Your friendly neighborhood mining family!
Hello to everyone from your friendly neighborhood crypto mining family! This week I would like to recap my early days in crypto mining and some of the great lessons learned from them. When I first made the decision to start, I knew that I needed a good infrastructure to support my operation. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how BIG an infrastructure I would need to build. I converted a 6’ x 6’ closet into a sound “proof” studio.
I stripped everything off the walls and started with bare metal studs. Then I proceeded to build it back in the following order. I used eco-friendly insulation materials in between the studs. Next, I put up a 1/2” aluminum track to add a dead space gap. Thirdly, I put up a Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) layer. On top of the vinyl, I put special 5/8” sound mitigating drywall. Lastly, I put another 2” layer of sound mitigating insulation on top. The sound proofing measures I took work very well for operating out of the home. Very little noise is audible outside the room.
I contracted an electrician to install two 100amp panels for the room giving me 160amps of usable power to work with. Inside the room I had eleven 220volt 20amp breakers and five 110volt 20amp breakers installed. In addition, I contracted an A/C company to install two 3-ton mini split systems inside the room. This setup I thought would be good enough for a while...I was wrong.
It turned out that I really didn’t understand just how much heat these ASICs and GPU rigs give off and I grossly underestimated how much power would be needed to cool the units. I ended up adding a separate 5ton A/C which allowed me to have a decent operation but not very cost efficient.
I also made the decision to outfit my roof with a bunch of solar panels to help with the electrical cost. I didn’t truly understand the power generating capabilities of solar panels which is only about 20% efficient for top-of-the-line equipment. What I thought was a big system turned out to only cover 10% of my total power bill at my house.
All in all, I made a lot of mistakes. But...through these mistakes I learned a ton about electricity, construction, solar energy, and ventilation. It helped me build my knowledge base in a way that I will remember for the rest of my life. It cost me time and money. But all good education does in the end. At least I was able to learn on my terms.
I hope this funny origin story will help you and provide key elements to consider and research before diving into crypto mining.
Your friendly neighborhood mining family! Alex Hays and Company
Owner/Mgr
Orion & Tarus, LLC
