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You can already heat your house with bitcoin mining rigs. (Hm, that's actually not such a bad idea!)

by lisper 3y ago

aftbit 3y ago
If you're going to run an electric space heater anyway, might as well do some mining instead. :P
- lisper 3y ago
  The more I think about this the more I think there could be a real business model here. Make a device that looks and acts like a space heater but is in fact a miner loaded with your private keys. Market it as a "smart heater" that requires a wifi connection to operate. Sell it as a loss leader, or maybe even give it away for free. It doesn't have to be state-of-the-art hardware, so it can be cheap to make. Hmm...
  - idiotsecant 3y ago
    It's been done. Space heaters are like 200 bucks. Hard to compete with that.
    - talldatethrow 3y ago
      Space heaters are $20* at Walmart for basically as much energy draw as a typical household socket can handle.
  - beAbU 3y ago
    Mining hardware is really expensive still, and they are constantly replaced by better models. I have a massive surplus of solar in summer, and on my local auction sites some old miners became available. I considered picking them up and putting them to use using up my surplus "free" electricity. I gave up when the mining ROI calculation came back with multiple years, even when you factor in a $0 electicity cost. This might've worked 3-5 years ago (maybe more), but I don't see that happening now to be honest.
  - spyder 3y ago
    There are already such products, just search for "bitcoin heater" .
newaccount74 3y ago
Your bitcoin mining rig will need three times as much power as a heat pump to produce the same amount of heat. I doubt it would be economical for most people.
- winwang 3y ago
  That means the electric cost of the mining rig is essentially 1/3 "subsidized".
  - eli 3y ago
    That isn’t anywhere close to enough based on what I pay for power. I think you probably are always better off somewhere with plentiful cheap power (that likely isn’t where you want to live)
mminer237 3y ago
Heating with electricity is a profound waste though when natural gas is a fraction of the price. And if you do have to heat with electricity, a heat pump is going to be far better than mere resistance.
- dist-epoch 3y ago
  Unless you were going to spend that electricity on compute anyway. In that case might as well reuse the waste heat.
- seper8 3y ago
  However a heat pump doesnt yield you any money.
  - mminer237 3y ago
    Even purely from a perspective of self-interest, you're unlikely to make any money mining bitcoin even with free electricity, let alone if you're supposed to do it with just the power a heat pump uses.

You can already heat your house with bitcoin mining rigs. (Hm, that's actually not such a bad idea!)

by lisper 3y ago

You can already heat your house with bitcoin mining rigs. (Hm, that's actually not such a bad idea!)

aftbit 3y ago

If you're going to run an electric space heater anyway, might as well do some mining instead. :P

lisper 3y ago
The more I think about this the more I think there could be a real business model here. Make a device that looks and acts like a space heater but is in fact a miner loaded with your private keys. Market it as a "smart heater" that requires a wifi connection to operate. Sell it as a loss leader, or maybe even give it away for free. It doesn't have to be state-of-the-art hardware, so it can be cheap to make. Hmm...
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  It's been done. Space heaters are like 200 bucks. Hard to compete with that.
  - talldatethrow 3y ago
    Space heaters are $20* at Walmart for basically as much energy draw as a typical household socket can handle.
- beAbU 3y ago
  Mining hardware is really expensive still, and they are constantly replaced by better models. I have a massive surplus of solar in summer, and on my local auction sites some old miners became available. I considered picking them up and putting them to use using up my surplus "free" electricity. I gave up when the mining ROI calculation came back with multiple years, even when you factor in a $0 electicity cost. This might've worked 3-5 years ago (maybe more), but I don't see that happening now to be honest.
- spyder 3y ago
  There are already such products, just search for "bitcoin heater" .

newaccount74 3y ago

Your bitcoin mining rig will need three times as much power as a heat pump to produce the same amount of heat. I doubt it would be economical for most people.

winwang 3y ago
That means the electric cost of the mining rig is essentially 1/3 "subsidized".
- eli 3y ago
  That isn’t anywhere close to enough based on what I pay for power. I think you probably are always better off somewhere with plentiful cheap power (that likely isn’t where you want to live)

mminer237 3y ago

Heating with electricity is a profound waste though when natural gas is a fraction of the price. And if you do have to heat with electricity, a heat pump is going to be far better than mere resistance.

dist-epoch 3y ago
Unless you were going to spend that electricity on compute anyway. In that case might as well reuse the waste heat.
seper8 3y ago
However a heat pump doesnt yield you any money.
- mminer237 3y ago
  Even purely from a perspective of self-interest, you're unlikely to make any money mining bitcoin even with free electricity, let alone if you're supposed to do it with just the power a heat pump uses.