Anyone have expertise in how to cool 40-80 rigs?

aseges

The area I want to put this is in an unfinished area of my basement. The area is roughly 1000 sq ft. There are no windows here but it does have direct access to the outside since half of it is in a walkout basement area. I am endeavoring to make 240 GPU - 480 GPU worth of rigs down there. This will be some extreme amount of heat.

Do people suggest ductless air conditioner, traditional air conditioner, how many would I need to cool the room down so these GPUs do not overheat. They are RX 580 and will be dual mining ETC and DCR. I have already gotten an electrician who can get me 600 amps with 240 V so I should have plenty of power to power these GPUs. Cooling is now my major concern. In the summers the basement will get to 60 degrees indoors and outside at times will be in the 90s. I live in the pacific northwest.

Thanks for any insight.

Ericjh801

I'm running 40 GPU's right now and plan to push that up to 64 in a 300sqft office attached to my house. In the winter it's easy enough to open the back door and pull cool air in and suck it out a nearby window but i'm not sure how that will work in the summer yet. I don't think you have to be constantly bringing in super cool air as long as you have good airflow through the room to get arid of all the HOT air that's being created. Good luck! I'm going with box fans for now and or possibly buying a swamp cooler and using the fan on it without the water added as they can circulate a lot of air for pretty cheap.

aseges

Are you going to be keeping the windows open then in the summer? I do not have any windows in this pet of the basement and will need to add a ventilation system.

Ericjh801

Yeah I have access to doors/windows with my office. If you do not have any open air in the basement, you are definitely going to want to fine a way to bring in some type of fresh air (air conditioning wouldn't hurt, but would be expensive to run, so just outside fresh air from the shade might work) and then have exhaust fans pulling that air outside to keep a good flow going.

I have the heat off to my office, it gets to 40/50 degree's in the winter. If I seal it off and run the 40 GPU's, it gets to 90 within a few hours. It's crazy how much heat they generate. Good airflow regardless of whether it's air conditioned or not should be good enough. Just watch the card's heat and fan speeds. If they are pushing towards 100% fan, then you'll want to get cooler air. My opinion only. Maybe someone else will have some thoughts.

aseges

I wonder how big of a fan I’ll need and how big of an exhaust I’ll need.

suthek

you'll need to buy quite a few server room style air conditioners and do lots of ducting with fans.
if you're really considering this, you should get a warehouse instead. I would be quite surprised if your insurance will cover this... and I also would be quite surprised if your mortgage lender would be on-board with this either. (unless you own your house outright... in which case... let it burn...)

Also, more importantly, where are you getting cards? I just want to get like 26 cards and I can't find them anywhere. nada. nothing.

Ericjh801

Cards are out there, the prices are just higher. I'm selling 20 XFX RX 580 8GB's but they are $600 each because the market is crazy and that's around the going price give or take. Crazy I know.

I'm not sure I agree on the server air conditioners but maybe. I think it's something you could easily play with after you get things running. With no windows/etc it's going to get hot quick so you will definitely need some type of air flow. If you are going to spend this type of money, then maybe an industrial/commercial warehouse might be easier. You could also think about building a small shed/room outside and run it from there. Much easier control over air flow if you are not in a basement.

I'm curious how you are getting 600 AMP's? Most residences don't support more than 400AMP service.

aseges

My electric company is going to change the transformer box and also the electric meter outside my house. It will be 600 amp 240 V. Currently we have 300 AMP at 240. My problem with a commercial warehouse is that it will be 2K a month and has to have a good set up. I guess I will start looking. My basement is large and unfinished and I can use the space and was hoping to save some money there. How much does server air conditioners cost? How many tons would I need to cool a space that is using 50000 watts continuously. I have 6 rigs set up inside the house and its already warmed up the whole house. Cooling is the major hurdle now.

