Nearly burned down my home due to mining farm (tips on how to stay safe )

[madbit1000]

How did you put it out? Water?
The fire was in a state which would have caused your house to burn down if you weren't there to intervene, did I get that right? Really sorry to hear that, that's something I'm afraid of all the time. And one of the reasons I won't go big with mining..

Yeah thats right!! I was so happy that i had put up smoke detectors in that room!! or i wouldn't have noticed. used powder fire extinguisher  to get it out!!  

i was mining ltc on 2 7950s and 2 7970s and one night i charged my phone in the plug next to my bed instead of the pc and it was very warm..... went out the the rig and it was on the same circuit and that plug was very warm as well. sold 2 of the cards so far.... not worth it and i do not know much about the wiring other than it prolly hasnt been updated in a long long time. i watch over the little gear i have like a new born baby because i cant afford new anything if my place went up in smoke and jusrt for piece of mind.

another time something didnt seem right on that set up and it seemed i was maxing out the psu because the cards werent acting right... 5 min later i had a faint electrical smell, not burning just the real hot smell. ran out to the living room and touched the psus and one was soooo damn hot if i didnt check it it prolly would have started a fire that night.

For the PSU thing you might have had a cheap one or it was overloaded!! have never heard before that the plugs in the wall get hot :/ that must be dangerous !!!

Dont buy cheap china crap!!! That's my rule of thumb..

[ionux]

Dont buy cheap china crap!!! That's my rule of thumb..

So you basically don't have anything then?    Freaking everything is made in China now - especially mining equipment.

[S4VV4S]

How did you put it out? Water?
The fire was in a state which would have caused your house to burn down if you weren't there to intervene, did I get that right? Really sorry to hear that, that's something I'm afraid of all the time. And one of the reasons I won't go big with mining..

Yeah thats right!! I was so happy that i had put up smoke detectors in that room!! or i wouldn't have noticed. used powder fire extinguisher  to get it out!!  

i was mining ltc on 2 7950s and 2 7970s and one night i charged my phone in the plug next to my bed instead of the pc and it was very warm..... went out the the rig and it was on the same circuit and that plug was very warm as well. sold 2 of the cards so far.... not worth it and i do not know much about the wiring other than it prolly hasnt been updated in a long long time. i watch over the little gear i have like a new born baby because i cant afford new anything if my place went up in smoke and jusrt for piece of mind.

another time something didnt seem right on that set up and it seemed i was maxing out the psu because the cards werent acting right... 5 min later i had a faint electrical smell, not burning just the real hot smell. ran out to the living room and touched the psus and one was soooo damn hot if i didnt check it it prolly would have started a fire that night.

For the PSU thing you might have had a cheap one or it was overloaded!! have never heard before that the plugs in the wall get hot :/ that must be dangerous !!!

Dont buy cheap china crap!!! That's my rule of thumb..

Oh wow... check your miners.
Where do they come from?

[IamCANADIAN013]

I would think they would deny coverage.  It's not like we are using the PSU's as they were designed to be used.  Here in Canada everything has to be CSA approved.  Not sure about anywhere else, but I would think all Countries have similar laws.  I highly doubt any of the equipment meets the safety standards required.

CSA only approves mass-produced devices. If it is no longer being produced, it is no longer CSA approved.

For that reason UL approval is also accepted.

That still means one-off jerry-rigs may not be covered if they cause a fire

I wonder how many fall under UL approval?

Which I bet they would consider most mining rigs and set ups.  I've seen some pics of peoples set ups and I cringe. Even the good ones look still like a mess of wires that I'm sure insurance companies would shy away from.

Definitely not something I would want to leave in their hands, pretty sure they get paid to find any reason to deny a claim.

[jeppe]

What temps do you run your antminers (s1) at??
Always wonder, my ones showed ~64C on average however, when touching the heat sink it was like touching the asicminer 333mh usbs :/
Have you had the same experience??
Thanks,
JT

[ionux]

What temps do you run your antminers (s1) at??
Always wonder, my ones showed ~64C on average however, when touching the heat sink it was like touching the asicminer 333mh usbs :/
Have you had the same experience??
Thanks,
JT

My miners are running between 39-46* C.  Do you have any extra fans pointed at them?

[jeppe]

What temps do you run your antminers (s1) at??
Always wonder, my ones showed ~64C on average however, when touching the heat sink it was like touching the asicminer 333mh usbs :/
Have you had the same experience??
Thanks,
JT

My miners are running between 39-46* C.  Do you have any extra fans pointed at them?

NAhh did not use any extra ones. Would a 120mm for push pull work ?? Waiting for my new ones as the other ones are gone.
for the ones i had before i just had a large separate fan blowing on all of them and that was enough.
 

[ionux]

NAhh did not use any extra ones. Would a 120mm for push pull work ?? Waiting for my new ones as the other ones are gone.

Yes, a 120mm fan on the front in a pull configuration with the rear fan.  I also have installed extra small heatsinks on all the visible chips and have fans on the right, left and top blowing on to it.  Overclocked to 190GH/s I'm running those temps.

[phillipsjk]

I wonder how many fall under UL approval?

