Topic: [GUIDE] Recycle Antminer As Home Heater (Read 444 times)

Can you provide more informations on where you purchase this kit and how this affects the temperatures of the miner?
Is this the better solution in your opinion compared to water-cooling?

This is how I have my m20s heating my house. The same kit is available for s19





Smart thermostat and 2 8" electric dampers and a T or Y pipe can switch the heat to vent out of the house at set temperature. I'll write more about it once I get my system finished it's pumping all the heat in the house all the time for now. A M20s in the vents, 3 futurebit apollos and 2 pc mining on cpu and gpu in the living room are the only things that I have needed to keep my house 67 or warmer in subzero weather. I haven't used my furnace since 2021 last winter had 3 s9 with braiins in the house before I stepped up to the whatsminer

 Or play with octotank 12

https://octominer.com/product/octotank-12/

I ordered one and two whatsminer 30s+

in theory a 6000 watt space heater for winter

I got a thread and hope to have info on the thread soon.

I agree if you did go down to one single board I'm sure at some point there could be someone that could knock the power usage down.  As far as taking the PSU off though I do not think it is possible with the way the S19 is but I could be wrong since it uses a bus bar for all of it's connections.

But his idea is to have a unit on a low power mode while hes at home and then just kick it to mine at it's rated capacity while hes not at home.  Which would not be possible with out having to make hardware modifications if he were to setup the fans that way and remove the other two boards. 

Now if he had an S19 with a broken hashboard it would make sense, but he wants to do this with buying an S19 new (or atleast in full working order to do so).

If we go by factory specs (3300W) a single hashboard would be about 1100W, so its not impossible. With decent firmware you can probably lower it a bit more. Of course those PSUs i don't think work at all with 120V so in American electric type countries you would need to plug to the a/c dryer range whatever circuit that brings 208V~240V (2 hots from 2 phases).

My guess is that two fans in a pusher config (like the S15) should do. How loud? needs to be tested...

The PSU will be underused, so maybe you can remove or disconnect two of the little noisy fans as well. Of course you could still remove all fans and do the larger and slower inline duct fan method.

Regardless of it using close to the same amount of power as an electric furnace for a house...  How do you expect to move air around the entire house?  That is literally what a furnace does in a house, it is moving the air to the vents in your home, apartment, trailer, etc.  And before you try to say "But it could be done" like your watercooling theory you can't just throw the unit in and hope it moves enough air unless your house is 8x8 lol.  I'm sure you've watched a few YouTube videos where people try and do it...  Go look back it doesn't work to warm up a house you still need your heater.  BitcoinSoloMiner do you actually own any ASIC miners or familiar with them at all as in hands on experience?  Have you ever heard how loud an S19 is even in "LOW POWER MODE"?  Even back in the S1 days when they could easily run on 110V power they weren't quiet. 

And Stompix is right when summer comes around you have to battle the same heat that the S19 is putting out in the winter, it doesn't magically become an AC for your house.  So now it's summer and in order to counteract the heat you have to run the AC even more because Power = Heat regardless of how you put it.  So now you have to dissipate your 2400W of power being used by cranking the AC even more, and your idea of letting it run in non lower power while your gone is going to cost you even more. 

Plus in 3 years reselling it down the line...  Again I get it you are new to bitcoin but 3 year old hardware doesn't bring anywhere near the money you think it does...  Plus this isn't something you can run on 110V power like the S9 so people buying them used to just play with or make a heater with aren't going to want to buy.  Any major mining companies deal directly with bitmain so why would they want 3 year old and horribly inefficient hardware (by then)?

It doesn't matter, what's prohibitive for just seasonal heating is the initial cost.
When you can buy as the OP said for in his situation 2x1300w for $300 versus a low mode $2000 S19 for 2400W, the second one must produce from the start $1600 on top of what the S9 mine in the limited amount of time you're using that miner, as I don't think you are going to mine in summer even if you're away!

Since the power cost is the same be it an S9 a S19 or a simple heater as they would have nearly the same power draw and same heat release all you have to do is to do the math for the income generated versus the extra acquisition cost. So tell me what time will an S19 in low power beat the two S9?

Remember this is a thing about heating your house with minimal cost, not making profits and turn into a 24/7 mining operation!

We are talking about heating an entire house not a 8 by 8 room

An s19xp would be even better. You could also resell it 3 years down the line

Still, it doesn't make sense from an economic point of view if you want to save money on heating bills.
Let's assume 5 cents per kwh and a run time of 12 hours with 4 months of heating and that revenue won't change in 5 years.

