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I live in a house house exclusively warmed by electric heating (underfloor downstairs, wall-mounted upstairs). The heating system takes electricity as an input

I live in a house house exclusively warmed by electric heating (underfloor downstairs, wall-mounted upstairs). The heating system takes electricity as an input and provides heat as an output with no other direct benefits. As a whole the heating system can be quite power-hungry during cold periods. A crypto mining rig takes electricity as an input and provides heat as an output with the possible benefit of creating some valuable digital assets. Serious crypto mining setups can be quite power-hungry. Crypto mining for the sole purpose of making money is often considered an egregious and possibly wasteful use of power resources. Is crypto mining for the purpose of using the heat to warm my house, with the possible benefit of generating valuable digital assets, similarly egregious, wasteful or inconsiderate in some way?

mrguyorama 3y ago
It's been tried and it doesn't work because hardware designed for crypto mining needs to be utilized 100% 24/7 or it won't ever pay back or be meaningful, and it that case you either size it to be such a small heat contribution that you don't mind a small heater on during the hot months, or so big that it is impossible to offset in the summer. Nevermind the fact that resistive electric heat in this day and age is wildly stupid except for maybe the northernmost parts of Siberia. Why pay X to get A heat plus almost no bitcoin, when you could pay X to get 3A heat using a heat pump?
fifilura 3y ago
Heating your house with direct electricity is wasteful. You should get a heat pump. You will get your money back in no time. This changes the equation.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
  Seriously, I want to know where OP lives, having an all electric heating setup anywhere in the world where it gets cold enough is incredibly inefficient
  - kraftman 3y ago
    I'm not OP but I live in france and all our heaters are electric. I'm renting so I don't have a choice other than to use our wood fire.
  - wkjagt 3y ago
    Most Canadian houses (at least around where I live) are like this. And it often gets to around minus 20 Celsius here.
    - _whiteCaps_ 3y ago
      Interesting. In my suburb of Vancouver, pretty much everyone is natural gas furnace, although people seem to be replacing them with heat pumps.
      - wkjagt 3y ago
        I’m in Montreal area and I don’t know anyone with natural gas.
  - ef3w3wfdw 3y ago
    Maybe the UK? (their housing standards and heating solutions are some of the worst I've ever seen in the developed world)
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > want to know where OP lives, having an all electric heating setup anywhere in the world where it gets cold enough is incredibly inefficient I'm in Wyoming. My heat is direct electric. The house doesn't have ducting and Wyoming power is cheap.
    - webignition 3y ago
      A bit of a tangent, but do you mind saying what you pay per kWh? I'm currently on £0.36 GBP per kWh (about $0.45). Just wondering what counts as cheap!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Liftyee 3y ago
I've always wondered about this. I think, if the cost is no issue, replacing electric heaters with powerful computers (or crypto miners) is justified and actually beneficial. If you don't like supporting the crypto world you can always run Folding@home or your favourite distributed computing project to contribute to research and heat your home, all with the same amount of electricity. Of course, buying heat pumps probably has higher ROI than buying crypto miners for heating...
itscrush 3y ago
Likely wasteful when you can overcome efficiency with heat pumps instead of GPU.
tdeck 3y ago
This is actually a product: https://heatbit.com/ https://heatbit.com/
o39245o9qw34u5 3y ago
I will admit that is an interesting argument, but it doesn't hold up when applied in the real world. First off, heating your house directly with electricity is a bad idea. A heat pump could be as much as 4x as efficient as direct heating. Improving the insulation in your house so you don't need as much heating is even better. After those problems are solved I started to say "If you want to then do the remaining 1/10-as-much-as-before heating by mining bitcoin, then go ahead", but honestly that's still a bad idea because it supports and grows this insanely wasteful industry and that will incentivize other people to build more of these ridiculously wasteful and destructive mining operations. The nerd part of me thinks bitcoin is super cool. The responsible adult who cares about people other than myself part of me hates it.

mrguyorama 3y ago

It's been tried and it doesn't work because hardware designed for crypto mining needs to be utilized 100% 24/7 or it won't ever pay back or be meaningful, and it that case you either size it to be such a small heat contribution that you don't mind a small heater on during the hot months, or so big that it is impossible to offset in the summer. Nevermind the fact that resistive electric heat in this day and age is wildly stupid except for maybe the northernmost parts of Siberia. Why pay X to get A heat plus almost no bitcoin, when you could pay X to get 3A heat using a heat pump?

fifilura 3y ago

Heating your house with direct electricity is wasteful. You should get a heat pump. You will get your money back in no time. This changes the equation.

GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
Seriously, I want to know where OP lives, having an all electric heating setup anywhere in the world where it gets cold enough is incredibly inefficient
- kraftman 3y ago
  I'm not OP but I live in france and all our heaters are electric. I'm renting so I don't have a choice other than to use our wood fire.
- wkjagt 3y ago
  Most Canadian houses (at least around where I live) are like this. And it often gets to around minus 20 Celsius here.
  - _whiteCaps_ 3y ago
    Interesting. In my suburb of Vancouver, pretty much everyone is natural gas furnace, although people seem to be replacing them with heat pumps.
    - wkjagt 3y ago
      I’m in Montreal area and I don’t know anyone with natural gas.
- ef3w3wfdw 3y ago
  Maybe the UK? (their housing standards and heating solutions are some of the worst I've ever seen in the developed world)
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > want to know where OP lives, having an all electric heating setup anywhere in the world where it gets cold enough is incredibly inefficient I'm in Wyoming. My heat is direct electric. The house doesn't have ducting and Wyoming power is cheap.
  - webignition 3y ago
    A bit of a tangent, but do you mind saying what you pay per kWh? I'm currently on £0.36 GBP per kWh (about $0.45). Just wondering what counts as cheap!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Liftyee 3y ago

I've always wondered about this. I think, if the cost is no issue, replacing electric heaters with powerful computers (or crypto miners) is justified and actually beneficial. If you don't like supporting the crypto world you can always run Folding@home or your favourite distributed computing project to contribute to research and heat your home, all with the same amount of electricity. Of course, buying heat pumps probably has higher ROI than buying crypto miners for heating...

itscrush 3y ago

Likely wasteful when you can overcome efficiency with heat pumps instead of GPU.

tdeck 3y ago

This is actually a product: https://heatbit.com/ https://heatbit.com/

o39245o9qw34u5 3y ago

I will admit that is an interesting argument, but it doesn't hold up when applied in the real world. First off, heating your house directly with electricity is a bad idea. A heat pump could be as much as 4x as efficient as direct heating. Improving the insulation in your house so you don't need as much heating is even better. After those problems are solved I started to say "If you want to then do the remaining 1/10-as-much-as-before heating by mining bitcoin, then go ahead", but honestly that's still a bad idea because it supports and grows this insanely wasteful industry and that will incentivize other people to build more of these ridiculously wasteful and destructive mining operations. The nerd part of me thinks bitcoin is super cool. The responsible adult who cares about people other than myself part of me hates it.