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I'm in a similar situation, and I'm just using an electric heater... No fancy mining setup. But I'm also thinking, maybe actually this is for the better? (Not

I'm in a similar situation, and I'm just using an electric heater... No fancy mining setup. But I'm also thinking, maybe actually this is for the better? (Not only for the stingy landlord, but for the environment). I mean, even if a heat pump is much better than an electric heater... Having to heat up only the rooms that need it, instead of kitchen, bathrooms, living room (plus the rooms of other flatmates who might not be bothered) might actually use up less energy total, than using a more efficient mechanism, which otoh would be used for the whole home.

cjrp 6y ago
I'm not sure if they're common where you are, but this is what Thermostatic Radiator Valves are used for. You can set an approximate room temperature, and the valve will open/close based on that. There are also smart ones now which can have a schedule applied to them, e.g. don't heat my bedroom during the day.
dreen 6y ago
Despite my precarious housing situation at the time, I also own a big house in the country over 150 years old. The main form of heating it originally were 2m tall ceramic furnaces, always placed so that they could heat two rooms at the time. You put material to burn in from either side, and after getting hot the furnace would keep heating the room for hours, and all it takes is a few logs of wood (that you later have to regrow anyway). I wonder how many bitcoins is that in term of environmental impact.
- jiofih 6y ago
  0.5kg of CO2 per kWh is the average for electric grids around the world. 1kg of wood produces around 2kg of CO2, every 400g of firewood gives you 1 kWh, so 0.8kg CO2/kWh. That’s slightly worse than mining. Bitcoin is wasteful in its total energy consumption which is not reused, but 99% of the power you put into that GPU will be released as heat.
  - mrkstu 6y ago
    Difference being if he’s using wood he’s recycling that carbon over infinitely as long as it isn’t from old growth forests.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    The wood I use was going to a landfill, so does using aircon actually equate to more CO2 in the atmosphere if I just let it get dumped and turn on the aircon?
adrianmonk 6y ago
The concept makes sense, but I'm not sure the numbers work out. Heat pumps are pretty efficient, something like 300 to 400%. Are you really going to use less than 25 to 33% of your living area and also not provide any heat at all to the other areas? Also, with forced air heat pumps, you can usually adjust the registers (air vents) to reduce the flow of air to unused rooms.

cjrp 6y ago

I'm not sure if they're common where you are, but this is what Thermostatic Radiator Valves are used for. You can set an approximate room temperature, and the valve will open/close based on that. There are also smart ones now which can have a schedule applied to them, e.g. don't heat my bedroom during the day.

dreen 6y ago

Despite my precarious housing situation at the time, I also own a big house in the country over 150 years old. The main form of heating it originally were 2m tall ceramic furnaces, always placed so that they could heat two rooms at the time. You put material to burn in from either side, and after getting hot the furnace would keep heating the room for hours, and all it takes is a few logs of wood (that you later have to regrow anyway). I wonder how many bitcoins is that in term of environmental impact.

jiofih 6y ago
0.5kg of CO2 per kWh is the average for electric grids around the world. 1kg of wood produces around 2kg of CO2, every 400g of firewood gives you 1 kWh, so 0.8kg CO2/kWh. That’s slightly worse than mining. Bitcoin is wasteful in its total energy consumption which is not reused, but 99% of the power you put into that GPU will be released as heat.
- mrkstu 6y ago
  Difference being if he’s using wood he’s recycling that carbon over infinitely as long as it isn’t from old growth forests.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  The wood I use was going to a landfill, so does using aircon actually equate to more CO2 in the atmosphere if I just let it get dumped and turn on the aircon?

adrianmonk 6y ago

The concept makes sense, but I'm not sure the numbers work out. Heat pumps are pretty efficient, something like 300 to 400%. Are you really going to use less than 25 to 33% of your living area and also not provide any heat at all to the other areas? Also, with forced air heat pumps, you can usually adjust the registers (air vents) to reduce the flow of air to unused rooms.