******************SEXY SHED******************************************
Houston can be very Humid, Stormy and HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I need a Solution to handle all of this.
Why did I choose Wood vs other material? It's the most cost effective material, easy to insulate and most importantly easier to get approval from H.O.A. For non USA folks, that is the Home Owner Associations. They can be a pain in the A$$ for homes built within Sub Divisions to keep every home similar and protect home owner's property value.
***Sexy Shed V1***
This isn't my first Shed. My first Shed was bigger and wider designed for Antminer S7s, however I assume all my neighbor was Cool with it. My left and right neighbor was, the back door Bee......... isn't. She said I don't want to be looking at your Chicken Shed every day, "did HOA approved this?", and you're on the Easement line. EPIC Failure. My brother in law, who's originally plan was to fly down and finish the Shed build for cooling, end up just helping me take it down. We repurposed it as a Heat Chimney for the S7s in my garage at that time. Poor guy worked 18hrs days for 3 days before flying home.
$$$$ Expensive Lesson $$$$$
Fast forward to the HERE and NOW
***Sexier Shed V2*********
Standard H.O.A approval is a max of 6 ft height. I also am required to build it 8 ft away from my rear house wall and 8 ft away from the Fence which is the Easement line. I was like WHAT? My side yard is only 16ft 8" wide, what can I build with 8"? Please make me an exception and please allow me to build up to 8 ft as I can't walk inside a 5 ft shed since you have the roof eating 6" of the height and it's on 6" high Cinder Blocks. Please also allow me to build closer to my wall, it's my own property, I'm not bothering anyone. I originally got approval for 4ft wide x 6 ft high and 10 ft long. Good but not very useful. Cozy up to the H.O.A Board and finally got approval for 14 ft long x 8 ft high and 6 ft wide. PROGRESS!!!
The Build
While Building the Shed, I got a text from my other neighbor Ben saying "Nhan, I see your Backyard Bee peeping over the fence and then running inside the house. I bet she's calling H.O.A to report you again!". I said Cool, I got H.O.A Approval for my Chicken Shed V2.0, so everyday at 5AM, my Rig will play a WAV file..................OH OH OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, CA CA DOO DOO DOO....................."
The Design
Houston rains a lot and I have a dog who love to do his business on the area where the SHED is. I don't want to walk in the Mud nor step on Land mines left behind by my Dog Alfie. It's also lighted so there's no way I will get killed by land mines. +1 Victory for Dad, - 1 for Alfie
Solution
The Sexy Shed is my play ground so it's designed to house all my Legacy Rig designs and any type of gears I like. The Garage is all about standardization while Shed is all about customization and testing new fun stuff. I need a design that can scale as I grow rather than needing to build everything from the start (max power, cooling, etc) due to cost. The design is made even more difficult because noise would be a concern as I have to worry about the Bee......... I had to test dozens of different fan options. Of course the easiest solution is to throw in the most powerful fans, however that requires more power, is noisier and more massive which will eat into my premium tight width. Noise and privacy was the reason why I chose to point the Fans towards my house rather than the Bee's side.. However sound reflects which means it would bounce back and ricochet to the Bee's house!!!!
Noise Solution
I need a VERY QUIET design, due to the BEE..... That's how the Exhaust design came into play. The idea is to have the sound bounce off the grass. as dirt / grass will absorb sound better than brick. If I want even lower noise, I can add noise canceling foam along the exhaust inner walls. However this wasn't necessary as my box fans are very quiet. This design also help protect the exhaust outlet from RAIN. Intake is thru the ground so no noisy additional fans is necessary due to the negative pressure pull from the exhaust fans
There is a bug net under the Metal frame which is design to keep rodents or other pest out. Works amazing well and I'll happy to report that between my Windeevents in the front garage, and my floor intake with bug net, we're able to reduce Mosquito population for the neighborhood by 99.9%. One Mosquito did get away but he was trying to suck my blood and I got him so it's now 100%.