Approval involves paperwork and probably testing

The only reason I know you can't get one-off devices CSA approved is I looked into the certification requirements once. I appears I was mistaken though: There is a "model certification" option. I tried looking up the file number of some old equipment and did not get results: even though the UL number still works (will have to investigate further).

In general, hobby electronics projects will not have approval.  This means you have to take extra precautions to avoid causing a fire. This may include keeping it on fire-proof materials, and unplugging it when not in use. Obviously, miners are not very useful unplugged. Edit: another way to limit risk of fire (hinted at here): reduce power draw as much as possible. Less power, means less heat; implies less fire risk (with miners that means: no overclocking).

Edit: I also wonder if the OP's miner was mis-wired. Each wire pair from the PSU can safely carry about 5 Amps. That implies 6 wire pairs or 12 wires total going all the way back the the PSU. Splitters are a no-no (unless you are cutting off the common end).

[anyone4u]

Man, so sad to hear that has happened to you. I didn't even know it is possible to have fire while mining coins

easy adjusting voltage = shorting boards out, buring wires, happened to me'
board/wires were running fine for a week, but board smelled like it was burning, had power board li on +20 like many people say to set it to (do not do this), a week later brand new 850 watt power supply burned out, I got new one, and wires melted/started sparking against case.

[southerngentuk]

I still think it is a good idea to run your 110v/240v through a hold on contactor, connected to an axillary relay of a smoke detector.

Smoke detector activates - rig powers down.

Maybe I will look into making some kits up. Although its difficult as each persons situation is different.

May also be worth adding an Emergency Stop button at the door of the room to activate that contactor manually.

Edit : These could be done relatively simply with wireless battery smoke detectors ( from memory they cost around $100)
         and a wireless relay unit attached to a custom contactor box, with 3-4 10A input/outputs. So a basic system would be in the region of $300 - $400 + $100 for each additional detector ( placed anywhere in your home) sounds expensive but if your using detectors that cost less than $70 then you may as well not bother cus there cr$p.
These are of the top of my head figures for 240V version ( not aware of suitable products for 110V) if there is interest I will investigate further and make a demo unit with proper costs.

Edit 2 : Maybe a pain in the ass when the kids burn there toast and it shuts ur mining rig down, so dont bank on putting xtra detectors near the kitchen.

[Robert Lewandowski]

I don't really understand why the mods deleted your donation address, i've seen some really stupid threads with unbelievable stories begging for Bitcoins and they don't get their addy deleted.

[rmines]

I read some reports of the OP trying to scam people before with made up stories, maybe that's why.

[jeppe]

I read some reports of the OP trying to scam people before with made up stories, maybe that's why.

wow, i have newer scammed people!!! you can see that in my feedback!!
what posts are you talking about??

[Skaterdiejosh]

This is exactly why I installed a 50 amp breaker in my panel and im running the wires tonight after work. This is pretty much the only way to continue to mine bitcoin at today's levels. 15 amp breakers on your normal outlets is a huge fire risk on anything over 2000 watts. It's not only the miners that is the problem its overloading the wires in your wall wich can catch the whole house on fire...  Also you can run your power supplies at 240 volts wich is more efficient and will produce less heat ...

[windpath]

One more thing where did you get those thermometers ?? Ebay??

Mine came out of an old PC case I had laying around, here is a starting point: https://www.google.com/search?q=CPU+digital+display+thermonitor

[kthejung]

What temps do you run your antminers (s1) at??
Always wonder, my ones showed ~64C on average however, when touching the heat sink it was like touching the asicminer 333mh usbs :/
Have you had the same experience??
Thanks,
JT

You're probably not the first to have run temps that high but it seems that the general consensus among miners is keeping the device 50C or below.  Maybe you should think of adding a duct system behind the miners to pull the heat away from the device and out of the house.  Not scientifically researched, just my observation.  Also, don't buy cheap miners.

[rmines]

I read some reports of the OP trying to scam people before with made up stories, maybe that's why.

wow, i have newer scammed people!!! you can see that in my feedback!!
what posts are you talking about??

I never said you scammed somebody, just reporting back what I read:

This person has been scamming this board for a long time coming up with different stories every time you know what give you away asking for help that is a dead ringer for a scammer. The thing is this when someone wants a dollar they tell them why they need a dollar when a person could use a dollar they hope someone would give them a dollar without asking.

[ionux]

This is exactly why I installed a 50 amp breaker in my panel and im running the wires tonight after work. This is pretty much the only way to continue to mine bitcoin at today's levels. 15 amp breakers on your normal outlets is a huge fire risk on anything over 2000 watts. It's not only the miners that is the problem its overloading the wires in your wall wich can catch the whole house on fire...  Also you can run your power supplies at 240 volts wich is more efficient and will produce less heat ...

I'm interested in your power config here.  Are you running multiple lines off the same 50 amp breaker or several lines off several 50 amp breakers?  How are you setting that up?

[greentea]

ouch that is scary ... I always turned my rig off when levaing the house for moer than a day just b/c of my paranoia with a fire.  I guess there is a danger.

Do you have a pic of your setup before the fire?