Topic: Custom Built Mining Shed (Read 9701 times)

This is a really cool idea the costs seems a little high. A lot of my family is in the construction industry and I could get lumber for practically free. I may actually do a project like this in the near future.

and you started with  btc coins under 500usd and coins are over 600 usd.   so yeah buy and hold may have earned more but you would not have the shed.  Also many people with buy and hold mentality have no understanding of active mining being a completely different tax animal. Plus a gear head tinker man's dream.

I look at the entire mining thing as this in the last 2 years. I had the bast pc's the best gpu's the best ssd's and I turned a small profit.  All legally ! 

Plus i could get lucky and my remaining gear + coins could go up up and away.  Nice work on the shed and the ants.

Actually, after renting out contracts, mining BTC, and selling equipment, I am pretty sure I have broken even. I need ot go update my ROI tracking spreadsheet to make sure.

But dont forget, in the end I now have a bigger shed to store stuff (after the miners) and an AC system I can move to my garage to work on my classic cars during the summer. So building the shed and having it paid for by miners has other benefits

So shaxs, is this room anywhere near ROI with the new and improved 16.8 BILLION difficulty?  Or are you ready to admit yet that you pissed away a ton of money on ASICs and other work with no chance of breaking even yet?

I like the work, I like the setup, but it just doesn't pay off.  And it won't ROI for a long time unles BTC goes way up in price.

I am so tempted to do something like this here in cali...
We have the benefit of naturally cool weather here in the Bay Area (it's 62F right now...) so heat buildup should be even less of an issue.
And having a father-in-law that happens to be a commercial electrician can't hurt either

Heat was becoming an issue and then we shrouded all the miners. We enclosed the whole self of miners in an effort to keep the heat enclosed and pushed out the back fans and have colder air stay on the cold side to suckinto the intake fans. That helped.

We ended up selling off about half the S1s and bought 20 (I think) S3s. So right now I think we have 16 or so S1s and the temperatures in the shed are in the low 80s. The s3s are shrouded out of the box so I am curious to see how 20 of those hold up.

One of the more annoying problems is the Texas humidity. The split ac system he have also a dehumidifier. It takes too much water out of the air and leaks down the wall. It doesn't threaten the equipment,t but leaves an annoying little puddle near the door.

Once we get the S3s installed, we will check back in.

OK, a month later in Texas. What's the state of affairs on this shed? I am curious to see what the reality on the ground is on this. Has the heat overtaken the project, or is it still "full steam ahead" (no pun intended)?

Great question! The dog door is completely separate, with the port inside the shed double sealed. The exhaust vents are on the hot side, with our insulation wall separating it from the miners. it's also about 20 degrees hotter than the "cool side". The other vent we have is for the A/C, and we haven't seen any issues with moisture on that end. We've had some pretty major rain storms and the shed has remained dry, so I think we're set.

Yeah, the PSU's have been a pretty good deal. We've purchased them off of ebay, and there are still plenty available for those willing to do the wiring themselves. Here's a link to an auction as an example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-24R2730-24R2731-835W-POWER-SUPPLY-FOR-X3400-X3500-X3650-SERVERS-/251542456212?pt=US_Server_Power_Supplies&hash=item3a91194794

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts. I may have spoken too soon regarding the issues. Currently we are sitting at ~100-110f on the cool side. While the miners are still running just fine, both Shaxs and I are concerned we may be facing some trouble once the temperature here heats up. I'm going to try and develop individual shields for the miners as the heat emanating from the sides of the miners is a major cause of the heat spike.

Speaking of which, has anyone developed heat shields? If so, what materials did you use?

the AC is partially a dehumidifier - it may only have a small effect though.  However the heat of the shed should ensure any moisture stays in the air and does not condense at all.

How does this hold up in heavy rain? I see the insulation but between the dog door and vents I'm sure moisture gets in there. Do you run any dehumidifiers or anything like that?

That's quite a project, and what a deal on those power supplies, $10-$14 per supply is an awesome deal!

You cant buy the S2 anymore, just an over priced kit.

HI

Nice mining room.... a few things.

I think changing from s1 to s2 miners would be a good option... what is it s1 mine at 180-200ghs and a s2 mines at 1th and use much less power and puts out much less heat... selling 5 s1 mining on ebay could net you $1k-1.5k depending on what you sell them for and how soon you sell them... so you would only need to invest another $500 to get 1 x s2 miner for every 5 x s1 miners you have right now..

or what about something like these miners.. http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/spondoolies-tech-sp10-dawson-miner-masterpiece-bitcoin-miner/2014/05/28

and get a data cabinet like this..



you could find something second-hand for cheap on ebay I sure

last thing what are you doing about security for the shed and the miners... you don't want people walking off with them...