Ericjh801

Your basement is probably doable but how to route all the air might take some trial and error. That many units in that confined of a space, you are never going to have it "cool" down there. My goal in the summer is to keep the room temperature in the 80's. You could start with no air conditioners and just getting outside air coming in and out to see how that works out, if it becomes hotter then you can replace the intakes from outside with the air conditioned air. I think your main challenge will be sucking all that heat out without windows. Hard to know without seeing the layout and what you have access too in the basement. Keep us updated though, very curious to see how you get it going.

suthek

aseges said:

My electric company is going to change the transformer box and also the electric meter outside my house. It will be 600 amp 240 V. Currently we have 300 AMP at 240. My problem with a commercial warehouse is that it will be 2K a month and has to have a good set up. I guess I will start looking. My basement is large and unfinished and I can use the space and was hoping to save some money there. How much does server air conditioners cost? How many tons would I need to cool a space that is using 50000 watts continuously. I have 6 rigs set up inside the house and its already warmed up the whole house. Cooling is the major hurdle now.

I do emphasize that you should check with your insurance company... running a business out of a residential property can be problematic and can also result in voiding your insurance.

And the cost of $2000 a month is nothing compared to the revenue from that many mining rigs... just consider it a cost of running your own business.

Ericjh801

I agree with suthek to a point. The cost and cheaper power of a industrial/warehouse might help offset the $2k monthly cost. Definitely call your insurance company and see what they say. If they say you should get business insurance, call The Hartford and see what they can do. If you are going to have 150k (low guess) in equipment, you will want some additional coverage in case of theft/fire. Your current insurance may let you add a rider to the policy to cover it also, either way better safe than sorry. (I'm not sure what country you are in, so I can't give anymore specifics). How much is your power vs industrial power? I know here it's a few cents less per kWH.

aseges

I live in Oregon. The commercial power is actually more expensive than residential where I pay .10 cents per kW.

Ericjh801

Are your summer rates higher? I'm in Utah. It's .105 for winter but .13 for summer. Just something to think about if you haven't already. I plan on having 8-16 rigs going here depending if I can get any video cards at normal prices. I have an open order with a distributor but they are 6 weeks behind or so if i'm lucky. Do you have your cards already? Or a place to purchase them at least?

Good luck!

aseges said:

I live in Oregon. The commercial power is actually more expensive than residential where I pay .10 cents per kW.

aseges

I’m leaning now more towards having two large industrial fans installed. One for incoming air and one for outgoing air. During the summers a hot day is 90 degree F. Which if the air is flowing fast enough I hope it can cool the cards enough? Anyone have experience jwith which fans to use?

aseges

The rates are the same throughout the year. I have purchased 80ish GPUs so far in the last 2 weeks. I have to get this cooling issue figured out since I know how much heatn these are putting out.

Ericjh801

I think 90ish wouldn't kill them. You have to figure most people try to have their's in the mid 60's which is 160f so 90 degree is still cool at that point to them. My thoughts only, not sure how many people you are going to run into running that kind of an operation out of their house. What kind of price have you been getting on the cards?

aseges

The average so far for the prices has been about 380 per card. I think that’s right Eric. I gotta just get enough air flow. I actually have been thinking of moving the operation into the garage which already has windows I can get popped out and use a big fan to exhale the hot air and pull in from the other side. My wife is gonna wanna kill me. I’ll have to get her something nice.

aseges

Let me extend this question to what would you do in a warehouse to cool the rigs?

Ericjh801

380 isn't bad at all. You must have a good contact or really lucky. Warehouse wise, i'm not sure. Much more space you can play with usually. You'd have more open space to move air around. Garage isn't a terrible idea (I was going to go that route too if I had too, could prop the garage door open some and build a screen and push air in or out).

Jukebox

Continuous air flow.
Roughly - just calc volume of your mining space.
After that you need to choose air vents. They always have info about volume (cubic feets/meters per second/minute/hour) of air that they pump.

You need to calc and select the number of vents enough to change air in the room every 2 minutes.

You can add thermal regulators to keep temp in hottest place at 25 C.

Todger

buy a walk-in cooler on Craigslist from a old business,

aseges

made me chuckle Todger.

headshot155

this vid from genesis mining details the cooling they use at about 1:20