Topic: Residential Hobbyist Miners: power concerns? (Read 3870 times)

Make do with what you can whilst you grow, just be safe about it. 

Move to a data center, commercial or industrial office space, small store when you can afford it though, no sense pushing the issue more than you need to. You can rent or talk to an owner about rental if there is no one using an expensive purchase.  Usually agents don't mind doing temporary rentals instead of letting a building not being profitable but not all do.  Some small but modern office buildings bill by the square footage too and are ideal to work with since you pay for what you need.

Let's face it, with mining, room isn't necessarily an issue.  When room size becomes an issue then I don't think that re-investment money's an issue either =D

Dear Lord!!!

I can never for the life of me go over 50, even 50's a record, usually 46-48 lol

10-2 should be about a buck a foot.  In my case I was able to put the outlets about 3 feet from the breaker panel.  The PDUs have "long" (12 foot? 15 foot?) power cables.

The wire alone for a 50 foot run that can support 30 amp is over 60$

Before I shut most of it down, I had them all in a single room, w/ an industrial fan blowing air in from the window (& the rest of that section sealed off that wasn't being used by fan), & then it would exhaust out of the top of the window.  Bottom was opened as high as needed for the fan, top was open about 2 inches.

They used four different circuits.  One was in the room itself, one was from a second bedroom that also had my "main" computer in it (so I only used about 700 watts on that one), the third and fourth were from the master bedroom.  Ranged from around 1200-1400 watts draw (besides the one room), depending on the temperature outside.

When I got enough stuff to need to use the 2nd circuit, I was using a 15 foot, 16 gauge extension cord that ended up having the plug melted out, lol.  After that I bought three 30ft 12 gauge extension cords.... think they were like $60 each.  Also need to make sure your surge protector uses at least 14 gauge cord (w/ the assumption that the power supply cord is 10ft or less).

here in country i dont have any problem with the electricity cost so i can plug anything as the main breaker is not going down

and the amount is? I am curious how much mining rigs can put in the house

The limit for the entire house is based on the service (connection to the utility) that you have.  In the US this can vary a lot.  Generally older homes and smaller homes it is lower and for newer homes especially larger newer homes it is higher.  It can range anywhere from 75A to 200A.  Today most newly constructed homes are setup with 100A to 150A.  This is often not that easy to find.  You may be able to find it on the outside meter.  If your circuit breaker panel has a master breaker then the rating on the master breaker may let you know the service.  I say may because often these can be mismatched.  I have seen 200A breakers on a 150A service connection (that is a code violation btw and dangerous) and I have also seen cheaper builders which install a 100A panel when the utility dropped a 150A service connection because a 100A panel is $12 cheaper than a 150A one (this is not a code violation but it is horribly cheap).  If your panel has no master breaker (usually at the top center of panel) and it isn't indicated on the meter you can call your utility.

Obviously this is the max current for the entire house.  Your usable current for mining will be that minus whatever your house uses on peak load.  You can simulate it by turning on the AC, lights, and other appliances.  Then check how fast the utility meter "spins" to determine the total house load (current).  You could also use a multimeter to check the current across the main lugs on the breaker panel.  The later should not be done unless you know what you are doing and have the proper equipment.  Electricity can kill without warning.

yes of course there is

there should be an upper limit for maximum usage, right?

i think its depend on how many electric appliances are running in your house

how much is the maximum elec current in household?

the mining set up whom im currently hosting is on my other room its 3 s1 plugged on 3 different psu i need to put a breaker circuit about 60 amp so its safe i guess there is no ther electricity over there only the aircon and the some mini exhaust fan

Not willing to risk safety or have to change something later to sell the place.  I'll secure all connections sufficiently.  Thanks for your your info!

Ah I didn't catch that it was a straight plug, I just assumed it was a locking connector.  You could always cut the L6-30 plug off the end of the PDU and replace it with a non locking 6-30.  Personally with that kind of amperage I don't like the idea of a non-locking connector.  If something pulls the cable out under load, you got enough current for an arc.  Still it isn't a violation of the code to use straight plug connectors,  locking connectors are only required for high voltage.  The straight connectors are also down current compatible (i.e. 30A plug will fit 50A outlet). 

