any "helper" fans in the mining racks.

[philipma1957]

Great topic about air flow and cooling so I figured I'd post about my plans here.

As I prepare for summer, I need to figure out what to do with all my rigs.  I'm at around 16kw right now, but anticipate being well above that by the time summer (and heat) rolls around.

My plan is to get a 40' shipping container (about $2,000 delivered) and ask if I can get it in white.  If not, I'll have to paint it myself.

I plan to install 3 10,000 CFM 36" exhaust fans, evenly space along the top, along one of the long walls.

These guys:

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200422375_200422375

Full specs here:

https://www.jdmfg.com/wall-master-exhaust-fan

They are very efficient and move about 20 CFM per watt.

On the opposite long wall, I'll cut out 6 24x24 inlets, evenly spaced along the bottom.  My mining racks will then go right down the center with a 36" isle on either side.

A 40' container is about 3,000 CF, so 30,000 CFM should be able to replace the air volume 10 times a minute.  That would be enough draft I would think, that I would not have to worry about any additional cooling, even when it is 100 degrees outside and the sun is baking down on top of the container.

Good idea or bad idea?

white or silver works.

shade the intake air

[QuintLeo]

Intake and exhaust on the same wall needs a LOT more seperation than I am seeing in that photo from the OP.

Intake low exhaust high works better than the other way around, as it works WITH the natural heat flow of the room.

Intake UPWIND from exhaust should also be kept in mind.



 The crossflow setup from the last couple posts looks viable, similar to some degree to the Gigawatt "hut" things, but you want to push the racks closer to the intakes to avoid having a lot of the airflow just go "over" the racks - or put some sort of flow restriction in along the intake wall at the height of the top of your highest rigs to make the use of the airflow more efficient.
 Depends on how tall the racks are - if they get within a foot or so of the roof, don't worry about it.


 With the kind of airflow you're planning, the color of the container shouldn't matter - might even want it to be dark to reduce ice/snow buildup on top of it in the winter.