How to Use an Antminer as a Home Heater

I. Intro This guide is for anyone looking to heat their place using the leftover heat from a Bitcoin miner. Lately, used ASIC miners have gotten super cheap, making them a solid option instead of electric heaters. The clear benefit of a Bitcoin miner over a regular heater is that it not only pumps out heat but also mines Bitcoin at the same time. The Antminer S9 is a great choice for this since it’s become more affordable and you can snag one for under 200 bucks. If you buy in bulk, you might even find them for under 50. II. What You Need to Change 1) Brains OS+ The Antminer S9 typically puts out 13 TH/s and sucks up 1300 watts to do that, which means it also gives off about 1300 watts of heat. But in its normal state, it’s super loud, so it’s not really practical for heating a space where people live. But if you install the Brains OS+ software, you can control the power usage better. With my setup, I’ve noticed that up to around 600 watts, the fans can run at just 1% of their max speed, which keeps the noise to a minimum. Even at that lower power, the miner still kicks out about 7.5 TH/s. What bugs me about Brains OS+ is how the fans behave when you first turn it on: they crank up to 100% for a brief moment before dropping down after about 15 seconds. This is just how it’s designed, and you can’t change it with the software.

I made a few threads a while back on these as heaters.   you can use brains with only 1 fan set to 30% If you set to around 500 watts and don't use an ant miner apw3 psu use the corsair 1000rmx it is very quiet at 600 watts. https://www.newegg.com/corsair-rmx-series-rm1000x-cp-9020201-na-rf-1000-w/p/N82E16817139298? it gets very quiet. nice space heater. it will do around 6th

You can use an original firmware, original unmodifed miner, Canaan A851 that will do about 9TH/s with 900W (like I've done for years) The fact that there's no hardware or firmware modifications necessary at all, also makes it a lot safer and easier.

I did some testing with just one fan to see if the noise will decrease. In my testing the benefit was quite small or didnt even exist. Do you think there is a benefit with just on fan or could this be also be done with two fans? Two fans will have the benefit of a fail save in case you loose one fan. It may be paranoid, but I have seen to many pictures of burned down S9s   That is a very good addition, since indeed the power supply will be the noisiest part of the system if the fan is not modified. Do they supply all the needed cables? That is also a good tip and may be a good alternative if you dont already own an S9.

you can also remove one Hashboard and put a HP 750W Server PSU (HSTNS ) inside

Oh this is cool! Extra points for removing those stupid stock S9 power cables and connectors.

Hmm if your fans are at 1% you could replace them with Noctua or Phantek 120mm silent fans. The only problem would be summer but i suppose you don't intend to use it for mining as much but more like space heater by the season. Since you are using it like that, it may be wise to add this pool at the end of your list: drain://x (user x pass x) this way it can remain heating even with connection issues to the pool. tux1975: Lol the R4 is back I only have the 1200W HP server PSU, and been using it with a single hashboard, but it didn't occur me to place the psu inside... hmmm

The modified S9 is quieter than the R4 and is now in the office... The noisy R4 is now heating the palm house.... For the two hashboards i use the 750W HP power supply because it has a different, quieter fan than the 1200W variant . The smallest 450W version of the HP server power supply series is almost silent up to a continuous load of 350 W. @ Artemis3 unfortunately the temperature sensors of the R4 hashboards are not supported by braiins and I cannot use the temperature control automatic mode ... Jens

Yes i know (same with T9+), but even with factory fw it was a common "mod" to force the fan to 100% anyway by disconnecting the fourth wire. The PSU i have has the same dimensions as yours but is a bit longer. I have the dreaded adapter that i see you didn't bother with, and i know how bad it can be, you can't look at it the wrong way or it breaks. Mine still works by pure miracle. From experience i remember some R4s made noise when the fan becomes mis centered at lower speeds but mine behaved well at 100%. There may be at least two types that i remember from memory, some would do 3000rpm and others (mine) 3120rpm. But yeah i get what you mean with silent S9s even with factory fans (one is good enough). Modern miners cannot be made as silent unless you do both things: remove/disable hashboards and use a low power target. Single hashboard S19 with only 2 fans on one side (push) or so. It is true that philipma1957 filled the empty space from missing hashboards of the S9 using wood blocks, but i discovered myself that all you need to do to improve the airflow with a single hashboard is just block/cover the excess space at the end where the air comes out, and does the same effect, even tape works like magic

Has anyone done this on s19 models?