Great job!
It sounds like you know what you are doing. I hope you do hit ROI as you have planned.

This gives me hope my little asics could be useful. I just need to find 20 more

Exactly! Plus it would be impossible to have 32 miners in our house.

+1. shed is a smart move. Anywhere you locate them you are looking a $500-1000 rent or more, is a remote location, and likely would require some initial modification (electrical work to run 30A 208V wiring/panel/fuses will cost $1000-2000. That doesn't include AC installation if its needed or the shelving/power bars/networking/fans/lights/smoke detectors to run everything properly.

even for a full $4500, saving even $500 a month to host in a remote location will pay off in 9 months. Its a permanent installation and you keep the shed forever

try the DPS800 with the gigampz board. You can have a 1000W supply at 208/240V for about $50-70 after the cost of breakout board, PCIe cables, and PSU

The PSU's have been the biggest issue thus far. We're using the 835w IBM PSU's, one for every 2 miners. They have a nagging habit of shutting off and you have to fiddle with them to get them back up. Luckily we're getting them for between $10-$14 per, so I'm not too concerned with having to replace them. Other than that, there's not too many issues we're facing yet. Very curious to see what happens when the outside temperature starts climbing. We've had a very mild spring and haven't really climbed into the Summer temps yet (100+ f). I would imagine there will be some more tinkering in our future to combat that.

Hosting would have been anywhere from $1,100-1,300 per month, per person when we only had 15-20 miners. With what we have now, we will hit full ROI in another 2 months or so, maybe less with the spike in price... Pretty easy decision in my mind, and I didn't have an issue putting my money to that.

Trust me, we weighed every option we could, and this was the best option, hands down!

Wow, you blew $4500 just setting up the room!  Kind of defeats the purpose of mining.  It's hard enough to make a profit without piling another $4500 on top of that!

Awesome farm! I was thinking about setting one up for a couple of GPU rigs but nothing on the scale of what you're doing. I love the wifi controlled lightbulb, that's a really good idea.

Have you run into any issues with the miners since setting them up there?

^ha, how did that feature slip into the final product?

*nest senses fire - send alert*
*humans rush into room on fire and flailing - wave to dismiss activated - returning to standby*

Only recalled because of the wave to dismiss option.

Thats a good question.... probably not up to code exactly. The shed sits on an external slab backed up to the exterior of the house which is cement board (deem as a non-combustible material). We also have a nest protect in there for fire/smoke warnings. In fact it went off last night I think because there was a fire somewhere outside (you could smell it) and the fresh air intake brought some in.

All over clocked. Outside temps were in the high 80s F.

Noise level is not bad unless standing next to it. No worse than the noise from an AC unit. I cannot hear them in the house.

sounds pretty fun and successful though! 32 miners is a lot of heat - are they overclocked or undervolted?

whats the outside temperature?  and as mentioned, what is the noise level like outside the shed - 32 S1 units make a LOT of noise when you dont have a wall between you and them

so after sealing up the wall we're sitting at 86 degrees f on the cool side and 124 degrees f on the hot side. This is with the 32 miners running, and it isn't extremely hot outside yet. Shaxs and I are going to tinker with individual shields for each miner to try and contain the heat they put off so it's funneled directly to the hot side instead of outwards towards the other miners.


This is like the never-ending project...

they can run fine in a room at 85f  which is  30 c


but he is in texas  which means 100 f or  38 c

guess that's what i meant to ask above.

OP: would you skip the AC unit in favor of simply using outside 30C air (at peak hours) in your shed, and if not (due to limits of the current ventilation CFM?) do you think a shed with larger vents and fans would be capable?

second part: is running an AC on a very small amount of intake air very effective if the air is being used and vented out hot within a minute or less? and does doing it that way mean it will add less than 30% (the general figure for closed-circuit cooling of heat) because the intake air (30C) is still significantly cooler than the exhaust (45C)?

lastly: whats the noise like? does it sound like a pool shed or does it sound like a vaccuum/box of fans when you stand outside or nearby?   (ie: would it annoy the neighbours or be obvious)

So your power cost including delivery is around 10ct? is that correct?

also, cooling typically adds around 30% more power consumption when running at full load, so it isn´t that much more power cost.

It is a necessity in most parts of the US anyway.

