A heat pump would arguably be more efficient for society (can provide 4x heat for 1x energy), but if you make enough money on the mined monero I guess it might be rational.

Would be curious if the marginal savings from a heat pump would allow you to buy more monero than you mine with this energy.

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ProllyInfamous 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The only heatpumps in my house are airconditioner[†] and waterheater (mild winter climate doesn't justify replacing HVAC — but if/when it dies, I'll put in a modern minisplit) [ƒ].

[†] It's an older model, without reversing valve (circa early-2000s).

[ƒ] ...and refrigerator (thanks /u/twic)

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>if the marginal savings from a heat pump would allow you to buy more monero than you mine with this energy.

In a colder climate, DEFINITELY (to a point: see /u/nerdsniper's great point, below).

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I replaced a 300W "toe heater" with this rig; by directing heat to only wear its needed (i.e. muh'toes), I can heat the entire house less (whether resistive or heatpump).

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nerdsniper 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> In a colder climate, DEFINITELY.

Actually, I suspect heating-by-monero-mining is more likely to economically beat heat pumps only in the very coldest climates. Heat pump efficiency goes down when the temperature delta between inside and outside is very large. Below 0F or so, it's quite difficult to find heat pumps that will work sufficiently well, and generally they transition to resistive heating.

Caveat: I'm only talking about marginal advantage, ignoring the capital costs of the Xeon servers or the heat pump itself.

	▲	ProllyInfamous 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		For hobbyists such as myself, the capital cost of already-owned (and obsolete) Xeons are infinitely less than replacing an otherwise-functional (albeit cooling-only) AC in a sub-tropical rainforest climate (like mine), which only has a few weeks of annual frost (snow "sticks" once every decade). As far as placement of the machine: underneath your computer desk is ideal, as this directed heating allows you to keep the house's thermostat a few degrees cooler. ---- If anybody were to ask me "what would you BUY to mine monero@home," I would definitely tell them to [instead] buy a heatpump-heater, -watertank, -&c (presuming they don't have each, already).

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twic 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You don't have a refrigerator or freezer?