ULPT: Replace your grandma's space heater with an old Bitcoin miner.
Posted by AlfredFonzo@reddit | UnethicalLifeProTips | View on Reddit | 126 comments
Older gen moving hardware is dirt cheap cause it's costs more to run than what they mine. But in situations where you're paying for heat anyway you might as well run the lottery machine to generate it.
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Buy a couple Antminer s7's on marketplace and mount them inside the case of an old space heater.
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Take it to Grandma's house or the old folks home and set it up on the Wi-Fi.
3.Profit.
nexusjuan@reddit
I did this last winter with 6 p102-100s in an 8 bay unit with an 1800w power supply in an open chassis as an experiment. I made about $60 in bitcoin over 3 months and the electrical expenditure was roughly that of running my usual space heater as the sole heating for my 100 year old house. I usually only keep one room very warm during the winter and this worked well.
aaaaaaaarrrrrgh@reddit
A 1800 W heater will consume 1800 W of electricity and generate 1800 W of heat, regardless of whether the resistive element is made out of cheap nichrome or precision-engineered silicon.
nexusjuan@reddit
The experiment was to see how much it would offset my power bill. I had no doubt that it would warm the room. I had roughly $200 in the rig including the cards so it wasn't a huge gamble. I was using the cards for ai but have since moved to renting time.
willstr1@reddit
That's because unless the electronics do something to actively move air or heat out of a room every single watt of power will eventually heat up a room. It doesn't matter if your computer/miner is using the 1800 watts or a heater is using the 1800 watts at the end 1800 watts of heat are being generated from the power.
Darkest_dark@reddit
Or you can just purchase a commercial heater which already does this.\
e.g.,
https://www.amazon.com/Canaan-Avalon-Mini-Heater-Miner/dp/B0DT4542Z3
https://heatbit.com/
AlfredFonzo@reddit (OP)
37T at 800w? That's crazy efficient if I'm running the numbers right. That's like $300 a month profit! A 4 month payoff.
MarioInOntario@reddit
For 4 months of use, you can make $250. That’s a decent ROI on a space heater https://heatbit.com/products/heatbit-trio
Chief_Sabael@reddit
Is this for real? I have no idea how to run a mining OS, what would one need to do to run this if they have access to free power and wifi ?
SNovantasette@reddit
No it's not real. This is an ad. Bitcoin mining hasn't been worth it for 10 years
Disturbed_Bard@reddit
More like 5 if the power was renewable like solar.
Even now with Solar it's not profitable
Oh_its_that_asshole@reddit
Why on earth is anyone still doing it then?
Disturbed_Bard@reddit
Power is still cheap in some parts of the world or they are stealing the power.
Else I imagine there are still Money Laundering and individuals that can't afford for the coin to fail so they maintain its value.
No different than people like the Americans having Fort Knox holding onto all that gold. Even tho no currency is backed by gold reserves, the worlds economy has reacted to the US dollar weakening. Gold and Bitcoin value as gone up significantly.
It's something now that they have to prop up or maintain or it will lose its value. If everyone ceases to mine. The blockchain will grind to a halt.
considerthis8@reddit
Elite ball knowledge
Neighbor_@reddit
This entire thread is a scam. If it was that easy to recoup your investment then everyone would do it.
JohnsonJohnilyJohn@reddit
The claim isn't that you can recoup your investment in general: it's that you can recoup it if you wanted to use a resistive heater regardless, so electricity costs can be ignored. The bigger problem is that using a resistive to warm a place up is horribly inefficient, so you probably shouldn't do that long enough to actually recoup the cost of the mining heater
Neighbor_@reddit
ignoring the electricity costs would be the mistake, and with that factored it would take very long to recoup
JohnsonJohnilyJohn@reddit
We aren't comparing miners to nothing but miners to resistive heaters, so the difference in electricity used is afaik very negligible
Legitimate_Agency165@reddit
A very importan thing that it looks like is being ignored here is that a resistive heater costs like $20 and these miners cost $1,000+.
You’re down a significant amount of money just by buying the miner that isn’t going to be recouped for a long time.
If you run it 24/7 and revenue goes down, you’d need a year and a half or so to break even on the setup cost, and that’s unreasonable since most people with resistive heaters it would be generous to say they’ll use it even for 4 months out of the year. At that point you’re looking at 4-5 years before ROI, except on that timescale your miner isn’t likely to be pulling in anywhere near the same level of revenue.
