Topic: Hot tub miners - page 4. (Read 6205 times)
I had a random while reading about the development of ASICs and weighing the pros and cons of ASIC mining. It occurred to me that there are gigawatts of energy being consumed for heating hot tubs (of the outdoor style) and which, in most places, are heated year-round.
This last year I was mining. Around the summer, I stopped mining because I believed it wasn't worth my time given the energy costs. But about the same time, I decided to have my outdoor hot tub repaired (it came with the house when we moved in and I thought I'd finally give it a go). I am guessing that the hot tub burns almost as much power keeping itself warm as my miners burned mining bitcoins because my power bill hasn't come down all that much. (I had eight 5970's and four 5870's and calculated my usage to be 4kW).
I don't know how much money I spend on heating my hot tub, but I know it's a lot.
It occurred to me that if I could dump my mining heat into the hot tub, I would basically be getting free mining.
The only thing that stopped me was the hassle and opportunity cost of such a project.
That said, if there was such thing as a ready-made miner that I could strap on to my hot tub to dump the heat in there, it would be almost as good as free mining.
As I started this post, I mentioned ASIC mining. ASIC mining is also relatively free. But it is also, comparatively, "rocket science" compared to dumping heat into a hot tub. It's expensive, and is vaporware at the moment.
If we are all clapping because "rocket scientists" are (hopefully) about to bring us free mining via ASICs, what about the thought of "joe the plumbers" bringing us free mining from Home Depot just by using some copper pipes to dump the mining heat somewhere where the heat is desired anyway? If I felt that someone could deliver me and/or install a miner that heats my hot tub, and didn't look stupid-ass and wasn't loud, I would have no hesitation giving them a chunk of the proceeds of the power bill I was going to pay anyway.
And certainly I'm not the only person with a hot tub.
This last year I was mining. Around the summer, I stopped mining because I believed it wasn't worth my time given the energy costs. But about the same time, I decided to have my outdoor hot tub repaired (it came with the house when we moved in and I thought I'd finally give it a go). I am guessing that the hot tub burns almost as much power keeping itself warm as my miners burned mining bitcoins because my power bill hasn't come down all that much. (I had eight 5970's and four 5870's and calculated my usage to be 4kW).
I don't know how much money I spend on heating my hot tub, but I know it's a lot.
It occurred to me that if I could dump my mining heat into the hot tub, I would basically be getting free mining.
The only thing that stopped me was the hassle and opportunity cost of such a project.
That said, if there was such thing as a ready-made miner that I could strap on to my hot tub to dump the heat in there, it would be almost as good as free mining.
As I started this post, I mentioned ASIC mining. ASIC mining is also relatively free. But it is also, comparatively, "rocket science" compared to dumping heat into a hot tub. It's expensive, and is vaporware at the moment.
If we are all clapping because "rocket scientists" are (hopefully) about to bring us free mining via ASICs, what about the thought of "joe the plumbers" bringing us free mining from Home Depot just by using some copper pipes to dump the mining heat somewhere where the heat is desired anyway? If I felt that someone could deliver me and/or install a miner that heats my hot tub, and didn't look stupid-ass and wasn't loud, I would have no hesitation giving them a chunk of the proceeds of the power bill I was going to pay anyway.
And certainly I'm not the only person with a hot tub.
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