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I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

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Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#351

Post by _0w8t »

lalaland1125 wrote: post #337
xenocyon wrote: post #276

1. At an individual/hobbyist level this is a fine thing to do, if one is already a cryptocurrency enthusiast. 2. At a social/planning level it is important to remember that opportunity costs matter, and this should not be recommended as public policy. One kWh of electricity could either be used for mining bitcoin (creating at most one kWh of indoor heat), or it could be used for running a heat pump[*], yielding multi…

An alternative to using heat pumps is to use gas heating. Gas heating lets you achieve >100% "efficiency" relative to electric heating because you don't have to pay the price of converting the gas into electricity.

There is another non-trivial advantage of natural gas. Energy losses from sending it over pipes are smaller that electricity losses in transmission lines, https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=76881

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#352

Post by gkfasdfasdf »

kiddico wrote: post #287
gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to try NiceHash, but the fact that I have to add it as an exception to Windows Defender antivirus, and that one of the founders has previously been convicted [0] and served time for writing botnet malware, really gives me pause. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiceHash

I'd bet that writing botnet software was pretty good training for writing distributed processing software like NiceHash, though I think your concern is still valid.

Yes absolutely, I'm sure writing a botnet is not trivial so I respect the technical ability!

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#353

Post by bseidensticker »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #49

I did this in an apartment I lived in years ago, and do it now in my house. My computer room in the house is the lowest point in the house, so naturally, it tends to be a couple degrees cooler than the upstairs. This means that if I set the thermostat so that the computer room is comfortable, the bedroom is too warm. If I run the house circulation fan constantly, it's not an issue, but that consumes a decent amount o…

You're not actually mining Bitcoin with your GPU. I think nicehash automatically picks the most profitable coin to mine at the time and just pays out in bitcoin.

It hasn't been profitable to mine bitcoin with a GPU since 2013 or 2014.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#354

Post by randomhodler84 »

bseidensticker wrote: post #353
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #49

I did this in an apartment I lived in years ago, and do it now in my house. My computer room in the house is the lowest point in the house, so naturally, it tends to be a couple degrees cooler than the upstairs. This means that if I set the thermostat so that the computer room is comfortable, the bedroom is too warm. If I run the house circulation fan constantly, it's not an issue, but that consumes a decent amount o…

You're not actually mining Bitcoin with your GPU. I think nicehash automatically picks the most profitable coin to mine at the time and just pays out in bitcoin. It hasn't been profitable to mine bitcoin with a GPU since 2013 or 2014.

No, nicehash pays you in bitcoin for the specific hash rate that you sell. It’s a hash marketplace denoted in BTC. Nicehash doesn’t mine, it’s customers do.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#355

Post by gkfasdfasdf »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #314
gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to try NiceHash, but the fact that I have to add it as an exception to Windows Defender antivirus, and that one of the founders has previously been convicted [0] and served time for writing botnet malware, really gives me pause. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiceHash

Windows Defender flags all crypto miners. It is not unique to NiceHash. You don't have to add an exception for the whole NiceHash directory for it to work, but it makes it easier. NiceHash updates the miners occasionally, and if you don't add an exception for the whole directory, then every time a miner gets an update, it's disabled by Windows Defender until you manually allow it.

Seems like there should be a way to have NiceHash sign their binaries or otherwise vet with Microsoft so Defender can automatically allow it. Setting an exception seems like it makes it a target for other malware to hijack or piggyback on.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#356

Post by gkfasdfasdf »

mtone wrote: post #318
gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to try NiceHash, but the fact that I have to add it as an exception to Windows Defender antivirus, and that one of the founders has previously been convicted [0] and served time for writing botnet malware, really gives me pause. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiceHash

Nicehash (the app) is a convenience tool to manage miner executables -- it's mostly those that are flagged by AVs. You can connect most miner executables to Nicehash (the service) or other pools directly, and some are open-source. For instance I GPU mine with https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer and CPU mine with https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig , both built from source and I don't use Nicehash (the app). But I…

This is interesting, so I could run the NiceHash app (which doesn't require an AV exception) and have it mine using open source miners which I have built myself?

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#357

Post by minitoar »

seniorsassycat wrote: post #333
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, as a bonus efficiency feature, most heat pumps are installed with the condenser external to the home! Yes, if you draw an imaginary box around the home and the outdoor/underground condenser, they're exactly 100% efficient, but if you only consider the inside of the home and ignore that the condenser is taking in heat energy from the outside, they're more than 100% efficient.

The power station and natural gas plants are outside my house too, so my restive floor heaters and furnace are >100% efficient.

Just draw an imaginary line around my pocket book then. I pay for the energy I'm getting from the power station. Beyond capex, I don't pay for the energy I'm getting from the heat exchanger.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#358

Post by lostlogin »

jiofih wrote: post #201
dreen wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite my precarious housing situation at the time, I also own a big house in the country over 150 years old. The main form of heating it originally were 2m tall ceramic furnaces, always placed so that they could heat two rooms at the time. You put material to burn in from either side, and after getting hot the furnace would keep heating the room for hours, and all it takes is a few logs of wood (that you later have…

0.5kg of CO2 per kWh is the average for electric grids around the world. 1kg of wood produces around 2kg of CO2, every 400g of firewood gives you 1 kWh, so 0.8kg CO2/kWh. That’s slightly worse than mining. Bitcoin is wasteful in its total energy consumption which is not reused, but 99% of the power you put into that GPU will be released as heat.

The wood I use was going to a landfill, so does using aircon actually equate to more CO2 in the atmosphere if I just let it get dumped and turn on the aircon?

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#359

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

Nition wrote: post #311
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will be pleased to know that the majority of heat pumps are installed in homes whose exteriors stay above 0 kelvin year round. Also, in what I assume is an efficiency feature, most heat pumps do not allow operation in a zero Kelvin environment. Also, to nit pick: Kelvins are not degrees and do not use a ° sign.

Damn, I've been looking for a zero Kelvin heat pump that works in a vacuum to heat my spherical cows.

Maybe you wouldn't need to heat them so much if they weren't frictionless.

Re: I heat my home by mining crypto currencies

#360

Post by bseidensticker »

randomhodler84 wrote: post #354
bseidensticker wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not actually mining Bitcoin with your GPU. I think nicehash automatically picks the most profitable coin to mine at the time and just pays out in bitcoin. It hasn't been profitable to mine bitcoin with a GPU since 2013 or 2014.

No, nicehash pays you in bitcoin for the specific hash rate that you sell. It’s a hash marketplace denoted in BTC. Nicehash doesn’t mine, it’s customers do.

Sure, but nobody is buying time on your GPU to mine Bitcoin. They are buying time on your GPU to mine some other cryptocurrency. One that uses a different hashing algorithm.
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