Debating GPU upgrade.

[Okjoek]

I've got several RX 580s my brother used to mine Monero with. I've been happy using my RX 460, but I've been fascinated by Linus' video about using GPU to heat a home. Couldn't I just stick my PC in the basement and mine cryptos on in and point a window fan up the stairs? I might even consider a Turing/ Navi upgrade that puts out even more heat than the RX 580 if this mining stuff can cover the ROI within say 6-8 months then I can just underclock it and game on it in the summer.

 

Back at our old appartment these 3 RX 580 turned his room into a sauna lol.

[Wh0_Am_1]

You could totally heat your home in the winter to a certain extent (depending on size, insulation, # of GPUs, and etc.) from cryptomining, I don't know about the 6-8 months ROI, due to instability in the cryptocurrency market, the fact that Nvidia is about to drop new GPUs, and etc.

[emosun]

those are inefficient at heating a home entirely.

your homes central heating system is BY FAR more efficient even if it's very old

[Wh0_Am_1]

37 minutes ago, emosun said:

those are inefficient at heating a home entirely.

your homes central heating system is BY FAR more efficient even if it's very old

Though you do need to factor in how the rig would pay for itself, even if it is only paying for the electricity, meanwhile maintenance on central heating systems can be rather expensive, then power or fuel, depending on the heating system, and they also have a life expectancy of 20 years, after that is all taken into consideration, budget wise mining rigs can be very appealing, though when considering such an option you need to consider the noise, and the fact that it requires investment at the time of year when you would have the least amount of money, the space that it takes up, and what to do with the GPUs after they become dated, whether to sell them or to install them in a gaming rig. All things considered even though power wise cryptomining rigs are less efficient than a central heating system, but even if they are not profitable, with power cost included, they are still cheaper than a central heating system to operate, 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Step 1 : Take 1 RX 580 out and upgrade from your 460

Step 2 : Put the 460 in the mining rig

Step 3 : Mine

Step 4 : Heat your house (some) and make money at the same time!

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Though you do need to factor in how the rig would pay for itself, even if it is only paying for the electricity, meanwhile maintenance on central heating systems can be rather expensive, then power or fuel, depending on the heating system, and they also have a life expectancy of 20 years, after that is all taken into consideration, budget wise mining rigs can be very appealing, though when considering such an option you need to consider the noise, and the fact that it requires investment at the time of year when you would have the least amount of money, the space that it takes up, and what to do with the GPUs after they become dated, whether to sell them or to install them in a gaming rig. All things considered even though power wise cryptomining rigs are less efficient than a central heating system, but even if they are not profitable, with power cost included, they are still cheaper than a central heating system to operate, 

when i read this i can immediately tell

you've never owned a house heated by only electricity
you've never owned a house heated by only gas which also could be heated by electric and ran both types in different years
you've never repaired a gas furnace
you've never even paid an electric bill by the sounds of it

any high school student who has ever taken course 1 in home electrical wiring knows that electricity is the most terrible method to heat anything ever.

I can INSTALL a gas furnace system for the price of a middle class homes electrical heating bill after a single winter. I would love to watch you heat a house with a cryptomining rig. I would love that. To watch you spend 400$ a month on electricity to barely keep one room in the house above freezing.

no really , make it happen. can't wait to see the results. super excited.

[Wh0_Am_1]

1 hour ago, emosun said:

when i read this i can immediately tell

you've never owned a house heated by only electricity
you've never owned a house heated by only gas which also could be heated by electric and ran both types in different years
you've never repaired a gas furnace
you've never even paid an electric bill by the sounds of it

any high school student who has ever taken course 1 in home electrical wiring knows that electricity is the most terrible method to heat anything ever.

I can INSTALL a gas furnace system for the price of a middle class homes electrical heating bill after a single winter. I would love to watch you heat a house with a cryptomining rig. I would love that. To watch you spend 400$ a month on electricity to barely keep one room in the house above freezing.

no really , make it happen. can't wait to see the results. super excited.

Yes I know that electricity is one of the worst possible ways to heat a home, burning natural gas is far more cost effective, but here is the thing, do you want to pay for your heat? Or do you want the heat to pay for itself? With an RX 580 factoring in electric costs of (average US price per kilowatt) 12 cents per Kilowatt hour, an RX 580 4GB currently brings in  40 cents a day, that is bound to increase as we enter the new mining season, the value of BTC is bound to increase, only increasing profits. Sure I have never repaired a gas furnace, but how many people actually do that? Besides who ever talked about using only 1 rig? He spoke of purchasing hardware as he goes, and he also already owns the RX 580s. Oh, and I should mention that each RX 580 has a TDP of 180 watts throw 5 of those in a rig with a Celeron, and you have a nice 1000 watt space heater, that earns $2 a day in BTC after electric costs (at current average rates from nicehash the world's most popular mining pool), and those costs are for if he traded that Bitcoin in now instead of later when it will likely be worth more,  try getting a central  heating system that can compete with that. Besides the goal of such a setup would not necessarily be the total replacement of a central heating system, only the supplementation of one.

 

From this I can tell that you have never:

built a mining,

operated a mining rig, 

considered building a mining rig,

or considered the economics of mining in general,

 

I could build such a rig in about an hour for ~$2000, and then sell those cards off later for $700 to $800 if the price of Bitcoin even came close to that of last years value of ~$19,000 without factoring in the increase of profitability that such an event would include,  I could pay off the difference in loss of value of those RX580 in 110 to 120 days, and then still  would have only spent $450 for additional components, that I would not need to rebuy next year.

