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Bitcoin Mining Clothes Dryer Here at the homestead we host guests at our house as well as a 20ft yurt so one of the largest power usages is the electric clothes dryer. In the busy season, the dryer is usually running for several hours a day. It made a lot of sense to use a Bitcoin miner for the heat instead of the heating element in the dryer. image https://imgur.com/eGKbv0G image I tried to use what I already had as much as possible to connect the miner to the dryer, so for less than $100 I was able to make it work. Basically needed a 20a 220v breaker and 220v outlet plus some ductwork. I simply cut a hole in the heating duct in the back of the dryer and attached a 6in duct coupling to it. If I need to I can cap off the coupling and continue to use the dryer as normal. Basically if the Bitcoin miner breaks down I won't be stranded without a dryer.
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To operate, I set the dryer to timed dry, set the heat to air dry, and turn on the miner. After using it for a dozen loads or so it definitely works well. Next I will be working on how to reduce the noise from the miner fans but to start I wanted to make sure it was capable of drying laundry first. Feels good to get sats back for one one of the largest power usages on the homestead! #permaculture #permies #homesteading #grownostr #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #plebminer #homemining #bitcoinmining #bitcoin #doublespendenergy #hash2heat #mine4heat #stacksats #stackingfunctions View quoted note →

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Breaking in a new miner at the homestead image Making more hashes than ever with solar power thanks to this new S19kpro (Urlacher by Altair Tech). When I first tried firing it up on the solar power system, the breaker was tripping immediately. After some trouble shooting, I solved the problem by swapping out the power supply. image I won this miner at auction during the lake satoshi retreat. My goal was to sell enough homestead products to pay for the miner but I only got halfway there after selling everything I had with me. All sats paid for the miner were donated to the Hope House in El Salvador. The miner was generously donated by both Altair Tech and Chet (the most die hard supporter of lake satoshi you can find).
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Not only did I get a new miner for the homestead but I was also able to negotiate a better power rate recently too. Thanks to some fuzzy pleb miner math, I am happy to hash during the day when the sun is shining then move the miners over to grid power and hash from 9pm to 7am when the power costs are lowest. image I also made some upgrades to my clothes dryer as well. Adding a more efficient Asic, quieter fans, and a sound deadening enclosure. Now the dryer itself is louder than the miner during operation. Additionally thanks to the new power rate, I can let the miner run in off peak hours continuously wether drying laundry or not!
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Staying ahead of the halving, difficulty adjustment, and fading sideways price action has made it difficult to keep the sats flowing at the homestead with mining. So far we are just barely able to stay ahead of the curve and continue to support the network, do some productive work with the heat and get some sats out of the deal too. The sats might cost more than the current spot price of Bitcoin but for now I value the participation in Bitcoin more than the purchasing power. #permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #bitcoin #mining #bitcoinmining #homemining #plebminer #offgridmining
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Bitcoin Mining Clothes Dryer Here at the homestead we host guests at our house as well as a 20ft yurt so one of the largest power usages is the electric clothes dryer. In the busy season, the dryer is usually running for several hours a day. It made a lot of sense to use a Bitcoin miner for the heat instead of the heating element in the dryer. image https://imgur.com/eGKbv0G image I tried to use what I already had as much as possible to connect the miner to the dryer, so for less than $100 I was able to make it work. Basically needed a 20a 220v breaker and 220v outlet plus some ductwork. I simply cut a hole in the heating duct in the back of the dryer and attached a 6in duct coupling to it. If I need to I can cap off the coupling and continue to use the dryer as normal. Basically if the Bitcoin miner breaks down I won't be stranded without a dryer.
image image
To operate, I set the dryer to timed dry, set the heat to air dry, and turn on the miner. After using it for a dozen loads or so it definitely works well. Next I will be working on how to reduce the noise from the miner fans but to start I wanted to make sure it was capable of drying laundry first. Feels good to get sats back for one one of the largest power usages on the homestead! #permaculture #permies #homesteading #grownostr #meshtadel #selfsovereignty #plebminer #homemining #bitcoinmining #bitcoin #doublespendenergy #hash2heat #mine4heat #stacksats #stackingfunctions View quoted note →
View quoted note →
Have you noticed that it takes any longer to dry the clothes? Have you compared the electricity usage and sats output by chance? I’m really curious about any hard details you can gather on this because it’s something @Jeff Swann has been talking about for a long time and I’d considered it as well. Heating the house with miners has been great, but it’s significantly more expensive than the gas heat we had (our gas is significantly cheaper than electrical), but we don’t get that benefit with the dryer. So that might make it a more interesting proposition. 🤔
↩ replying to Guy Swann
I tried to do a direct comparison for the power usage but it was too difficult. The dryer seemed to draw a lot of amps to get the heating element hot then power down and cycle on and off again throughout. I didn't have a meter that could easily track the power usage for the dryer. As far as time to dry, I treat drying a little differently in my situation. I try to keep the dryer running continuously throughout the day as I do laundry. So as soon as the washer is done, hopefully the dryer is done too. That way I can keep feeding the dryer. All in all, I've been very impressed with how well it works for how cheap/simple it was to modify the dryer. If you have a miner sitting around, not hashing, why not find a way to put it to work?