A Texas Town’s Misery Underscores the Impact of Bitcoin Mines Across the U.S.

[mikeywith]

those people that work at the mining operation must be lying to the press when they say that they didn't notice the loud noises then   either that or they have severe hearing loss and that's why they don't notice but it sounds like somewhere that would be unbearable to work. job benefits: $20 per hour plus hearing loss

I don't know the whole context, but it is possible that they meant they were not aware that the noise reaches that far, maybe they park their car right next to the farm, wear those heavy ear protection, walk in, do the work, jump back to the car.

I mean unless they stand near those houses -- they won't be able to tell, but to say they did not know that miners make a ton of loud noise would be a straightout lie.

@phill, yup the more you try silence them, the hotter they get, at 7000 rpm even a single miner can make up to 90 decibles at 10 meter distance.

[larry_vw_1955]

I don't know the whole context, but it is possible that they meant they were not aware that the noise reaches that far

they can't go out into the community and see if the noise reaches it ? but yet they can spend millions of dollars to set up a mining facility. i call BS on that. they were just hoping no one would complain.



Shirley says that he is monitoring the decibel levels of the facility. Texas state law stipulates that a noise is considered unreasonable if it exceeds 85 decibels. For comparison, vacuum cleaners often run at around 75 decibels—and a cardiologist told TIME in 2018 that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels had the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. Shadden took her own readings at her house near the Bitcoin mining facility that reached 103 decibels.


103 decibels seems like a very large noise level to have to listen to 24/7/365. But I'm not sure I believe some of those residents saying how they had all kinds of health problems from the noise. I think people have a way of lying about stuff like that. Just to try and make a point. Noise doesn't cause tumors and things like that. So those residents should stick to the truth and not try and embellish anything. It just makes them look bad when they do that.

[philipma1957]

I don't know the whole context, but it is possible that they meant they were not aware that the noise reaches that far

they can't go out into the community and see if the noise reaches it ? but yet they can spend millions of dollars to set up a mining facility. i call BS on that. they were just hoping no one would complain.



Shirley says that he is monitoring the decibel levels of the facility. Texas state law stipulates that a noise is considered unreasonable if it exceeds 85 decibels. For comparison, vacuum cleaners often run at around 75 decibels—and a cardiologist told TIME in 2018 that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels had the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. Shadden took her own readings at her house near the Bitcoin mining facility that reached 103 decibels.


103 decibels seems like a very large noise level to have to listen to 24/7/365. But I'm not sure I believe some of those residents saying how they had all kinds of health problems from the noise. I think people have a way of lying about stuff like that. Just to try and make a point. Noise doesn't cause tumors and things like that. So those residents should stick to the truth and not try and embellish anything. It just makes them look bad when they do that.

103 db nonstop sound is pretty much unbearable to live with.

the plant should do a better job than 103 db.

[DaveF]

Just as a data point it's not impossible to do.
GE Aerospace,  Rolls-Royce,  Pratt & Whitney and others all have jet engine test facilities that you cannot hear a 100,000 lbf engine running full throttle from outside the building.

Now, is the cost of doing something like that worth it to a miner? Probably not. But don't say it can't be done.

-Dave

[philipma1957]

Just as a data point it's not impossible to do.
GE Aerospace,  Rolls-Royce,  Pratt & Whitney and others all have jet engine test facilities that you cannot hear a 100,000 lbf engine running full throttle from outside the building.

Now, is the cost of doing something like that worth it to a miner? Probably not. But don't say it can't be done.

-Dave

yeah sound can be played with  I would love to check out the mine to see what they did to attempt to lesson the sound.

[mikeywith]

Just as a data point it's not impossible to do.
GE Aerospace,  Rolls-Royce,  Pratt & Whitney and others all have jet engine test facilities that you cannot hear a 100,000 lbf engine running full throttle from outside the building.

Now, is the cost of doing something like that worth it to a miner? Probably not. But don't say it can't be done.