From my experience, antminers aren´t that sensitive to a higher intake temperature of say 30°C.

my guess is the ac blows its cold air directly at the intake fans.
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I do have this suggestion  buy these


http://www.ebay.com/itm/151276722479?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


assuming the seller has more of them.  he charged me 107 usd for the 14.  add them like this.  this will really help pull the hot air out.

also if the oem push fan fails on any ant these will protect that ant from over heat.

these move air like a mofo

No, we have 26 currently. Adding 6 more tomorrow. Doing it over, I would make the cold side smaller and the hot side bigger. I just spent 2 hours today moving the middle wall up another foot and a half to do just that. This will make the area the AC is trying to cool smaller, put the ac closer to the miners, and give more room in the hot side to trap hot air and expel it. They key is to funnel as much hot air into the hot side and evacuate it quickly. Shields on the antminers might help. We might play with that next. I dont know... I dont want to spend too much more time on this. These dont need to have lives of years as they wont be worth it in a while.

From what I read, split AC systems like the one I got are more efficient than window units. I might upgrade the second exhaust fan to another 1350 cfm one over the 650.

Im not sure I understand what you are asking here "would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?"

So you have 8 antminers right now (~3.2kW) and he 15,000 BTU ac unit doesnt quite cut it? (15000 BTC should suffice for ~3.5kW). How do you intend to add more miners?

Im faced with a similar problem with the coming canadian summer (still hot enough that there will be a few 30C heatwaves), and am unsure whether to go with an air conditioned location (that will require a 100,000BTC A/C if not larger) or to form enough ventilation that i might just have to deal with 30C intake temperatures and a crontab log to underclock everything during the heat of the day.


If you were doing the shed over again, what would you change?

would you make it smaller / would you triple the number of ventilation holes and run on pure airflow  /  would a window-mount AC be more efficient?
and, would having the ac on an inline airflow with all the wasteheat dumped outside prove more efficient than cooling the entire cold side of the shed?

I need a good plan to handle 10kW (if not 25kW) of heat

That is a great point. Unfortunately I am stuck with this configuration due to the large holes cut on the "hot side" that contains the exhaust fans. I might try to insulate the door area of make it more air tight.

Nice illustration.

The problem I see is that the entry door is on the cold side. That makes it harder to insulate and cool in the summer. When it hits 100, it's going to be tough to keep it frosty in there. It would be cool if you could rotate it 90 degrees so that the hot air is blowing directly at the exit door. Make the cold side airtight with insulation so that your HVAC is pumping cold air into a sealed cooler, and the only escape for the cold air is through the Ants. No insulation on the hot side. But what do I know, I haven't even seen the thing.

The hot side and cold side both share the wall with the house. Here is what it looks like:

Awesome project. I admire the DIY gumption of this.

From the pics, it looks like the cold side faces the shed door. Is the hot side up against the house?

Thanks!

Great homebrew idea 

Impressive good work!

No doubt. As the business partner Shaxs referenced, it's been a fun challenge to organize, structure, build, wire, and administer our little frankenstein shed. Having said that, I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to put together, and am extremely curious to see how it performs in the Texas heat. We also have 6 more miners on the way, so there will be more wiring, positioning, and administrating.

I may try out building shields for each of the units as well. I've seen some folks use cardboard or aluminum, and I'd like to see if that can drop the temps on the units, even if it's just by a couple degrees. Never-ending tinkering!

good work. I can't keep mine cool enough either......July in TX will be a challenge

Awesome!

Lol thats pretty badass.

"If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill."


Texas= Heat (lots of it)

There are already two exhaust fans. They were not enough to keep the shed cool enough. One is an attic exhaust fan. I also cant leave the door open during rain or when I am not at the house.

If you do not need AC when the door is open, then what you need to do is get rid of the AC, and instead install an exhaust fan. You will pay a fraction of the cost of electric bill.

Its pretty loud. Especially on hotter days when the fans are going full blast.

True the ac doesnt help. It uses about 1500w, or 3.5 oc'ed antminers worth of power. Based on my power rate, thats about 3.64 USD per day. Not horrible. Not great either. Also, if we leave the door to the shed open when home we can shut off the AC.

I bet the noise level in that room will cancel out the ringing in my ears.
That is one nice Ant-farm :-)

I am very impressed with sincerity of your effort and workmanship. Much to learn here.

However, I have to question economic viability of this project, due to your need to pay for air conditioning.

Air conditioning in Dallas will probably triple or quadruple your power bill, compared to a naturally cooled installation, and cost of power may make bitcoin mining unprofitable much sooner than for those without the need to pay for A/C.

Very small indeed. When we are done mining, it can turn into my dog house when the wife is mad at me Just put a twin mattress out there and its better than the couch! j/k, I am never in trouble hah.

Very nice setup indeed. I always say that if you are going to do something then do it properly.
You sir have done that! well done

Lol... a very small man cave.  A man cave just for the mining equipment!