If you are willing to bend code compliance there are other options but I am not sure if they would be any cheaper.

Thanks for your input, confirms my understanding of this.

Definitely a 6-50.  I had it done that way since the outlet was cheaper and then I didn't have to change the ends on the compressor or welder.  Compressor is 25amp startup, Welder is 30 and only one outlet so no running them together.

I don't know why the electrician put in 40A.  Maybe he was trying to keep it safe for what I planned on running?

Probably will do a used AP7911, total draw about 15Amps (across both channels, of course).

Thanks for the info on plug ends, I'm looking at some EV charging adapters since I can't plug an L6 into the 6-50. 

I'm in a catch-22, I can't lose the 6-50 because the L6-30 receptacle and plug ends are $60, the nicely molded EV adapter is $25. LOL

May need to drop a 110 in there or find some new power adapters for the couple small devices.

You sure it is NEMA 6-50?  That outlet is pretty much obsolete.


The NEC requires the breaker be sized to the outlet and circuit (so it should be a 50A breaker on a 50A circuit).

There would be no issue with doing that but you don't need an adapter.  The outlets are designed to be backwards compatible.  You can plug a 20, 30, or 50A plug into a 50A outlet.  They are just keyed to prevent the reverse (can't plug in a 30A plug into a 20A outlet).  Lastly usable power on PDU is going to be 24A not 30A as continual loads should be derated 20%.  Most PDU will have a 24A internal fuse/breaker.



I would run the little stuff on 240V as well (just check power supply label to ensure it is universal 120V to 240V).

I feel it very unsafe to put a kilowatt-class electricity consumer at home. the elec current is too large. main-stream mining machines are not suitable for mining in house...

Good topic, thanks OP.

I'm infrequently running a compressor and welder on 240v NEMA 6-50 in the garage, so I'm thinking of garaging my miners.

Can anyone comment on any problems or risks with this crazy scheme?

240v 40A at the panel -> 50Amp Nema 6-50 -> Adapter Cable -> NEMA L6-30 -> PDU (15Ax2)

Could/should I run a 110v stepdown transformer for the little stuff?

But you are still profitable right? I mean if you mine on scrypt you might loss instead due to the power charges...

Alright... seriously, what is it with the inordinate amount of NJ dwellers here?  LOL... I'm also in Jersey (down south by Philly).

I live in Hopewell NJ and I have a 200 amp breaker box just for my basement that I can use for just mining.  Planning to get more antminers

I will chime in.  I was an audio freak. So in the 1990's I put in lots of wiring in my home. (Who knew)

I live in Howell NJ USA.  My home was built during the Vietnam War around 1971.  The USA had a copper shortage and some homes in and about the country were built with aluminum wiring not copper.  This turned out to be a big fire hazard and many home owners had to retro fit the wire to copper or use special (magic for lack of a better word) outlets that secured the aluminum wire to the out correctly.

  New Jersey has the best state laws for wiring you own home..  No electrician is needed or required  as long as it is your home that you live in.  Just go to your town hall and pull the permits.

So I pulled the permits and pulled every fucking piece of shit aluminum wire out of the house. I replaced every wire with copper  and I put in 6 extra circuits for home theater and gear in the shop.

I was afraid to do any 220 wiring so only my central ac is 220.  It was the only copper wire in the house.

I did call in an electrician to pull the 100 amp service and upgrade to a 150amp service.

All my circuits use 10 gauge not 12 gauge. Over fucking kill  but when you do all the labor yourself well before copper got expensive why not.

So my garage has 6 separate circuits .  One is for the furnace /ac fan. One is for the ac compressor the only 220.

  The other 4 can all be 20amp  120 volt since they are 10 gauge, but they are all 15amp breakers.

I can run  4 x 1440 = 5760 watts 24/7/365 no issues or worries.   About wire overload.  I do push to 4500 watts in the winter.  When it is hot I go down to  2400 or 2000 watts.

