Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 188 posts

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#31

Post by _greim_ »

This reminds me of a story; a buddy of mine during my college days lived in a solitary townhome adjoining a million-watt microwave emitter room. The thing produced enough waste heat to warm the apartment in the dead of winter, even with all the doors and windows open, plus the adjoining warehouse which was several times the volume of the dwelling.

I was envious at the time, although now I wonder about the health implications of the setup, and whether it was strictly speaking legal. The guy is alive and well today, fortunately.

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#32

Post by wallace_f »

wlesieutre wrote: post #21
mrfusion wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair a heat pump probably wouldn’t work in Siberia with such low temperatures. Most heat pumps are no good below 20f.

That's true, I'm speaking more generally about bitcoin mining for heat, but it may make more sense in Siberia if electric heaters are the dominant heating method. There are other reasons electrical heating isn't great, heat pumps aside. An average coal plant (in the US in 2015, I'm using EIA numbers) was about 34% efficient in turning the energy in coal into electricity. Then you lose about 5% of that in transmission…

That's pretty reasonable, but let's get really serious--You can be more efficient than that. This winter I may buy a bicycle-electric generator, an inverter, and use it to power my laptop to mine bitcoins. This heating beats a mere 98% gas heater by capturing generated heat most efficiently: Directly inside my body. The remaining kinetic and electric energy heats my house. And since I need to lose weight anyways, the cost of electricity is less than zero. Infinite efficiency!

I can't wait to get rich and be warm this winter.

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#34

Post by nerdponx »

_greim_ wrote: post #31

This reminds me of a story; a buddy of mine during my college days lived in a solitary townhome adjoining a million-watt microwave emitter room. The thing produced enough waste heat to warm the apartment in the dead of winter, even with all the doors and windows open, plus the adjoining warehouse which was several times the volume of the dwelling. I was envious at the time, although now I wonder about the health impl…

I wonder what would happen if you heavily shielded the walls, but ran a heat exchanger through. Free baseboard heating?

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#35

Post by nerdponx »

Jhsto wrote: post #17

I used to increase my PC voltages every winter at my parents wooden heated house near the arctic circle. The room temperatures could drop all the way to 16C (60F) during the night. That allowed easy overclocks on my Athlon processor from 3 to 4Ghz. I still had to wear wool socks though, because the air pushing from the central unit would cause an annoying breeze of cold air onto my toes in the always chilly room.

The room temperatures could drop all the way to 16C (60F) during the night

That's what you call cold up in the arctic? That's definitely how cold my NYC apartment is every night from November through March. Heat is expensive!

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#36

Post by ComodoHacker »

maaaats wrote: post #10

As a kid I always tried to convince my mom to let me play computer games to heat our house during winter. She didn't believe me. But it was probably not the efficiency of the heating that stopped her from letting me game all day, though

Did you tell her that you move you body when you're really engaged and generate additional heat by burning your calories? That might swing the balance to your favor.

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#37

Post by uwu »

ArchReaper wrote: post #19
acjohnson55 wrote: post #11

Of course, it would be cool if Bitcoin didn't require throwaway computation. Then we could use this computation for something that's actually valuable, like protein folding, or something, and still make use of the waste heat.

>it would be cool if Bitcoin didn't require throwaway computation Sure, but that's a technology that does not exist. If you can figure out how to create a blockchain-like concept, where the 'proof of work' actually contributes to humanity, you have invented the next big thing. Edit: Reading the comments below me, it looks like this is a space that is being actively explored. Exciting!

https://curecoin.net

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#38

Post by kiddico »

Jhsto wrote: post #17

I used to increase my PC voltages every winter at my parents wooden heated house near the arctic circle. The room temperatures could drop all the way to 16C (60F) during the night. That allowed easy overclocks on my Athlon processor from 3 to 4Ghz. I still had to wear wool socks though, because the air pushing from the central unit would cause an annoying breeze of cold air onto my toes in the always chilly room.

I always look forward to the overclocking bump I get in the winter :) It's a bit odd having a seasonal clock speed though .

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#39

Post by ComodoHacker »

in_hindsight wrote: post #13
evgenyq wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's kilowatt*hour to be correct. btw, a night rate is even less, somewhere around 0.01usd

Yes and if it’s countryside, even less I guess

Free, if you're lucky or inspector is your buddy.

Re: Bitcoin mining heats homes for free in Siberia [video]

#40

Post by Pxtl »

Hm, I've politely ignored bitcoin for a long time, but I live in a cold climate and do make some use of electrical heating. Is there a good user-friendly miner setup I could use to supplement a space-heater? I assume a low-power linux box running some bitcoin-oriented package with a bunch of asics shoved into the USB ports?
Post reply on HN