Bitcoin mining could be heating homes in North Vancouver, BC next year

[PacsterDude]

The Vancouver Sun reported on a recent deal between Lonsdale Energy Corporation (LEC) and MintGreen, a company providing bitcoin mining servers that can heat 350,000 square feet of space a day.

North Vancouver, BC could be the first North American city to see the municipal provided and bitcoin mining powered heating.

 

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bitcoin-could-be-heating-homes-in-north-vancouver-next-year

[Velcade]

Give me a bitcoin miner that cools my house and I'm in.

[SupaKomputa]

i wonder how they distribute enough heat without loosing some at the end.

[IPD]

So we're back to District Heating?

[Yoinkerman]

I heated my townhouse for 2 years mining back in 2017

[BondiBlue]

I save on heating in the winter with Folding@home. I've got machines running F@h in three rooms, and during the winter they all stay nice and warm, and it's easy to adjust the temperature. 

[Heliian]

Sounds good.  However, the article fails to provide any real numbers and as the engineer said, it would be tricky to make it sustainable and efficient. 

 

This is nothing more than advertising b.s.  

 

The bitcoin pyramid isn't sustainable, it's going to topple.  Even if it doesn't completely topple, it would become unprofitable and the heat turns off.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PacsterDude]

I am currently heating my condo to some extent with my gaming system by letting it mine whenever I do not game.

 

I would also like to see some more technical details on how they want to distribute the heat. Vancouver Sun is no tech resource and would not provide this kind of detail.

 

This article looks at it from the sustainability aspect, but I am torn on it not knowing all the details. It kinda sounds like green washing.

[TetraSky]

They better not be charging the tenants for heating if they do this, then. Much less make them pay for the electricity usage. 

 

Quote

The process, conducted by MintGreen digital boilers, would save 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere over the expected 12-year term “when compared to natural gas boilers,” which Sullivan said emit a significant amount of greenhouse gases.

So it's basically a water heater, powered by mining machines instead of a plain heating element. But it's still a bit disingenuous saying it would save 20k tons in carbon emission, as this would literally only work if the entire electricity supply is "green" in nature (which I believe it is if BC Hydro is anything like Hydro QC, but it still wouldn't work everywhere else).

That said, I suppose it is better to do something "useful" with that electricity instead of literally using it on a big resistor (heating element) for the sake of making heat. Would rather see it be used for F@H or whatever else that actually provide something good to the world, but hey, can't have everything I guess in this capitalistic world.

 

What will they do with them during the summer, though? They don't really say much about this other than this heat will be lost.

 

 

Dude kind of look like Luke. If he suddenly aged 20 years.

[GDRRiley]

==moved to coin mining==