Not a whole lot to update right now. Everything is running as it has been running.
We had a day of 95-96F and the hottest I saw the outlet temp for the oil was 47C. The hottest I saw the miners was 72C on one of them. The others were about 69C.
I had to order up the 8-36 screws for the foghashing handles. I ended up getting black oxide 3/8 with an allen head. I think those will be here in a week or so.
I haven’t decided at what point I will begin investing in heat reclamation. I have also considered getting a couple cheaper S19Jpro models to fill the tank out and load custom firmware. I think I could control them to increase heat output etc… They would more or less be intermittently used machines that could help keep oil temps where I want when I need. At this juncture it is just a thought with no formal planning.
I am looking at something like this to reclaim heat. I could do a completely passive radiator, but not sure it would pull off enough heat.
With that they make different sizes/variations with and without fans on tstats. I would put one in a small office building/space and one in the garage where the miners are to keep those spaces warm. I plan to put something inline on a return duct to the furnace where I pull air out of the server room with an inline duct fan. Now it would pull air out of the server room and then push air through one of those exchangers into the return ducting.
I think starting with the heat exchangers would be the easiest as opposed to the water storage tank simply due to messing with the plumbing in the house and eliminating a hot water tank.
Edit: One may ask why I would go through all the trouble for heat reclamation. I strongly believe that BTC mining will not be feasible for your typical resident without these types of things AND good electric rates. The industry is getting so industrialized global wide that you can’t compete with a large portion of the hashrate that is getting electricity for free, negative rates, or sub 3.0c/kWh. Power plants and countries are very difficult to compete with. I am not saying there won’t be very profitable periods (in terms of USD) during market run ups, but I look at long term sustainability.
I heard back from the seller of some of these units with the fans. They said the fans draw about 70 watts. That’s “nothing” compared to what the dry cooler or other aux fans I was using. I have no problems running a few of those 24/7 in the cooler months to keep things warm. That would likely mean that the dry cooler fans could be completely shut down and only have water/glycol passing through to keep it from freezing and as a backup for cooling if I need to switch the fans on.
Ultimately, I would like to have all of that automated. One step at a time though.
We bumped right against 100F ambient temps and I saw the outlet fluid get to 48C and “chip temps” about 72C or so. Everything still chugging along the same as it has been.
One thing I have noticed is that the two miners that don’t like something about immersion. They’re performing about 2% less than the other two “good ones”. They tend to oscillate, noticeably, with the ambient temp outside (cooler outside, cooler oil). I think the temps outside in the winter and cooler months could become an issue by cooling the miners too much. The two under performing miners tend to have closer to advertised hashrate when the temps are hot outside.
I know when they are air cooled the software KEEPS the outlet temps at exactly 65C at a min (on one board, the rest just follow and do what they do). That majority of the time they are a fair bit less than this in the oil.
With this information and experience, I think it would be GREAT to control the cooling of the oil. I’m still determining longevity of the miners which is the only thing currently holding me up on pressing forward with heat reclamation. With heat reclamation I could likely control the cooling quite a bit. Depending on where this is at when fall rolls around, I will be installing a switch on the dry cooler to turn the fans on/off individually. This will be manual for now. A variable speed set of fans would be 100% ideal. 3 phase this is easy, but a little trickier with single phase without creating an unnecessary whine from the fans or wasting power.
Ideally, I could create a script to control the fans based off the outlet temp of one of the miners and it would hold the oil at that temp all the time except when really hot and the fans would just run max. This would be better for the miners and reduce power consumption a bit too.
edit: I’m still really liking immersion. It’s a little more stressful, in a sense, due to you’re trying to do something with expensive hardware that it isn’t designed for. I would probably feel better/different if all 4 machines were performing as they should. I also think due to a system that isn’t real sophisticated this adds to it because I’m discussing things like temperature stability. That aspect is completely on me though as I shot for a simplistic and more rudimentary system. I probably would have shot for a different setup having experienced everything (good and bad) at this point.
It’s actually over 100F outside right now. The temp sensor location for the ambient temp is shaded, low to the ground and near the foundation of my home. It tends to run cool by a bit. Ignore the workers online/offline. This is pulling api from PEGA POOL, which just announced they are no longer operating (ugh). I’m back on F2pool for the moment until I get some time to think about which pool I want to use long term.
Anyone happen to know what the torque specs would be for the heatsinks on the s19xp units? I’m almost considering pulling the two that don’t quite hash right and torquing down the heatsinks.
I think once the big surprise shows up I will do some assessment and start working on some heat reclamation ideas that I can implement. I hate to waste all that heat. I can at least have a very warm garage in the winter I hope to initially get a heater in the garage and also the office/workshop. I will have to run some lines under ground to get to the office, but I’m thinking of running them along where I walk to help keep snow melted as well. The house will be a little more complicated or involved because I don’t want to just throw a big heat exchanger hanging from the ceiling.
I been busy with a few restaurants, a health food store, and a municipal event stage - so I have been neglecting catching up on your progress.
Thanks for sharing your latest project deets.
You could try a hydronic unit heater for your garage. (e-bay) Watch the sone or db rating on the fan!
You could operate the unit heater fan with a wall mounted baseboard heater thermostat.
Another alternative is linear hydronic baseboard heaters. Silent.
Possibly consider insulating the outflowing to the office and use the return flow for de-icing?
Do you have an electric forced air furnace?
If so I would consider placing the coil after the blower, not before, as they are not very good at sucking but work well at blowing.
I would consider the air flow reduction when ordering a coil to be added, The furnace manufacturer may have one they recommend. You still want to be able to move air or else you will strain the blower motor and make your forced air system not move enough air to work properly.
Thanks! All great information. I’m still waiting on the “surprise” to arrive, so at a stand still for now. That’s ok for now because I’m fixing some stuff around the house anyways.
Foghashing B6D immersion unit! It just arrived today! Preliminary teardown out of the crate it came in. It came very well crated with zero assembly required.
I hope to initially get a heater in the garage and also the office/workshop. I will have to run some lines under ground to get to the office, but I’m thinking of running them along where I walk to help keep snow melted as well. The house will be a little more complicated or involved because I don’t want to just throw a big heat exchanger hanging from the ceiling.