The Privacy Solution
I don't do my own grass and I use the same grass cutter for over 8yrs. I trust him 100%, however I don't trust his employees that is turned over weekly more than MacDonald's hamburger. I need to have a solution where they can't see what I have in there especially with so many SEXY LEDs saying "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME!!". This is why I have the intake air come from the ground vs the side wall. Not only does this protect from Rain and reduces pollen as the grass will catch most of it as it enter the ground space but no Windows for Peepers to look into. BUT wait, they can see thru the EXHAUST SIDE!!
Solution
I built a fence wall that is locked. This helps protect my shed from stormy weather on the side while the Exhaust design also have it's own roof on top of both the shed roof and my roof giving extra protection from Rain, storms and Peepers.
The front door also have a Security Camera and a High Voltage warning sign. This would either discourage people or make them more curious. I don't know, but either way, Smile, you're on CAMERA buddy!
Followed by another as you enter
The Cooling Solution
I wanted a design that is efficient as we're running fans 24x7 which adds to the operating cost. It also needs to be quiet and easy to install. I've tested many different fan options but since the shed's width is so narrow, I don't need both push and pull fans to cool my rigs. I also don't need as powerful of fans as the rig are very close to the exhaust. So I designed the studs to be 22" apart vs the standard 16" design. My support beams are doubled in some area so it's solid as a tank. This allows me to slide in up to 10 box fans easily for a total CFM power of way more than I would need for a shed this size. The ideal spots since hot air rise is to start up high but my contractor cut the lower slots first so I just put 5 box fans starting there and will add more if it's necessary later. In hindsight if they put it up high, that may be all the fans I need. The shed is currently powering 19 rigs and have tested 86F degrees. It is usually within 2-4 FT of Ambient temp so it should have no issues handling summer heat. If I add 3 more fans, it should be very close to ambient temp. These box fans are very Thermostat controlled so during cool nights and winter, most of them may not be running most of the time. This save me money. The fans are also very cheap, weather resistant, quiet and slightly more powerful then standard box fans. By itself it feels very weak, in a set of 5, the total CFM pulling power is enough to close my shed door when partway open. I don't need wall insulation as a result to the constant air exchange and my shed is in an area that gets good amout of shades. 8 of these fans may start pulling in Butterflies instead of just mosquitoes. =)
Radiant Barrier is used to reflect heat away from Roof
Fire Consideration
Unless overloaded, the chances of GPU catching fire is very low. I have had many instants of GPUs sizzling or risers melting but overall, if you don't feed the fire, it should not spread and is not sufficient to burn your rig. This is why PCI power risers will be very awesome to use with server PSU. The biggest source of issues would be cheap Molex to SATA cables. The cheaper risers Molex cables which you can't visually tell which always get ridiculously hot to the feel. Throw those out. But even the good cables, the molex wires can come loose easily on these riser end, they would touch and cause a small fire. Buy from reputable vendors, use PCI powered risers if possible. Keep GPU and rack spaced out away from things that can fuel the fire. Use metal Racks when possible. But a properly non overloaded rig, should never have any issues. For safety measure the Shed will only be powerig 60% of it's capacity to allow proper spacing for me to work on the rig and fire safety.
Pink wood is also used to protect the structure as it is more fire and moisture resistant.
Power Consideration
240V is very dangerous, more than plenty to kill you quickly. It's not something to take lightly especially in an outdoor environment. The Shed is right next to my 2 x 200 Amp outdoor panel so there's way more than enough Juice to power whatever it needs. However because it is an semi outdoor exposed structure, I used only GFI Breakers. They are super expensive at $120-140 each x 4 but nothing compares to our life right? My wife would argue the other way as she would remind me of my saying "I'm worth more dead then alive.".
2 x 200 AMP Copper BUS panel
White indicate GFI for Shed breakers. All black breakers are non GFI for the Garage
My Mining design choice is similar to my life's choice, I prefer to keep things SIMPLE, SEXY and SWEET.