Right now 6 ants pulling 2400 watts hashing 1.2th  seventh one comes today.  A 12 piece gridseed & 30gh btc  in  usb sticks  pulls 180 watts.
  so 2600 plus 400 when I setup my seventh will have me at 3000 watts.


I will lower that to 2000 watts when the heat is too much by undervolt and under clock.

 I only buy good psu's with long warranties.

Evga 1300 watt super nova with 10 year warranty
Seasonic 1000 plat with 7 year warranty
seasonic 1200 plat with 7 year warranty
seasonic 760 plat with 7 year warranty

my cheap psu is  this

 http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=704513&fid=11

Since I am going long term

fuck the loud cheap power hunger dell server shit shock hazard garbage purchased second hand on ebay

All my gear is shock resistant and safer.
 All my psu's have worth beyond mining.
All my psu's get better power ratings then the dell's


Now if you wire your gear with 220 volt  please ignore my rant about the dells as they do better with 220 volt power.

The highest I've ever seen on the S1 Miner status is 58.  So that's a good operating temperature for me.

Barely, I used to make 0.01 BTC a day per rig after electric, even mining X11, I am at 0.003 BTC a day. Each rig cost $1000, so not really

Thanks! Really hoping to NOT see any issues with heat as this will be my first summer with my full ant farm. I don't want to add air conditioning to my garage so I added an exhaust fan and vent to the east side gable, another fan above the ant farm rack and exhausting heat to that exhaust fan. Another fan on the floor pointed up to push the air past the front of the rack (all ant's exhaust to the front) up and out the gable fan. With the other two fans bringing in cool air from the north always shaded side and exhausting air to the south always sunny side, I hope to mitigate any problems and run 24/7. Best thing about a garage setup is when I am here I just open the garage door and everything stays nice and cool without turning on the fans.

I do have a question for anybody. My units run between a low of 26c to a high of 62 c. Most stay around 58 c. I experienced a shutdown of a few when they hit 72 c. After adding fans and vents; none ever go that high.

Question: What temp do most of you on average see as a good operating temperature for your S1's?

Not overclocked, though I keep going back and forth on doing that instead of adding the 3rd. Not much else on the (known) circuit since setting up the 2nd but I haven't completely checked all of the outlets and switches (yet) to be certain. Not everything makes sense in an older house like this, I've seen some "interesting" (read: redneck rigged) "upgrades" (read: I wish they hadn't f'n done that;-).
Now I've done some "interesting" things with electricity in my younger years but I'm trying to keep things safer these days. What I would really like is to figure out (inexpensively) how to run a small farm through one of my dedicated 220 outlets.

Isn't it still profitable with GPU mining x11 due to the power saving? I am currently mining on groest

Might want to be careful there.  Assuming you haven't over clocked the S1s, and if you believe Bitmain's claims of 360 watts each, you're looking at 1080 watts minimum on that circuit to power the miners when you get your third.  Assuming you've got a 15a circuit breaker (or fuse since you said your house was old), you can draw 1440 watts continuously, or at most 1800 watts before that breaker/fuse trips.  Hope you don't have too much other equipment drawing power in your living room

Hobbyist mining altcoins.

Had 4 rigs of about 1400kh each, sold 1 and down to 3 rigs. Lost a ton of $ due to Scrypt ASIC

Yes I'm a hobbyist and have my Ants set up in my living room. 2x Ants on 2x Corsair 600 and planning for a 3rd to split between the 2 power supplies.
That will be the limit. My house is old and in need of an electrical upgrade.

You replied right before I did... great post.  You added extra circuits - a similar suggestion to what DeathAndTaxes made earlier.  19 S1s... nice garage setup

HA!  Heating a water bed.  Keeping the house warm in the winter by placing a miner or two in each room.  No need to cook because the miners are producing enough daily to allow meals to be eaten out.  All are great reasons to give for allowing mining hardware

I have actually said to the Little Lady, "Honey, look at it this way.  My investment turns into more jewelry for you."

