Custom Built Mining Shed

[shaxs]

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

[shaxs]

I bet the noise level in that room will cancel out the ringing in my ears.
That is one nice Ant-farm :-)

Its pretty loud. Especially on hotter days when the fans are going full blast.

[hheellll]

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill.

[shaxs]

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill.

There are already two exhaust fans. They were not enough to keep the shed cool enough. One is an attic exhaust fan. I also cant leave the door open during rain or when I am not at the house.

[_Miracle]

"If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill."


Texas= Heat (lots of it)

[BitcoinAwesomeMan]

Lol thats pretty badass.

[Zelek Uther]

Awesome!

[bitndx]

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill.

There are already two exhaust fans. They were not enough to keep the shed cool enough. One is an attic exhaust fan. I also cant leave the door open during rain or when I am not at the house.

good work. I can't keep mine cool enough either......July in TX will be a challenge

[TwoPints]

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill.

There are already two exhaust fans. They were not enough to keep the shed cool enough. One is an attic exhaust fan. I also cant leave the door open during rain or when I am not at the house.

good work. I can't keep mine cool enough either......July in TX will be a challenge

No doubt. As the business partner Shaxs referenced, it's been a fun challenge to organize, structure, build, wire, and administer our little frankenstein shed. Having said that, I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to put together, and am extremely curious to see how it performs in the Texas heat. We also have 6 more miners on the way, so there will be more wiring, positioning, and administrating.

I may try out building shields for each of the units as well. I've seen some folks use cardboard or aluminum, and I'd like to see if that can drop the temps on the units, even if it's just by a couple degrees. Never-ending tinkering!

[GigaBit]

Impressive good work!

[BSIG]

Great homebrew idea 

[shaxs]

Impressive good work!

Thanks!

[nostradamus]

Awesome project. I admire the DIY gumption of this.

From the pics, it looks like the cold side faces the shed door. Is the hot side up against the house?

[shaxs]

Awesome project. I admire the DIY gumption of this.

From the pics, it looks like the cold side faces the shed door. Is the hot side up against the house?

The hot side and cold side both share the wall with the house. Here is what it looks like:

[nostradamus]

Nice illustration.

The problem I see is that the entry door is on the cold side. That makes it harder to insulate and cool in the summer. When it hits 100, it's going to be tough to keep it frosty in there. It would be cool if you could rotate it 90 degrees so that the hot air is blowing directly at the exit door. Make the cold side airtight with insulation so that your HVAC is pumping cold air into a sealed cooler, and the only escape for the cold air is through the Ants. No insulation on the hot side. But what do I know, I haven't even seen the thing.

[shaxs]

Nice illustration.

The problem I see is that the entry door is on the cold side. That makes it harder to insulate and cool in the summer. When it hits 100, it's going to be tough to keep it frosty in there. It would be cool if you could rotate it 90 degrees so that the hot air is blowing directly at the exit door. Make the cold side airtight with insulation so that your HVAC is pumping cold air into a sealed cooler, and the only escape for the cold air is through the Ants. No insulation on the hot side. But what do I know, I haven't even seen the thing.

That is a great point. Unfortunately I am stuck with this configuration due to the large holes cut on the "hot side" that contains the exhaust fans. I might try to insulate the door area of make it more air tight.

[klondike_bar]

So you have 8 antminers right now (~3.2kW) and he 15,000 BTU ac unit doesnt quite cut it? (15000 BTC should suffice for ~3.5kW). How do you intend to add more miners?

Im faced with a similar problem with the coming canadian summer (still hot enough that there will be a few 30C heatwaves), and am unsure whether to go with an air conditioned location (that will require a 100,000BTC A/C if not larger) or to form enough ventilation that i might just have to deal with 30C intake temperatures and a crontab log to underclock everything during the heat of the day.


If you were doing the shed over again, what would you change?

would you make it smaller / would you triple the number of ventilation holes and run on pure airflow  /  would a window-mount AC be more efficient?
and, would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?