Even with free power this is a case where you’d also have to get the miner basically feee before it really makes since. You’d have better luck buying and holding bitcoin or investing in an index fund
MarioInOntario@reddit
Yes, click on the link for more info and shop for options
GranaT0@reddit
0.00034 dogecoin has been deposited to your wallet. Thank you for your service.
Similar-Lie-5439@reddit
Have you used one of these. It sounds great for a room I need to only heat like 10 degrees
Twice_Knightley@reddit
I'm not seeing those numbers. It feels like you might just recoup your electricity costs (or if you're using someone else's electricity, then just basically getting that extra spend while they get heat) So a $1500 heater, only gives $750/year in BTC return and a a cost of about $700/year to operate.
Fireproofspider@reddit
The $700 a year to operate you would technically have paid anyways, at least most of it, to hear up your house/room.
Twice_Knightley@reddit
Most people don't run off a portable heater 24/7/365
Fireproofspider@reddit
Isn't that an electrical plinth? Basically all houses in Quebec are heated that way.
CaryGooper@reddit
Yeah but you would still turn down the heater when you're not home
Fireproofspider@reddit
Not really. I just set it to a temperature and it maintains it.
Severe-Fishing-6343@reddit
tu chauffes meme l'ete toi ?
Fireproofspider@reddit
It heats up if needed. If the temperature is higher than the set point it doesn't heat up.
DonerTheBonerDonor@reddit
Just move to Greenland bro??
whatdis321@reddit
If I were to run that in NYC nonstop, 800W x 24 hours x 365 days = 7008kWh x ~35¢/kWh = $2452. PHEW
OpossumBalls@reddit
Dang .35/kWh is steep. I'm in rural Eastern Washington and we just went up to .13/kWh. There's tons of hydro on the Columbia River and massive wind farms all around though.
whatdis321@reddit
Gotta pay ~17¢/kWh for delivery and then another ~17¢/kWh just for use. And then there’s the ~$15 base service line fee. NYC electricity prices go brrrr 🥱
International-Year-2@reddit
Bro if you live in a place cold enough to require a heater that often, and can afford electric heating; you don't need to mine bitcoin lmao.
whatdis321@reddit
Tbf, getting a rebate on heating costs doesn’t hurt. Can imagine it as getting free $200 to spend every three months!
Fireproofspider@reddit
Quebec houses are often heated purely through resistive heat with heat pumps only becoming popular fairly recently. I've seen someone even market a Bitcoin house.
The problem is the cost of acquisition of those heaters. At $1200 it would take years to pay for itself, even using it all winter.
mCProgram@reddit
*on months where you’d run a space heater 24/7, which is none. In a poorly insulated house I’d be surprised if you got 1 month of electric offset usage a year. At $50 profit per year non offset, you might bump that to $100-$120 a year. Not worth it.
ze11ez@reddit
But if you're heating your house and you break even how is that a negative thing? Trying to understand, i don't mine
mCProgram@reddit
It’s marginally more efficient than straight resistive heating. You pay $1500 to get the chance to make $110 each year using it, and you have to have a designated room that’s uncomfortably to dangerously hot during the summer.
A regular space heater is $30 and costs $50 a year to run. It would take 10 years of use to have the $1500 miner heater produce enough money to be cheaper than just having used a cheap heater. This completely ignores the fluctuating price of cryptocurrency and the ever increasing hashrate of the pool, meaning that you’ll get less of a token per “mine” over time, and you can’t be certain that the price will be at or above what it is today to do those calculations. This also ignores the fact you’d be running this 24/7 for 10 years hoping nothing in your $1500 heater breaks.
Mining hasn’t been profitable or even mildly worth it at a home scale in like 5-6 years unfortunately.
ze11ez@reddit
Oooohhhhhhhkay. I see it now. Thank you for the math on it. Now i understand thanks
CO_piratemonkey@reddit
Ive ran this through 3 different AIs and each gives me vastly different numbers from $400-1.85 a month.
AdmiralSplinter@reddit
Agreeable_Error_8772@reddit
Did you learn anything important from that experiment?
NuggetCommander69@reddit
Put the LLM in the heater
Agreeable_Error_8772@reddit
At least the power it uses would be doing something useful that way
Engineered_2_Destroy@reddit
Damn. I want one. Anyone got a ULT on how I can come up with 1k real quick? lmao
857_01225@reddit
Are you pretty?
