Bitcoin Powered Heating System

[mrpark]

I strongly believe bitcoin will go up in the near future, but to survive this dip and offset the cost of mining I was planning on making a heating system. So far I have a few miners and some copper piping, as well as some old baseboard heaters.  I would suppose the next step would be getting a pump that could circulate and handle the heat (submersible fountain pump?), and also something to act as a heat exchanger (container of water?).  Those pipes with aluminum fins, the fins disburse the heat so you would want to put that in the area you want the heat sent to. Has anyone tried this, or thought about it?  I have a Prisma 1.4 I bough from Crazyguy, and that makes more concentrated heat of any miner I have seen so far.  Please let me know your thoughts on the topic! Please don't just say buy BTC, wait for it to go up and pay my heating bills!

[dogie]

The expensive / hard bit is getting waterblocks made that will fit miners, and then getting new ones every 3-6 months as you change your miners. You're probably better off with some form of ducting and moving air about.

[buysolar]

air to air heat exchangers work. I'm setting up an elaborate system for my hot water, radiant flooring and pool heating system that will get 100% of it's btu's from waterblocked bitminers. But that project is going to take till next christmas to complete. In the meantime I am setting up miners in strategic locations with wireless antenna's to heat the home in a very low tech fashion.

[notlist3d]

The expensive / hard bit is getting waterblocks made that will fit miners, and then getting new ones every 3-6 months as you change your miners. You're probably better off with some form of ducting and moving air about.

I would agree it would be very hard to keep up on doing this.  New miners come out too quick to do this each new generation.

You mention a pool.... I cannot imagine how many Bitcoin miners it would take for a pool.  It seems like you would spend a small fortune just on electricity for heating a pool with miners.

[wttbs]

Here is my BTC Heating system  



±280GHs @ 244W - 0.10A Fan. Two of these keep the livingroom at a 20 to 21 degrees celcius  

[bluecityste]

I asked a similar question to this in October when the C1 was announced.

Unfortunately I have NO technical knowledge, but thought that with the C1 already being watercooled there could possibly be a way to connect these to a water central heating system? Plan was to buy 3 of these and then in theory the whole house would be able to stay at a steady 18 degrees throughout the winter.

Like I said though, no responses so i'm keeping an eye on this thread.

Good luck

[mrpark]

if you did a heat exchanger, air to water, and then pumped that somewhere else it would most likely work. Heating a pool would be a great application (perhaps offer this service as a business). A submersible pump and a pump to circulate. I agree, the waterblock idea would be much more complicated.

Answer to the C1 idea - Yes and No.....

The problem:

Also, in a hot water boiler system, the water is not always flowing 100% of the time, so for this reason you need to have your own separate system if you had the C1's in line. In my opinion this could not be done because the circulator pump on a hot water system isn't always running, only when the boiler calls for hot water.  If you did use a C1s it would have to be on a piping system all it's own with some thing like a high temp fountain pump 80 GPH. And if its a closed system, you would need a pressure relieve valve, like they have on old radiators.

I don't think you need a C1, you could do it with other miners. For hydronic boiler type system, you could simply point your miner to the pipes that carry water to your entire house. Or, point the hot air at the room you wanted heated. (lets say below in the basement. ) The problem with this idea, is that your system runs by a thermostat. So you could set your thermostat a few degrees over what your average is, so then when it gets hot it will circulate the water.  Again, it depends on how large you basement is. You probably have pipes in your ceilings, so what you could do is add additional piping down to go in front of the miners. You wont need to circulate the heat, as long as it's in the same zone.

Just taking hot air and blasting it in another room would also work. The problem with this idea is most people have the miners in their basement, and you probably don't want to blast basement air into your other living areas.

This would also work well for a hot water tank, that way the water in the tank would stay warm.

[mavericklm]

c1 is good if u wanna dump the heat in tne central heating system. all u need is the same are running it ''stand alone''
pipes, pump, waterblock and a water-to-water heat exchanger,plate hx preferred!

y the hx and not just put the miner in paralel or series with a room radiator(room heater)? because the central heatin system is full of debris, all kind of small particles, dirt, iron oxide, calcareous pieces!

put the plate hx in the central heating system, conect the miner(s), fill with auto cooling liquid, power on! ....

this is for gas heating central system, for wood or pelletes you will need to run the main pump at the same time with the miner

[mrpark]

That's a very good idea Mavericklm, yes, if you put a plate on the copper pipe in your system that is already full of water, it would heat the zone.  It would also help cool the miner, instead of simply pushing the hot air out.  You might be able to do this with a prisma or S3. Put one plate on the miner, and the other plate on your copper pipe or radiator to transfer the heat. I have a lot of copper pipe, I can try this with an empty pipe. The problem with filling the pipe, is that I wouldn't want to put it under too much pressure. I wonder if an empty copper pipe would carry enough heat. I have a feeling it would. I am not that familiar with water cooling systems, so if you had examples I would be interested in trying it.

c1 is good if u wanna dump the heat in tne central heating system. all u need is the same are running it ''stand alone''
pipes, pump, waterblock and a water-to-water heat exchanger,plate hx preferred!

y the hx and not just put the miner in paralel or series with a room radiator(room heater)? because the central heatin system is full of debris, all kind of small particles, dirt, iron oxide, calcareous pieces!

put the plate hx in the central heating system, conect the miner(s), fill with auto cooling liquid, power on! ....

[mavericklm]

i meant using this

to dump the heat in the central heating system

it is used in place of the radiator, the other in&out connections on the plate hx are conected to the central heating system

[mrpark]

I looked online and found that one, as well as another. This one is specifically for hydronic heating systems.

http://www.taco-hvac.com/products/heat_transfer_products/brazed_heat_exchangers/index.html

[mavericklm]

there are many, u just need it to have about 10plates(5kw if i remember wel) and proper connections.
presion matters less as you will have 5bar max on the central heating side and u can run atmosferic pressure on the miner's side

[mrpark]

I also wonder if one used just an L shaped copper pipe and pointed the fan in the opening, the other side of the pipe would attach to the copper pipe in the actual system. This way no water pressure would be involved. Using the aluminum block inline with the system, I am wondering that would make too much heat? Basically make a very small channel of air from the miner, and then point it to somewhere else on the zone.

there are many, u just need it to have about 10plates(5kw if i remember wel) and proper connections.
presion matters less as you will have 5bar max on the central heating side and u can run atmosferic pressure on the miner's side

[mavericklm]

dont know what u are trying to say there, but maybe u wanna chanel the heated air thru paperbord ducts in the house...
paperboard because is cheap or free, and it cuts on the noise

[xstr8guy]

This will keep you toasty for the winter...

[seriouscoin]

OP, It has been discussed long b4 ASIC.

That copper baseboard wont work. Its around 580BTU per liner foot. So even if you have 8ft long pipe, thats still way too low for coupe of your miners 3.5kW

In addition, to effectively have a passive system like you post, your water temp must be above 60c, at that point your miner will fail miserably.

You must use active setup with a radiator and a fan. It has been done b4 by D&T.