The s19 will earn you 3.5$ a day, and consume 2$ of electricity, so a total gain of $1.5 a day, $180 in profit a year of heating, $900 over 5 years, minus $2000 the miner, that's loss of $-1100.
The normal Walmart heater will obviously just burn electricity, making it $240 a month,  $1200 over the 5 years period, plus the cost of the heater 100$ , which would make it more costly by $200 in 5 years versus the miner.

Assume now that the income will not change, the miner will not fail, you do need 12 hours of 3kw every day for 4 months at least.




 

Because an underclock S19 would still do 2300W which would release more heat than an S9 mining at full power, thus the fans are needed.
It's one thing to disperse 600W in a cold environment a different thing for 2000W.
And if you plan to strip it down to reduce consumption, why even do it, you're just throwing away money at a really expensive heater unlike what OP is doing.


There is:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.61466927

the problem is, you can't currently slow down an S19 miner...
I do not know any firmware / software with which it is possible and it must first create the ROI and make a profit like an old S9 

A s19 that can run at full power once you leave the house would be great

If an s9 running at 300W produces 3/4Th then an s19 would produce like 10 to 15Th for the same wattage

I am not trying to argue with you, but first it is not possible to underclock it that low as far as I am aware.  Second if you have ever used a Bitmain PSU you would know even that is not quiet which is why you see people using different ones than the supplied.  Lastly the idea is to use the extra power (watts) it creates due to its inefficiency to produce heat to warm a room.  It has NOTHING to do with what is more efficient.  

I understand what you are getting at as far as if it were possible to do so with an S19, but you are talking about using a $2000+ miner to do something that isn't what the idea is for.  People either already own S9's previously or buying them for $100-$200 to have a small heater due to waste heat from energy that can solo mine.  It's just a little more expensive space heater for your feet/room that could possibly hit the btc lotto.

whats to stop someone from running a s19 at 1% fan speed with a heavy underclock? it would be much more efficient compared to an older s9 when ran at 300W or something

No and it won't be for a long while.  Unless you want to have a "space heater" that even downclocked using 2000-2500W of 220V power that still requires a deafening fan from both the PSU and miner itself at your feet.  This is for old gear that you aren't trying to get massive hashrates.

Has anyone done this on s19 models?

Yes i know (same with T9+), but even with factory fw it was a common "mod" to force the fan to 100% anyway by disconnecting the fourth wire. The PSU i have has the same dimensions as yours but is a bit longer. I have the dreaded adapter that i see you didn't bother with, and i know how bad it can be, you can't look at it the wrong way or it breaks. Mine still works by pure miracle.

From experience i remember some R4s made noise when the fan becomes mis centered at lower speeds but mine behaved well at 100%. There may be at least two types that i remember from memory, some would do 3000rpm and others (mine) 3120rpm. But yeah i get what you mean with silent S9s even with factory fans (one is good enough).

Modern miners cannot be made as silent unless you do both things: remove/disable hashboards and use a low power target. Single hashboard S19 with only 2 fans on one side (push) or so.

It is true that philipma1957 filled the empty space from missing hashboards of the S9 using wood blocks, but i discovered myself that all you need to do to improve the airflow with a single hashboard is just block/cover the excess space at the end where the air comes out, and does the same effect, even tape works like magic

 
 
The modified S9 is quieter than the R4 and is now in the office... The noisy R4 is now heating the palm house....
For the two hashboards i use the 750W HP power supply because it has a different, quieter fan than the 1200W variant .
The smallest 450W version of the HP server power supply series is almost silent up to a continuous load of 350 W.

@ Artemis3
unfortunately the temperature sensors of the R4 hashboards are not supported by braiins and I cannot use the temperature control automatic mode ...


Jens

Hmm if your fans are at 1% you could replace them with Noctua or Phantek 120mm silent fans. The only problem would be summer but i suppose you don't intend to use it for mining as much but more like space heater by the season.

Since you are using it like that, it may be wise to add this pool at the end of your list: drain://x (user x pass x) this way it can remain heating even with connection issues to the pool.

tux1975: Lol the R4 is back
I only have the 1200W HP server PSU, and been using it with a single hashboard, but it didn't occur me to place the psu inside... hmmm

Oh this is cool! Extra points for removing those stupid stock S9 power cables and connectors.

you can also remove one Hashboard and put a HP 750W Server PSU (HSTNS ) inside 

I did some testing with just one fan to see if the noise will decrease. In my testing the benefit was quite small or didnt even exist. Do you think there is a benefit with just on fan or could this be also be done with two fans? Two fans will have the benefit of a fail save in case you loose one fan. It may be paranoid, but I have seen to many pictures of burned down S9s  


That is a very good addition, since indeed the power supply will be the noisiest part of the system if the fan is not modified. Do they supply all the needed cables?