Suspiciously_Ugly@reddit
don't have to be pretty to do fetish content
857_01225@reddit
In some corners of the internet, being suspiciously ugly is a requirement.
kakapoopoopeepeeshir@reddit
Point me to where the people who like hairy buttholes are then
Suspiciously_Ugly@reddit
ohh man, hairy men are huge in the gay scene
Chazvellhung@reddit
Does it have to be constantly connected? Just wondering if I bring it to work and have it run through my hotspot bc there's no way I'll be able to get it on the work WiFi without it getting noticed.
c-ster@reddit
A $1200 space heater?? You need a lot of free electricity to make it worthwhile.
IJustAteABaguette@reddit
What are these predicted prices. Wha
chaotic_evil_666@reddit
Shipping in late January, btw
RaulGaruti@reddit
amazing!!! unfortunately they don´t ship to europe
Similar-Lie-5439@reddit
Have you used one? I’m interested
ehfrehneh@reddit
Horrible, horrible advice. Have you heard how loud these units are?
potential_wasted@reddit
Have you heard how deaf Grammy is? Or how loud the TV is?
rainbowWar@reddit
Why unethical? It costs the same electricity to heat a room with an electric space heater or mining rig
Throwaway42069lolz@reddit
Do they offgass a smell like PCs?
AlfredFonzo@reddit (OP)
Not enough to cover the stale urine and old people stank at the home. It's still going to smell like a 1984 Monte Carlo that's been parked in the woods since the Clinton administration with a family of possums living in the rear floor boards.
Mr-Game-Videos@reddit
This isn't even really unethical, except for the part of not letting her know.
chowy26@reddit
Very good
-pleasemakeitstop-@reddit
I have free electricity, where do I sign up?!
SaladBurner@reddit
I’ll tell you once you tell me where to sign up for free electricity
theusernameicreated@reddit
By free electricity, he probably means his student loans are paying for his electricity 😂
AllowMe2Retort@reddit
Simply commit an imprisonable crime! Or move to Iceland or something, whichever you prefer
Generic_Pie8@reddit
Commenting an imprisonable crime and moving to Iceland are essentially the same thing.
tonymorow@reddit
Never thought I would see this kind of tips
maninatrexshirt@reddit
Honestly I never really considered this unethical really. It costs gram gram nothing more than she would have spent anyway and money gets made. I don't think these use a lot of data throughput so...who gets hurt here?
ILikeAnanas@reddit
It is unethical because you are wasting electricity on mining crypto, when you can instead get a heat pump and use 4x less electricity for heat
Oh_its_that_asshole@reddit
Heat pump is going to cost you far more initially no?
ILikeAnanas@reddit
Initially yeah
holedingaline@reddit
It's still less efficient than a heat pump, so if nana has one of those and you turn it off and replace it with a miner, it's ULPT - but a 1000w space heater and a 1000w miner generate the same amount of heat, so if nana was using a space heater, you gain.
Or, if nana has a good life insurance plan/inheritance for you, replacing her space heater with a propane heater may be more ULPT.
Ill_Personality_35@reddit
🫨NAN!
maninatrexshirt@reddit
"If I move the goal posts, my kick still went in!"
The ethical life pro tip would be to tell gram to get a heat pump, but considering in the OP she is specifically using a space heater to warm her house, the solution he provides is neutrally ethical, actually arguably positive because he is turning pure waste heat into dubiously useful work.
Alum2608@reddit
As long as you pay the difference in the electric bill
bcmanucd@reddit
That's the point: there will be no difference in the electric bill. If you run a 1000W miner in an enclosed space, it uses 1000W of electricity and generates 1000W of heat. That's no different than running a 1000W electric space heater.
timelydefense@reddit
If half the energy of mining is lost to heat, then half goes to mining and nana is paying twice her normal heating rate.
evolseven@reddit
That’s not how physics works.. a computer is a 100% efficient heater minus the power the fans and lights take and even that eventually becomes heat..
Kelly_HRperson@reddit
What about the signal going out of the house? That's gotta be some mW per year
evolseven@reddit
I’d say that’s balanced out by the signal coming into the house.. that eventually ends up as heat. But possibly a few mw per year..
timelydefense@reddit
Ah I thought the quantum act of generating or changing information itself required energy. But even if that is true its insignificant and you're right.
UnhappySort5871@reddit
It does require energy, but the energy doesn't disappear in the process, it just gets converted into heat - which is what a space heater does (without any useful work).
Kraichgau@reddit
Yeah you have to watch out, the bitcoins are super hot to the touch when they come out of the miner. All that stored heat is really dangerous.