 

 

[emosun]

11 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

From this I can tell that you have never:

built a mining,

operated a mining rig, 

considered building a mining rig,

or considered the economics of mining in general,

all of which have nothing to do with home heating

if you could please just leave these posts active/unedited i know a subreddit that'll get a kick out of this. lol

[Wh0_Am_1]

32 minutes ago, emosun said:

all of which have nothing to do with home heating
 

I admit for your average family such an endeavor would not be practical, These rigs are infamously noisy, and they require a decent amount of knowledge about IT and some study into mining to operate, but hey a thousand watts is a thousand watts, it would only take 3 to 5 of these to heat an average western home.

 

37 minutes ago, emosun said:

if you could please just leave these posts active/unedited i know a subreddit that'll get a kick out of this. lol

At the moment I see no reason to take my posts down.

[emosun]

7 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

it would only take 3 to 5 of these to heat an average western home.

provided the home was about the size of an outhouse and it was located in florida

8 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

 

I could build such a rig in about an hour for ~$2000

so for 5 thats 10k initial cost 

when the house literally already has a giant machine that makes heat installed already , or perhaps you meant houses that already have stacks of mining rigs pre installed....

not only does it make heat , it makes a massive amount of heat , in your warped world a house needs 5 computers to keep it warm when in reality 5 actual space heaters would barely keep the pipes from freezing. 

Again , you have no clue how bad electrical heat is , you have a small amount of knowledge about computers which doesn't at all translate to heating a home. thank god you aren't employed anywhere important or we'd have houses with blue tarps for roofs and playdough for foundations and mining rigs cooking lukewarm hot pockets

[Okjoek]

6 minutes ago, emosun said:

provided the home was about the size of an outhouse and it was located in florida

Linus's test room was probably as large as an outhouse and IIRC he only used 1 GPU in that rig.

Honestly his method was stupid. A reference style blower cooler would probably have got the heat into the room more effectively. I'm probably just going to take one of his RX 580 to replace my RX 460. I'll under-clock it like I do my 460 to help keep the power bill low and in the winter I'll just run it back at base speeds to help keep my own room warm.

 

What is actually the most efficient ways to heat a house? I'm not very savvy on the topic.

 

20 minutes ago, emosun said:

thank god you aren't employed anywhere important or we'd have houses with blue tarps for roofs and playdough for foundations and mining rigs cooking lukewarm hot pockets

0_o

[emosun]

14 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Linus's test room was probably as large as an outhouse and IIRC he only used 1 GPU in that rig.

keep in mind his test room was located inside of an already climate controlled building , in summer...... so florida.

14 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

What is actually the most efficient ways to heat a house? I'm not very savvy on the topic.

Solar and natural gas are the lowest costing heat options from installation to operation , most houses don't have solar installed but natural gas is the best alternative.

the two worst are geothermal and electric from installation to operation costs.

in fact , electrical heat has no upside. The conversion efficiency , the financial cost , and the environmental impact are the worst in every category meaning that literally burning marshmallows would be more efficient than electrical heat.

[Wh0_Am_1]

21 hours ago, emosun said:

provided the home was about the size of an outhouse and it was located in florida

so for 5 thats 10k initial cost 

when the house literally already has a giant machine that makes heat installed already , or perhaps you meant houses that already have stacks of mining rigs pre installed....

not only does it make heat , it makes a massive amount of heat , in your warped world a house needs 5 computers to keep it warm when in reality 5 actual space heaters would barely keep the pipes from freezing. 

Again , you have no clue how bad electrical heat is , you have a small amount of knowledge about computers which doesn't at all translate to heating a home. thank god you aren't employed anywhere important or we'd have houses with blue tarps for roofs and playdough for foundations and mining rigs cooking lukewarm hot pockets

Once again, this is not intended to fully replace a central heating system, it is to supplement one. Those numbers were for a 1500 to 2000 square foot home, If we were intending to fully replace a central heating system, (which would not be practical for most people) We would want more like 20 to 30 of these, a bunch of copper pipes, copper water blocks, additional wiring from a utility company, insulation for the pipes to prevent all that heat from leaking out, plastic tubing for the setup, a bunch of high pressure pumps, radiators, a large reservoirr and etc, we would then route them through out the house, into individual rooms to provide heating, and possibly parts on the attic (if the home design necessitated that) and then create a separate loop that would pump hot water into the ground so as to prevent freezing, and dissipate the extra heat to allow for temperature control, and etc. It would be an expensive and high maintenance endeavor that would be foolish endeavor for the average family to install. That is why instead you would use these to as space heaters to reduce how much you spend on natural gas to heat your home, because all that power would be paying for itself. Do note that 1000 watts is TDP which means that this is thermal power, a space heater is rated on how much power it pulls from the wall, so this would be slightly more powerful than a 1000 watt space heater.

[emosun]

On 8/10/2018 at 3:04 PM, Wh0_Am_1 said:

it would only take 3 to 5 of these to heat an average western home

 

2 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

this is not intended to fully replace a central heating system

 

[Wh0_Am_1]

20 hours ago, emosun said:

keep in mind his test room was located inside of an already climate controlled building , in summer...... so florida.

Solar and natural gas are the lowest costing heat options from installation to operation , most houses don't have solar installed but natural gas is the best alternative.

the two worst are geothermal and electric from installation to operation costs.

in fact , electrical heat has no upside. The conversion efficiency , the financial cost , and the environmental impact are the worst in every category meaning that literally burning marshmallows would be more efficient than electrical heat.

Here these videos will better illustrate what I am speaking about. For the LTT one you would insulate the pipes, and run them through out the house and then add radiators and fans to blow hot air into that room, this setup would require 20+ 1000 watt rigs, and would be an expensive, high maintenance, and foolish endeavor for most people, but hey you asked how I would keep those pipes from freezing.... (it would just be better to build a bunch of systems throughout the house)