No and it won't be for a long while.  Unless you want to have a "space heater" that even downclocked using 2000-2500W of 220V power that still requires a deafening fan from both the PSU and miner itself at your feet.  This is for old gear that you aren't trying to get massive hashrates.

whats to stop someone from running a s19 at 1% fan speed with a heavy underclock? it would be much more efficient compared to an older s9 when ran at 300W or something

I am not trying to argue with you, but first it is not possible to underclock it that low as far as I am aware.  Second if you have ever used a Bitmain PSU you would know even that is not quiet which is why you see people using different ones than the supplied.  Lastly the idea is to use the extra power (watts) it creates due to its inefficiency to produce heat to warm a room.  It has NOTHING to do with what is more efficient.   I understand what you are getting at as far as if it were possible to do so with an S19, but you are talking about using a $2000+ miner to do something that isn't what the idea is for.  People either already own S9's previously or buying them for $100-$200 to have a small heater due to waste heat from energy that can solo mine.  It's just a little more expensive space heater for your feet/room that could possibly hit the btc lotto.

A s19 that can run at full power once you leave the house would be great If an s9 running at 300W produces 3/4Th then an s19 would produce like 10 to 15Th for the same wattage

the problem is, you can't currently slow down an S19 miner... I do not know any firmware / software with which it is possible and it must first create the ROI and make a profit like an old S9

Because an underclock S19 would still do 2300W which would release more heat than an S9 mining at full power, thus the fans are needed. It's one thing to disperse 600W in a cold environment a different thing for 2000W. And if you plan to strip it down to reduce consumption, why even do it, you're just throwing away money at a really expensive heater unlike what OP is doing. There is: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5428227.msg61466927#msg61466927

Still, it doesn't make sense from an economic point of view if you want to save money on heating bills. Let's assume 5 cents per kwh and a run time of 12 hours with 4 months of heating and that revenue won't change in 5 years. The s19 will earn you 3.5$ a day, and consume 2$ of electricity, so a total gain of $1.5 a day, $180 in profit a year of heating, $900 over 5 years, minus $2000 the miner, that's loss of $-1100. The normal Walmart heater will obviously just burn electricity, making it $240 a month,  $1200 over the 5 years period, plus the cost of the heater 100$ , which would make it more costly by $200 in 5 years versus the miner. Assume now that the income will not change, the miner will not fail, you do need 12 hours of 3kw every day for 4 months at least.

We are talking about heating an entire house not a 8 by 8 room An s19xp would be even better. You could also resell it 3 years down the line

It doesn't matter, what's prohibitive for just seasonal heating is the initial cost. When you can buy as the OP said for in his situation 2x1300w for $300 versus a low mode $2000 S19 for 2400W, the second one must produce from the start $1600 on top of what the S9 mine in the limited amount of time you're using that miner, as I don't think you are going to mine in summer even if you're away! Since the power cost is the same be it an S9 a S19 or a simple heater as they would have nearly the same power draw and same heat release all you have to do is to do the math for the income generated versus the extra acquisition cost. So tell me what time will an S19 in low power beat the two S9? Remember this is a thing about heating your house with minimal cost, not making profits and turn into a 24/7 mining operation!

Regardless of it using close to the same amount of power as an electric furnace for a house...  How do you expect to move air around the entire house?  That is literally what a furnace does in a house, it is moving the air to the vents in your home, apartment, trailer, etc.  And before you try to say "But it could be done" like your watercooling theory you can't just throw the unit in and hope it moves enough air unless your house is 8x8 lol.  I'm sure you've watched a few YouTube videos where people try and do it...  Go look back it doesn't work to warm up a house you still need your heater.  BitcoinSoloMiner do you actually own any ASIC miners or familiar with them at all as in hands on experience?  Have you ever heard how loud an S19 is even in "LOW POWER MODE"?  Even back in the S1 days when they could easily run on 110V power they weren't quiet.  And Stompix is right when summer comes around you have to battle the same heat that the S19 is putting out in the winter, it doesn't magically become an AC for your house.  So now it's summer and in order to counteract the heat you have to run the AC even more because Power = Heat regardless of how you put it.  So now you have to dissipate your 2400W of power being used by cranking the AC even more, and your idea of letting it run in non lower power while your gone is going to cost you even more.  Plus in 3 years reselling it down the line...  Again I get it you are new to bitcoin but 3 year old hardware doesn't bring anywhere near the money you think it does...  Plus this isn't something you can run on 110V power like the S9 so people buying them used to just play with or make a heater with aren't going to want to buy.  Any major mining companies deal directly with bitmain so why would they want 3 year old and horribly inefficient hardware (by then)?