_senpo_@reddit
you made me audibly laugh, nice
thehomeyskater@reddit
LOL
maninatrexshirt@reddit
Physics question, when you are "mining", you are moving eletrons around on a little hunk of silicon to figure out the answer to a question (very rough description). The eleteical energy goes into the computer, bounces around on the circuits, and...then what? It doesn't leave the computer to the web (a tiny bit does to communicate the answers, but so little it doesn't matter here). It doesn't leave the computer back to the wall...then where does it go?
Side bar, with "space heaters", the electricity comes from the wall and bounces around nicrome wire until it all gets turned into heat...and coincidentally they use about as much electricity as a Bitcoin miner running at full tilt....
Did the light bulb light up in your head yet? I'm not trying to be a dick, I just want you to think about the question enough that the answer will stick with you forever.
Galobtter@reddit
All energy is lost to heat.
SharksFan4Lifee@reddit
The unethical part would be not giving a cut of profits to nana.
zded12@reddit
Tonight at 7 theres been a rash nursing home fires. Anchor tim anchor has more.
Notsohiddenfox@reddit
Bravo. This is good.
Don't forget to give gramgram a sock so that when the cold tries to take her heat all it gets is a sock
therankin@reddit
Man, I haven't seen a reference to this in a while. It used to be all the rage.
xhephaestusx@reddit
And slip a mini piss disc in her pocket with a wink
SAD-MAX-CZ@reddit
We don't use those anymore. We use em-pee-thee.
attentiontodetal@reddit
And be sure to go full no-contact with her afterwards
Verditure0@reddit
Damn this is old lmao
therenegade42069@reddit
This made me laugh harder than it should’ve
thebipeds@reddit
There are a few cold places already using this idea. Building server farms as heat infrastructure.
ReyvCna@reddit
Classic made up bullshit. The antminer uses server fans and anyone who ever worked with these stuff will know that it’s ear damaging noisy.
AlfredFonzo@reddit (OP)
Grandma hasn't heard shit since 1998 anyway, like she'll notice.
holedingaline@reddit
NANA, HOW. DO. YOU. LIKE. YOUR. NEW. SPACE. HEATER?!
hard-of-haring@reddit
WHAT!!!, I CANT HEAR!!!
ThreeCatsAndABroom@reddit
HAVE YOU MET ANY *NICE* GIRLS YET
hard-of-haring@reddit
NO GIRLS, BUT LOTZ OF FEMBOYS
kickdonky@reddit
Grandma can't here anyway. It will probably be good white noise for her to sleep too.
Similar-Lie-5439@reddit
I’ve seen a few rated as whisper quiet
EducationalArmy9152@reddit
This is actually ethical IMO; in a cold country with cheap power such as the US, particularly mid northern states you would be consuming similar power and the machine (IF you bought in good condition) should last a decent amount of time by reaching optimal temp without overheating and damaging itself
shavedratscrotum@reddit
Mate has a cabinet set up to dry his clothes from his miners.
Works well.
jeremydallen@reddit
r/absoluteunits
porym@reddit
My grandma doesn’t even have a internet connection
no-tenemos-triko-tri@reddit
Grandma’s internet provider is gonna raise eyebrows at the ginormous spike of data usage.
cheesenachos12@reddit
Bitcoin mining generally uses a minimal amount of data. Like a gig a day max. Less than a movie.
hard-of-haring@reddit
I use more data in 1min with GLF porn.
RivenRise@reddit
I use about the same daily on my phone while actively trying to keep it down lul. Now I wish I lived in a place where I even needed a space heater. Wish there was a cold version of this.
smokingcrater@reddit
Mining requires almost no bandwidth...
Economy-Bar3014@reddit
My grandma lives in an assisted living home. What type of miner should i install?
Twice_Knightley@reddit
I've seen people use these for heaters for greenhouses in cooler climates, they usually don't pay out a profit, but simply even out the investment/electricity cost. So cheaper than a heater, but also a lot more work than a heater.
makestuff-dothings@reddit
This post is an ad.
AlfredFonzo@reddit (OP)
Lol, yes I'm making a fortune selling ancient mining tech on marketplace, a social media platform for boomers. You caught me.
Fanfare4Rabble@reddit
All the boomers got Reddit banned for spitting facts, just broke youths here now.
Similar-Lie-5439@reddit
Unfortunately it’s mostly zoomers now. They’re less tech savvy than many boomers though and way more broke
Akrevics@reddit
more like dystopian life hacks imo
WheredoesithurtRA@reddit
How much can you mine if you were to run it 24/7 for about a week?
Beginning-Alps7178@reddit
That's... ULT.