Thanks!

Hope to do something like this one day when I get my own house.  Well done!  

The cement pad was not 100% level so each 2x4 had to be cut specifically to size lol. Definitely custom

Very dedicated miner.  It is a great looking mining shed man cave.

Very impressive shed for your miners!  Kind of looks like half of the kits you can buy at Home Depot but I can tell it's custom.  Will definately keep the sound and heat out of the living area.

It looks great shax!!  Will you build me one too?    My favorite is pink panther on the walls. 

It is worth trying.  Any cheap way to get a tunnel effect will help cooling.

Cost is now in the main post. We mine about .33 of a btc per day. About 10.5 per month at the 8.85b difficulty rate. If btc stays where it is we will break even in 2 more months with the costs of the shed and miners.

And in the end I still have the tangibles of a nice shed (which I had wanted anyways) and an AC unit I can move to my garage.

We have 27 right now. We can add up to 32. More if we move the switches off the top shelf. If we get a wider shelving unit, we can probably get up to 50. We may run some S2s, but even at $2000 they are overpriced.

Hum, thats not a bad idea about the solid piece of wood to block hot air from coming down. The middle rack is by far the hottest rack. I wonder if doing that will restrict airflow too much? We also are going to put covers over half the miners to see if that improves cooling by trapping the pulled in air fully down a tunnel.

I dont mind.

Cost of a "stock" shed - $1300 (that was a friends and family deal)
Cost to run 100a line and all elctrical (breakers, box, ect) - $1300
Cost to have insulation, duct fans installed, ac installed - $1000
Cost of AC - $899.60

So not necessarily cheap, however when I am done mining I will have a shed I can do other things with and I will move the AC (after buying out my part from partner) to cool my garage so I can work on my classic cars during the Texas summer.

Right now we can host 8 miners per shelf and not couting the top shelf where the switch and ethernet cables run to, we have 4 usable shelves. So a total of 32 miners. If we get a shelf that is wider and uses more of the width of the shed, I think we can push that to 50.

I especially like the dog door/tunnel.  Never know when you might need it

Great work, it looks great!

How much did it cost to build? How much btc do you mine a day? I was wondering whether you will mine back the costs of the shed and the cost of the miners, since miners are only marginally profitable nowadays.

 nice job i remember you asking about the build. looks like you have 16 running can you add more.? are you going to go with any s-2's since ethe price has dropped a bit?

i like the way you stacked the psu over each pair of s-1's


If you had a solid piece of material on the second shelf it would stop the heat from the first row rising to the second row.

this is only a guess . but sliding a thin sheet of plywood under the top row of miners would let you see if i am correct.

wow!
if you don't mind I asking was was the cost to build that...

After getting quotes to colocate my miners in the Austin area, I decided the better option was to build my own facility at my house. My friend went in for half and he hosts his there as well. We tored down a smaller shed attached to the house and built a larger 8'x6'x10' shed on an existing cement slab. It features:

- Dedicated 100a line
- 2 240v PDUs for power to the miners
- 18,000 BTU split air conditioner
- 650 CFM duct exhaust fan and a 1350 CFM attic gable exhaust fan
- Hot and Cold zones using foam insulation board. We sectioned the shed into two parts and then cut holes in the foam board for the exhaust fans on the Antminer s1 and PSUs so all hot air is pushed into the hot zone where the exhaust fans are located.
- Nest Protect smoke detector
- Wifi enabled light switch and wifi camera allowing us to login, turn on the light and see if there is smoke or issues as reported by the Nest Protect.
- Custom network thermometer based off a Raspberry Pi that monitors Hot and Cold sides of the shed (re-purposed from my BBQ smoker   )
- Raspberry Pi vpn for remote access
- Features a "dog tunnel" that is completely sectioned off from the inside to allow my dogs to continue to use the dog door into the house.

We currently have 27 Antminer S1s running in this shed and it is working out quite well. All antminers are running off server PSUs which required a crap load of custom wiring. We have exhaust PUSH fans pushing hot air out of the mienrs to the hot zone. Here are some pictures. It is a little hard to take interior pictures since the spot is a little small.

My friend's wife has dubbed it the "NERDsery" lol.

People have asked so I will include the price to build out:

Cost of a "stock" shed - $1300 (that was a friends and family deal)
Cost to run 100a line and all elctrical (breakers, box, ect) - $1300
Cost to have insulation, duct fans installed, ac installed - $1000
Cost of AC - $899.60

Before picture of the shed area:



After picture of the shed:





View of the miner rack:



Hot side with cut outs for fans:



Picture of the network thermometer:



Picture of the AC:



Dog Door/Tunnel: