Anyone using BTC miners as space heaters--how well do they work. Not whole-house heaters, but space heaters.
#askstr #asknostr
Discussion
I have an S9 turned space heater that I have mined with all last winter and this one so far.
It's more effective for heating than you might expect, in moderately sized spaces.
Anecdote noted. For those following, numbers and objective comparisons are useful 🙏
What kind of numbers are you looking for? I haven't been sitting next to it measuring exact BTUs or anything, but CryptoCloaks had some detailed numbers I can probably dig up for you.
Something is off. How can the air coming out be hotter, but the BTU/hr be lower, for the second one?
Not sure, but nostr:nprofile1qqs03eyq7ja4xlavcx7m6qs0dhh6zdht650s27u4ldq9p039yncucycpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgjwaehxw309ac82unsd3jhqct89ejhxqg5waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t0wt55th might be able to shed some light on their testing.
They have their math wrong. It's 3.14 BTU per watt. They divided instead of multiplied
Here are the correct #s:
Look at the fan speeds. Higher temp but a lower volume of air moved.
Most spaces are too small for a full s19 even at low power. Look into urlacher or other space heater models with missing hash boards replaced by air blockers.
I usually advise against an s9 in most cases these days. You will get far fewer sats for your electric dollar. Only a good idea if you need lower outputs, s9 has a 100w minimum with a single hash board in braiins vs 600w single hash board minimum for an s19. (Those numbers may vary a little by submodel but a 6x gives you a fair estimate)
A miner is basically a resister in terms of watts/btu. If you are replacing another resistor based heat an s9 is an improvement. More efficient heat in $/BTU terms will require higher J/TH when you replace it if you want to turn a profit. With heat pump heat I'm profitable with my s19 but not with my s9 for heating my home.
Keep in mind that profitable above accounts for the heat. So my electric bill is higher with miner heat than heat pump heat, but I get enough sats that I end up with more bitcoin than running the heat pump and DCAing those extra dollars I put into the electric bill. That is before accounting for the no KYC premium.
Let me know if you have more questions. This is my second year miner heating. I can also @ in some others I know are more experienced if I can't answer.
Excellent intel, thank you.
15'x15' room w/ cathedral ceiling, house is heated but an elderly person lives in this room and uses an electric heater for 18 hours per day, four months out of the year to supplement due to suboptimal heat zones.
Goal is to offset the cost of the electric heat. Spending 2k on a urlacher is not an option, breakeven would probably not be reached. Thinking this scenario is ~2 winters more.
If they are already using an electric space heater, that is best case in terms of you are currently using the most possible electric to generate that heat. So 100% of sats are profit.
You are supplementing other heat so even a single s19 board is likely going to be too much.
Get an s9 that has noctua or arctic thermal fans to cut down on the noise and enjoy the extra sats.
With an s9, I recommend braiins or another pool that does lightning payouts since you'll never mine enough for a decent utxo.