-Dave

That's a good point, but those engines don't need to run 24/7/365, you don't have a dozen engines running at the same time and place, and the building has 4 walls, so soundproofing is very easy when cooling isn't an issue, with mining, it's a whole different level, you are basically operating with only 2 full walls, if you sum the remaining of the intake and exhaust walls maybe you get 3 walls at best.

As silly as it sounds, it's a lot easier to silence a fighter jet engine than to silence a miner.

[philipma1957]

Just as a data point it's not impossible to do.
GE Aerospace,  Rolls-Royce,  Pratt & Whitney and others all have jet engine test facilities that you cannot hear a 100,000 lbf engine running full throttle from outside the building.

Now, is the cost of doing something like that worth it to a miner? Probably not. But don't say it can't be done.

-Dave

That's a good point, but those engines don't need to run 24/7/365, you don't have a dozen engines running at the same time and place, and the building has 4 walls, so soundproofing is very easy when cooling isn't an issue, with mining, it's a whole different level, you are basically operating with only 2 full walls, if you sum the remaining of the intake and exhaust walls maybe you get 3 walls at best.

As silly as it sounds, it's a lot easier to silence a fighter jet engine than to silence a miner.

yeah but some containers properly done are pretty quiet.

texas is hot and dry.  the container we switched to has a water wall which really helps cooling.

some where I have a photo of it on this site.

if all they used were these containers sound would not be 103db

these containers can do .6 megawatts. that means they would need 500 containers. we got ours on a fire sale about 25k

so thats 12.5 million and a fucking constant lake of water as one container uses 100gallons a day.

thats 50,000 gallons of water for 500 :hundred containers.

so serious money spent to cool and manage sound.
 
300 mega watt plant is fucking huge. as a mega watt will be 250 s21s

so 300 x 250 = 75,000 s21s which is

15,000,000 th
15,000.      ph
15.             eh

about 2.5% of the whole network.

[larry_vw_1955]

103 db nonstop sound is pretty much unbearable to live with.

well yeah that's why it prevents people from enjoying the use of their property and forces them to stay inside their house where maybe the noise level is lower. but not non-existant. it's probably still possible to hear it. apparently lawnmowers are only 75 to 95 dB so it's kind of equivalent to have a next door neighbor who runs their lawnmower 24/7/365. you're definitely going to be hearing it even if you're inside your house.

the plant should do a better job than 103 db.

but remember, they dont think there is a problem. they claim to be unaware of any noise issues. that's how it always is with people who cause these types of problems. you ask them if they can hear anything and they say "no". that's why the authorities always have to get involved because they will never do anything themself...

[mikeywith]

At the scale of 300MW it might be cheaper if they paid a compensation to all affected houses, I don't what would be a good amount but i am sure some free monthly income would make the noise a lot more bearable, to a certain extent even comforting to hear.

The above is not a joke, in my country, people who live next to cement factories and oil drilling areas where they flare gas and shit get some good benifit like health insurance and whatnot, since you can't build everything in places where nobody lives, might as well give them some of the profit.

[larry_vw_1955]

At the scale of 300MW it might be cheaper if they paid a compensation to all affected houses, I don't what would be a good amount but i am sure some free monthly income would make the noise a lot more bearable, to a certain extent even comforting to hear.

the only fair compensation is to buy their house from them at above market prices so they can buy another house somewhere else. no one is going to be happy having to listen to noise even if you pay their cable bill...

[philipma1957]

At the scale of 300MW it might be cheaper if they paid a compensation to all affected houses, I don't what would be a good amount but i am sure some free monthly income would make the noise a lot more bearable, to a certain extent even comforting to hear.

the only fair compensation is to buy their house from them at above market prices so they can buy another house somewhere else. no one is going to be happy having to listen to noise even if you pay their cable bill...

it is fixable.  15 eh is

 about 600000 a day or 220 million in gross income

Now they pay around 2.5 cents a kwatt and they get bonus money not to mine in the summer if it is hot.

so 300 x 24 = 7200 megawatts at 25 dollars each is 180,000 a day or 66 million

so they earn around 220-66 = 154,000,000 a year.

wow fuck what a sad fucking world the fine as I read is 500 a day or 182,500 a year.

so you make 154 million a year and get fined 182,500 a year


they should make all of the owners listen to the 103db

for months on end

[DaveF]

Just as a data point it's not impossible to do.
GE Aerospace,  Rolls-Royce,  Pratt & Whitney and others all have jet engine test facilities that you cannot hear a 100,000 lbf engine running full throttle from outside the building.

