3 ms·

Years ago, Puget Systems actually ran some tests on using desktop PCs as space heaters. tl;dr, you can use your desktop as a space heater with identical efficie

Years ago, Puget Systems actually ran some tests on using desktop PCs as space heaters. tl;dr, you can use your desktop as a space heater with identical efficiency to an actual space heater, but with the benefit of computing power to go along with it.

Faaak 4y ago
That's partly what I do, but by running Folding@Home during the day (I have solar panels, and I export a lot of electricity). Free heat + compute capacity science
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  I had to stay in a hotel recently where the thermostat wouldn't go above 68f. Left my laptop running a busy park in Planet Zoo on the nightstand. It's not a true space heater but it did warn the room a couple of extra degrees.
shagie 4y ago
There's an over priced "bitcoin space heater" out there that is apparently / unfortunately not a joke.
- nicolaslem 4y ago
  Two main reasons this is stupid: - Heat pumps - Someone buying such expensive gear will want to run it all the time before it is severely outdated, not only a few months per year.
  - shagie 4y ago
    I find it absolutely absurd. It also creates moral hazards (yea, I'm using that phrase) for "I'll turn up the heat in the winter because BitCoin price is higher..." There's even a picture on the site (ok, the link https://www.heatbit.com https://www.heatbit.com - I don't want to encourage anyone to buy it) of someone using it on a open balcony.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    In an old apartment, I mined cryptocurrency for the heat. Your counterarguments didn't apply because: - I was in an apartment. I couldn't install a heat pump. - I'm a gamer. I wanted a high-end GPU anyways. It wasn't a dedicated mining rig, but I'd just adjust the mining intensity based on the game I was playing. When I wasn't using my computer at all, it'd go 100%. If I'm using my desktop, it'd run at 80%. Some games that didn't tax my GPU would still let me run at 80%. My cat loved the warmth, too. She'd lay down behind my computer where the GPU exhausted its heat.
    - nicolaslem 4y ago
      Sure but reusing your gaming GPU is a different scenario. You did not buy multiple extra GPUs for the sole purpose of mining, so you do not have the perverse incentive to run them even when you do not need the heat to have them pay for themselves.
paulmd 4y ago
Why wouldn't it be? There's no "work" being done by the processor in a mechanical sense, it's essentially just a giant resistor dumping all its energy to heat, in a useful way. As much as the guy was beloved by the community, Robert Hallock of AMD had a tendency to say some shit at times, and one of the worst was his "electrical watts are not thermal watts" spiel. Yeah, they kinda are, and if you they aren't then the FCC would like to talk to you about your spurious emissions. And if your magic formula doesn't match the observed characteristics of the chip... one of the terms in your formula is wrong, or the formula itself is wrong. It was a super lame justification for something that truly was as simple as "boost TDP", but, at that time Intel desktop TDPs actually did cover boost already (5960X, 7700K, etc would sustain boost within TDP on a worst-case load like prime95) and AMD were kinda downplaying the fact that they gave themselves a "cheat" factor on Ryzen TDPs for marketing purposes by calling it PPT instead. He did a huge disservice to public education there by spreading what I'd say were outright lies. Like it shouldn't be a surprise that ~100% of CPU power is turned into heat, but, we had the technical marketing director of one of the major CPU companies saying that it wasn't.

Faaak 4y ago

That's partly what I do, but by running Folding@Home during the day (I have solar panels, and I export a lot of electricity). Free heat + compute capacity science

squeaky-clean 4y ago
I had to stay in a hotel recently where the thermostat wouldn't go above 68f. Left my laptop running a busy park in Planet Zoo on the nightstand. It's not a true space heater but it did warn the room a couple of extra degrees.

shagie 4y ago

There's an over priced "bitcoin space heater" out there that is apparently / unfortunately not a joke.

nicolaslem 4y ago
Two main reasons this is stupid: - Heat pumps - Someone buying such expensive gear will want to run it all the time before it is severely outdated, not only a few months per year.
- shagie 4y ago
  I find it absolutely absurd. It also creates moral hazards (yea, I'm using that phrase) for "I'll turn up the heat in the winter because BitCoin price is higher..." There's even a picture on the site (ok, the link https://www.heatbit.com https://www.heatbit.com - I don't want to encourage anyone to buy it) of someone using it on a open balcony.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  In an old apartment, I mined cryptocurrency for the heat. Your counterarguments didn't apply because: - I was in an apartment. I couldn't install a heat pump. - I'm a gamer. I wanted a high-end GPU anyways. It wasn't a dedicated mining rig, but I'd just adjust the mining intensity based on the game I was playing. When I wasn't using my computer at all, it'd go 100%. If I'm using my desktop, it'd run at 80%. Some games that didn't tax my GPU would still let me run at 80%. My cat loved the warmth, too. She'd lay down behind my computer where the GPU exhausted its heat.
  - nicolaslem 4y ago
    Sure but reusing your gaming GPU is a different scenario. You did not buy multiple extra GPUs for the sole purpose of mining, so you do not have the perverse incentive to run them even when you do not need the heat to have them pay for themselves.

paulmd 4y ago

Why wouldn't it be? There's no "work" being done by the processor in a mechanical sense, it's essentially just a giant resistor dumping all its energy to heat, in a useful way. As much as the guy was beloved by the community, Robert Hallock of AMD had a tendency to say some shit at times, and one of the worst was his "electrical watts are not thermal watts" spiel. Yeah, they kinda are, and if you they aren't then the FCC would like to talk to you about your spurious emissions. And if your magic formula doesn't match the observed characteristics of the chip... one of the terms in your formula is wrong, or the formula itself is wrong. It was a super lame justification for something that truly was as simple as "boost TDP", but, at that time Intel desktop TDPs actually did cover boost already (5960X, 7700K, etc would sustain boost within TDP on a worst-case load like prime95) and AMD were kinda downplaying the fact that they gave themselves a "cheat" factor on Ryzen TDPs for marketing purposes by calling it PPT instead. He did a huge disservice to public education there by spreading what I'd say were outright lies. Like it shouldn't be a surprise that ~100% of CPU power is turned into heat, but, we had the technical marketing director of one of the major CPU companies saying that it wasn't.