@iglasses you bring up a very good point: safety first.  I'm certainly not implying, nor advocating, people doing crazy things like overloading circuits, leaving bare wires around, etc.  I don't want to see anyone hurt in the name of a few extra hashes per second.

What are some other setups?  Would love to hear what you've done and how you've done it.

You are a smart person! I am the same way when it comes to mining.

1 Had a qualified Electrician add 6 20 amp circuits in my garage. Cost was $1100, really only $600 as I built his website for $500.
2 Added north and south wall vents for airflow. With added fans the heat dropped by almost half.
3 All 19 S1 units are on a restaurant type metal rack, great for airflow. Every unit has an extra fan for overclocking.
4 Every unit I get in is tested for 24 hours and sits on a metal plate for that testing duration, before being added to the farm.
5 I use CGRemote software so I can see temps anytime I want and it will send me an email if any units go offline.
6 My wife knows where all of the breakers are and how to shut down the power to the whole house if I am not home.

For most this is a hobby, but we don't need to burn down our house doing it.

Safety first!!!

Hope this helps.
Rob

Good Point +1 @ safety first

I like that "getting flak from the little lady" thing.. This is a more immanent (even not more dangerous) thread to the "mining at home" thing, so we should produce solutions where the little lady gets happy with...

Any ideas, guys? Using the thermal power of the rigs for heating a water bed? replacing oven by mining rigs and promising that little Lady will never be in the Need to cook again, cause you can afford going out for dinner instead from the winnings?

How does this affect the rentability?

:-))

+1 

I am in the US.  I am a flea on a donkey's butt pushing almost 2Ths with Antminer S1's and a few BE Cubes.  I am not running from a residence and am pulling a few thousand watts across all of my equipment.  If I had to run this stuff at my home there is zero chance I would be doing it.  My miners are in a temperature controlled data room (not a data center) with over 15,000 watts being provided to the room in the aggregate.

When I see all these pics of guys running stacks of various hardware and wires hanging out all over place on carpets, in kitchens, in high travel areas, etc. my heart skips a beat.  I really don't know how they do it.

I think the main takeaway here should be for folks to put safety #1 ahead of EVERYTHING else.  You can't break even or get rich if your house burns down with you, and god forbid, someone else in it!  There was a thread on here not too long ago about someone who had a fire and IIRC it burned the computer he had his wallet on with it!  So he lost his equipment AND whatever coins he had mined before the fire.  Devastating!

Every time I add a new piece I monitor it and all associated connections very closely for at least the first few hours.  You can do everything right and still get a bad board, etc.
Watch your connections.  Don't over split!
Heat is your #1 enemy.  If something is running abnormally hot there is a reason for it!  It will not just go away!


Be careful!
Happy Mining 

I think the basement angle is the best because the main thing I would be concerned with is the potential for electrical fires. Don't try to cut corners with the quality of the power supplies you're running, and make sure your wiring is in good condition. I would elevate your units on some non-flammable surface like cinder blocks (if the possibility of water is a real concern) and place them far away from any easily-flammable materials.

I am not sure if it is worth it, but use a natural gas generator to power your mining farm. Don't know if this come to mind for most, but it has been on my mind since I met mining. Same with solar panels and even a small windbind turb.

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=wind+mill+turb&sa=G&gbv=1&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&ei=GBJsU8yfNJGSyAT6hYGABw&ved=0CBoQsxg

edit:
idea's run in my head all times of the day, just don't have the money to kickstart the ideas.

Hello Folks,

Think this discussion should be divided in different regional Areas, cause the Standard power supply settings around the world are significant different in this world (e.g. Europe for a 1L/N/PE circuit at home is 230V 16A which results in 3.6 kW on one circuit, USA same Standard type rates 1L/N/PE 110V 15A results in 1.6 kW on one circuit).

For Europe / Germany:

3L/N/PE with 230V on every L is Standard System for suppling homes.