Now, is the cost of doing something like that worth it to a miner? Probably not. But don't say it can't be done.

-Dave

That's a good point, but those engines don't need to run 24/7/365, you don't have a dozen engines running at the same time and place, and the building has 4 walls, so soundproofing is very easy when cooling isn't an issue, with mining, it's a whole different level, you are basically operating with only 2 full walls, if you sum the remaining of the intake and exhaust walls maybe you get 3 walls at best.

As silly as it sounds, it's a lot easier to silence a fighter jet engine than to silence a miner.

Miners also don't have the ability to generate enough air pressure to though a full size truck though the air.

I agree it's a totally different thing, just making the point that you can run something like that and not have people nearby notice there is no reason other then cost / time / effort that you can't have engineers do the same. Or at least make it quiet enough that the neighbors don't complain. There was a large mine in an old data center here on LI that was close to 2 MW it was on the 2nd floor of a building.

You would never have known that it was there if you were even on the 1st floor. BECAUSE IT WAS DESIGNED AS A PROPER DATA CENTER with cooling and insulation and everything else.

It's now hosting about 1MW of AI crap in about 20000 SQF and yet again stand outside and it's as quiet as a library. And AI stuff is running denser / hotter then miners.


-Dave

[larry_vw_1955]

https://www.lancasterfarming.com/country-life/outdoors/pennsylvania-game-commission-working-to-quiet-noise-concerns-from-bitcoin-mine/article_f5d37020-54bf-11ef-87f5-a3df59f854c0.html


In 2022, an energy company established a bitcoin mine — large generators and banks of computers to generate the cryptocurrency — on a gas well pad on the game lands in Horton Township.

The operation was powered by natural gas from the well, and noise from the cooling fans soon began to annoy neighbors and users of the game land.


so they are running generators from the natural gas from the well, polluting the environment with combustion byproducts and also noise pollution and they didn't even ask for permission or anything. That's about the most environmentally unfriendly way to mine bitcoin there is. Using gas from wells. Bitcoin sucks.

[philipma1957]

https://www.lancasterfarming.com/country-life/outdoors/pennsylvania-game-commission-working-to-quiet-noise-concerns-from-bitcoin-mine/article_f5d37020-54bf-11ef-87f5-a3df59f854c0.html


In 2022, an energy company established a bitcoin mine — large generators and banks of computers to generate the cryptocurrency — on a gas well pad on the game lands in Horton Township.

The operation was powered by natural gas from the well, and noise from the cooling fans soon began to annoy neighbors and users of the game land.


so they are running generators from the natural gas from the well, polluting the environment with combustion byproducts and also noise pollution and they didn't even ask for permission or anything. That's about the most environmentally unfriendly way to mine bitcoin there is. Using gas from wells.  . Bitcoin sucks.

Bitcoin is a tool which can be used for good or bad.

This forum is a tool to be used for good or bad.

I bolded a line above. That is you using the forum for bad.

Sad because this was a really decent thread you opened.

And you just shit all over the place.

The reality  is Pennsylvania and Texas had shit laws and shit companies decided to behave in a shit manner.

And bitcoin is wrongly stated to m be the bad guy.

[larry_vw_1955]

Bitcoin is a tool which can be used for good or bad.

This forum is a tool to be used for good or bad.

I bolded a line above. That is you using the forum for bad.

Sad because this was a really decent thread you opened.

And you just shit all over the place.

The reality  is Pennsylvania and Texas had shit laws and shit companies decided to behave in a shit manner.

And bitcoin is wrongly stated to m be the bad guy.

Maybe bitcoin needs to transition to something more environmentally friendly so that it doesn't cause so much noise pollution and fossil fuel useage. I can't be neutral about something like that. sorry.