I need a good plan to handle 10kW (if not 25kW) of heat

[shaxs]

So you have 8 antminers right now (~3.2kW) and he 15,000 BTU ac unit doesnt quite cut it? (15000 BTC should suffice for ~3.5kW). How do you intend to add more miners?

Im faced with a similar problem with the coming canadian summer (still hot enough that there will be a few 30C heatwaves), and am unsure whether to go with an air conditioned location (that will require a 100,000BTC A/C if not larger) or to form enough ventilation that i might just have to deal with 30C intake temperatures and a crontab log to underclock everything during the heat of the day.


If you were doing the shed over again, what would you change?

would you make it smaller / would you triple the number of ventilation holes and run on pure airflow  /  would a window-mount AC be more efficient?
and, would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?

I need a good plan to handle 10kW (if not 25kW) of heat

No, we have 26 currently. Adding 6 more tomorrow. Doing it over, I would make the cold side smaller and the hot side bigger. I just spent 2 hours today moving the middle wall up another foot and a half to do just that. This will make the area the AC is trying to cool smaller, put the ac closer to the miners, and give more room in the hot side to trap hot air and expel it. They key is to funnel as much hot air into the hot side and evacuate it quickly. Shields on the antminers might help. We might play with that next. I dont know... I dont want to spend too much more time on this. These dont need to have lives of years as they wont be worth it in a while.

From what I read, split AC systems like the one I got are more efficient than window units. I might upgrade the second exhaust fan to another 1350 cfm one over the 650.

Im not sure I understand what you are asking here "would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?"

[philipma1957]

So you have 8 antminers right now (~3.2kW) and he 15,000 BTU ac unit doesnt quite cut it? (15000 BTC should suffice for ~3.5kW). How do you intend to add more miners?

Im faced with a similar problem with the coming canadian summer (still hot enough that there will be a few 30C heatwaves), and am unsure whether to go with an air conditioned location (that will require a 100,000BTC A/C if not larger) or to form enough ventilation that i might just have to deal with 30C intake temperatures and a crontab log to underclock everything during the heat of the day.


If you were doing the shed over again, what would you change?

would you make it smaller / would you triple the number of ventilation holes and run on pure airflow  /  would a window-mount AC be more efficient?
and, would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?

I need a good plan to handle 10kW (if not 25kW) of heat

No, we have 26 currently. Adding 6 more tomorrow. Doing it over, I would make the cold side smaller and the hot side bigger. I just spent 2 hours today moving the middle wall up another foot and a half to do just that. This will make the area the AC is trying to cool smaller, put the ac closer to the miners, and give more room in the hot side to trap hot air and expel it. They key is to funnel as much hot air into the hot side and evacuate it quickly. Shields on the antminers might help. We might play with that next. I dont know... I dont want to spend too much more time on this. These dont need to have lives of years as they wont be worth it in a while.

From what I read, split AC systems like the one I got are more efficient than window units. I might upgrade the second exhaust fan to another 1350 cfm one over the 650.

Im not sure I understand what you are asking here "would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?"

my guess is the ac blows its cold air directly at the intake fans.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do have this suggestion  buy these


http://www.ebay.com/itm/151276722479?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


assuming the seller has more of them.  he charged me 107 usd for the 14.  add them like this.  this will really help pull the hot air out.

also if the oem push fan fails on any ant these will protect that ant from over heat.

these move air like a mofo

if you do not mind the noise  these work great.  these are delta 38mm fans  loud but 160 cfm. I got them on ebay used 14 for around 110 bucks.

   my gear is running at 45 c in a 84 f degree  garage

they run push pull




they attach with 4 pipe cleaners and 4 nylon nuts






they power off the miner's power

[Collider]

So your power cost including delivery is around 10ct? is that correct?

also, cooling typically adds around 30% more power consumption when running at full load, so it isn´t that much more power cost.

It is a necessity in most parts of the US anyway.

From my experience, antminers aren´t that sensitive to a higher intake temperature of say 30°C.