So if you misuse the cricuit from your oven for example or build up a second oven cricuit (3L/N/PE) 10 kW on one cricuit is no Problem with just having one cable with 5 wires to install, which makes 10 kW. Needed components are sold in every Hardware store. If you build up a cricuit or misuse a cricuit that was installed for a flow type calorifier even 20 kW are possible (3L/N/PE 32A), but here you have to use a bigger cable (4mm² (on wall) or 6mm² (Sub wall)) and a 3x32A cricuit braker, which both may not be aviable at every little hardware store. Also you really should be familiar with electric installation rules (e.g. in Germany given by the VDE) to do a installation like this, especially cause you should not use the Standard 16A (SchuKo) plugs to connect to that kind of power supply unless you build up a subdistribution in the room where you set up the rigs, which splits the 3L/N/PE 32A supply in 6 cricuits with 1L/N/PE 16A specification.

In other countries with lower voltage or other supply Systems things may get more complicated.

Same for the cooling issue, in cold regions you may even have no Problems when installing in the Basement or in the Garage, because ist f**cking cold there anyway, even during summertime. In other places you need to install a climatisation which at least brings cooling power of 2 times the power consumtion of your rigs. Which means this clima System should be expected to use half as much electrical power as your rigs consume. If I would have mining hardware that consumes power in regions of 10 kW I'd seek for a cooling solution, that reuses the thermal energy from the rigs for the heating System and/or the hot water supply or even to produce electrical energy.

Happy discussion





  

Oh, that's not too bad.  Unfortunately, my breaker panel is in my garage, and I'm pretty sure I'd hear some interesting complaints from the little lady trying to convince her to just ignore those wires running through the house

I'd love to throw everything in the garage, but it isn't temperature controlled, so the upcoming summer heat would not be very friendly to a server rack out there.  Would be fantastic in the winter, though!

I don't know.  I did it myself.  It costs me maybe $60 in parts (I put in two outlets and two breakers at the same time) and an hour of work.   A lot depends on where the outlet will be relative to your breaker panel.  You mentioned having rigs in the basement.  If your breaker panel is in the basement, you have room for a new double pole breaker and you don't mind a surface mount box and surface mount wiring it will be a lot cheaper than if an electrician needs to juggle around breakers, put in a sub panel, run some wiring half way through the house inside the walls and through floors, etc.

I'd imagine that's a pretty significant expenditure to get installed.  I'm not an electrician, so maybe it's not a big deal to have something like that installed in my home.  Got a ballpark figure on something like that?

Run a dedicated circuit and make it a 240V 30A.  Use a NEMA L6-30 outlet as most PDUs use that style plug.   It is good for 80%*240*30 = 5.76 KW.

Hey everyone,

This topic is geared towards those of us who are mining in our homes, and how to distribute your mining gear within those confines.  What I'm really interested in finding out is how people who have multiple TH/s at home are doing it.  You so-called garage miners, hobbyists, etc, tell us how you've set things up!

Your standard residence has both 15 and 20 amp circuits.  Those 20 amp circuits are usually occupied by things like your electric range, washer/dryer, etc.  The 15 amp ones manage everything else - outlets, lights, etc.

Under continuous load a 15 amp circuit can provide 1440 watts.  Since you've got your miners running 24/7, that's what I'd count as continuos load .  We'll use the Antminer S1 as our hardware.  It's pretty cheap (about 0.5BTC) and at normal settings claims 360 watt power usage for 180GH/s, so it's a great candidate for the hobbyist.

I read accounts on these boards about folks with 6+ S1s running at their home.  At most you're driving 4 of them on a single circuit, which would max out that circuit's capacity for continuous load.  So, you'll need to consume about 1.5 circuits for your mining.  Do you all just shut those rooms down to anything other than mining?  Sorry kids, you can't have separate bedrooms any longer, daddy's gotta mine some BTC!

I'll share my setup, which is currently 2 S1s.  I have them over clocked and both are driven from a single Corsair HX1050.  Together they draw about 800-850 watts.  They are in the basement for a few reasons:

• It's cooler down there
• Not a lot of power used down there on a regular basis
• No more complaining from the significant other about "those damn mining things"

So, tell us your setups!  How'd you distribute your miners around the house?