That is also a good tip and may be a good alternative if you dont already own an S9.

You can use an original firmware, original unmodifed miner, Canaan A851

that will do about 9TH/s with 900W (like I've done for years)

The fact that there's no hardware or firmware modifications necessary at all, also makes it a lot safer and easier.

I made a few threads a while back on these as heaters.
 
you can use brains with only 1 fan set to 30%
If you set to around 500 watts and don't use an ant miner apw3 psu

use the corsair 1000rmx it is very quiet at 600 watts.

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-rmx-series-rm1000x-cp-9020201-na-rf-1000-w/p/N82E16817139298?

it gets very quiet. nice space heater. it will do around 6th

I. Introduction
This guide is intended for anyone interested in heating their home with the waste heat from a Bitcoin miner. In the meantime, used ASIC miners have dropped in price so much that they have become attractive as a replacement for electric heaters. The advantage of a Bitcoin miner compared to an electric heater is obvious: Not only does it generate almost the same amount of heat as a heater, but it also allows Bitcoin mining. A well-suited Bitcoin miner for such an undertaking is the Antminer S9, which has become increasingly affordable in recent times and is now available for under 200 USD. (Even under 50 USD if you buy in large quantities)

II. Necessary changes
1) Brains OS+
By default, the Antminer S9 outputs 13 TH's and requires 1300 watts of power to do so (= approx. 1300 watts of heating power). In this standard configuration, however, the miner can only be used for heating to a limited extent, as it is extremely noisy. Only the heating of an uninhabited building comes into consideration here.
However, if the Brains OS+ software is installed, the power consumption can be controlled precisely. Up to a power consumption of about 600 watts, the included fans have to run with only 1% (!) of the maximum speed in my case. The noise development is accordingly very low. The miner still performs about 7.5 THs at this power consumption.
What bothers me about Brain's OS+ is the fan behavior at startup: The fans briefly turn to 100% and only turn down after about 15 seconds. This behavior is due to the design and cannot be controlled via the software. (Link to the topic: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/stop-fans-from-going-100-at-startup-braiins-os-5417649) However, this is annoying if the miner is to be switched on and off frequently, which is necessary to be able to regulate the temperature reasonably.
Note: Brains OS+ will take a small percentage of your hashrate as "development fee". You can find more informations and alternative software in the forum.

2) External fan control
If you want the fans to run with 1% of the speed already at startup, you have to modify the miner further. For this purpose an external fan controller is used. I chose this one: https://www.amazon.de/MEIRIYFA-Adapter-Chassis-Splitter-Controller/dp/B09MN4BMPK/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=Pc+Fan+Controller+Pwm&qid=1670259225&s=industrial&sr=1-11 . This can be connected directly to the existing power supply with a 6 pin splitter.
In the Brains OS+ software, "Immersion Mode" is now selected and the correct fan speed is set using the knob on the fan controller. The fan speed is now fixed to this value and is immediately applied as soon as the miner gets power. Since the control can now no longer take place dynamically, the miner shuts down at the "Hot" temperature set in Brains OS+ for safety.
I (and many others) used their miner successfully with Brains' third-party software. However, I cannot guarantee that the software will shut down the miner reliably. If the miner does not shut down when the temperature is exceeded, there is a significant fire hazard!

3) Modified fans
Lastly, the fans of the miner can be replaced by using the separate fan control and using the "immersion mode" in Brains OS+. The Fan Control is needed, because  without it the miner will stop to run due to an error message. However, I have not been able to gain any experience here yet, as the only fans I currently have available are too weak for the Antminer. If anyone here has any experience, feel free to share it.
The fan of the power supply can also be replaced. But you have to be very careful, because the power supply has to be cooled very well.

III. pictures

The fan control in detail:



In this case you can see an example on how you can integrate this setup, but keep in mind that a very good air flow must be maintained at all times!




I hope I could help some of you with this little guide, who are thinking about using a Bitcoin Miner instead of an electric heater. It is important to make sure that the Bitcoin Miner does not exceed the prescribed temperatures and is well ventilated. Everyone has to decide for himself if he wants to run a Bitcoin Miner unattended permanently at home. There is always a certain risk of fire!