Unfortunately it seems like you feel like because states don't have specific laws about being an a-hole to your neighbor, you can go ahead and do it and that's not your fault? actually you agree that these were shit companies acting bad. so good for you but it shouldn't take laws to stop a-holes from being a-holes.

[ABCbits]

Maybe bitcoin needs to transition to something more environmentally friendly so that it doesn't cause so much noise pollution and fossil fuel useage. I can't be neutral about something like that. sorry.

FWIW, it's estimated that 59.9% Bitcoin mining use sustainable power on August 2023 report[1]. As for noise population, miner could have use cooling solution which generate less noise or find better way to cover the noise. I don't expect Bitcoin will ever move from PoW or SHA-256d.

Unfortunately it seems like you feel like because states don't have specific laws about being an a-hole to your neighbor, you can go ahead and do it and that's not your fault? actually you agree that these were shit companies acting bad. so good for you but it shouldn't take laws to stop a-holes from being a-holes.

If it's not law, how else would average people stop a-holes?

[1] https://bitcoinminingcouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/BMC-H1-2023-Presentation.pdf

[stompix]

As silly as it sounds, it's a lot easier to silence a fighter jet engine than to silence a miner.

I have a bit of doubt on this one, fighter jets burn around 3 tonnes of fuel per hour, and testing for most engines is a full cycle covering external tanks so the heat that this thing would produce is insane, we talk in over 1500C, of course, is not a full 24/7 schedule but I wouldn't want to be anywhere close to that thing with no hill, or rows of houses or other buildings between.

FWIW, it's estimated that 59.9% Bitcoin mining use sustainable power on August 2023 report[1].

Yeah, I would really wipe my ass with Bitcoin Mining Council reports.
It's all clean and so on and when I open every company sec fillings all I see is buying gas powerplant here, coal powerplant there, tied to the grid, and one or two hydropower stations. And  I was curious why they stopped the reports, it's 2024 and the last data is from 2023..well seems like there was a congress inquiry on their power demand and sources after that mad bitch Warren threw a fuss about it so miraculously they've stopped with the estimations.
Take that 59% with a ton of salt, I would be amazed if it's 39% at best.

 

[larry_vw_1955]

If it's not law, how else would average people stop a-holes?

common sense should tell someone to be nice to their neighbor but unfortunately these bitcoin mining facilities didn't get the memo. they don't care about the local economy, the people trying to live around them or anything.

imagine how that must feel to be living near some huge facility where you know its only purpose for existence is to consume electricity and make noise so it can make a number on someone's screen get bigger. and not only that but knowing that they don't give a damn about you at all. i don't know why anyone would want a bitcoin mining facility anywhere near them!

[mikeywith]

Google "hush house" you will find a lot of videos on how they test those F-16S and the like, ya those are not cheap to build, but you build them one time and they don't require that much space, they just one large room that can withstand the pressure and the heat, the exhaust of the Engine is faced towrads a very large like-tube that is relatively pretty small.

Now go have a look at that 300MW farm, thats 100,000 miners, you can't have them all facing a small area that you can control, they need to be spread, each miner can make up to 90db, noise level increases by 10 db everytime you 10x the noise source

1 miner does 90db
10 miners do 100db
1000 miners do 110db
10,000 miners do 120db
100,000 miners do 130db

While that is roughly the same noise an F-35 makes, you just can't contain them as easily, your average miner is 30cm high and 20cm wide so 0.06cm2 , 100k miners will need a at least a total area of 6000m2, that hush house exaust is what, 10m square?

 

[larry_vw_1955]

Now go have a look at that 300MW farm, thats 100,000 miners, you can't have them all facing a small area that you can control, they need to be spread, each miner can make up to 90db, noise level increases by 10 db everytime you 10x the noise source

1 miner does 90db
10 miners do 100db
1000 miners do 110db
10,000 miners do 120db
100,000 miners do 130db

If there was one downside to bitcoin it has to be the noise pollution and the huge power consumption. I'm really not sure that the world is better off due to bitcoin now that I've seen these downsides. I can't imagine anyone that is affected by the noise of these mining operations would like bitcoin at all. And I don't recommend they do either!