The heat produced by application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining equipment can now be recycled by bitcoin miners. Recently, the “Rev.Hodl” Twitter account showed how a bitcoin miner could be used to dry laundry. The laundry dryer not only helps to dry clean clothes, but it also pays the owner in satoshis.
# #WEEDO goal is to divert the heat produced by the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and graphics-processing unit during the mining to heat and maintain a beneficial environment for the Cannabis crops situated inside the greenhouse as well as the indoor production
— arham (@monirmostafiz1) May 5, 2018
Bitcoin Mining’s Novel Approach to Reusing Heat
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the use of bitcoin miners for tasks other than scooping the most popular cryptocurrency, BTC, such as cleaning the environment of flare and landfill gases. Additionally, the extra heat from bitcoin mining tools has been utilized for a variety of uses, including growing tomatoes.
There is a clear "parti pris" in this paper, starting with its title, and I feel that the content (some of which is novel and interesting) might have benefited from a less biased approach (e.g. Bitcoin mining’s climate "impacts" instead of "damages”)
— Benoit (@BenoitSf) September 30, 2022
Many other bathhouses have heated hot tubs with bitcoin ASICs, including one in New York City that employs bitcoin miners to heat its pools. On July 19, 2023, a Twitter user going by the handle “Rev.Hodl” posted a video and pictures of a dryer that also mines bitcoins.
“Bitcoin Mining Clothes Dryer,” tweeted Rev.Hodl, utilizing a bitcoin miner as opposed to a heating source to dry laundry. This dryer uses less than $100 in materials to make up for the energy it consumes while drying. Rev.Hodl also revealed information on his Nostr profile, saying he has a tendency to swap out any electric heat source for an ASIC miner.
Bitcoin mining uses electricity just like your computer or clothes dryer or electric vehicle.
— Walker⚡️ (@WalkerAmerica) September 13, 2022
Rev.Hodl gave examples of mobile space heaters, lamb incubators, food dehydrators, and excess solar power hashes in a tweet from May. Large-scale miners are also mindful of the potential advantages that heat recycling could bring to bitcoin mining.
Recently, members of the Luxor team and researchers from Hashrate Index went to a Texas bitcoin mine run by Microbt. The HS20 hydro container was notably mentioned in the report’s discussion on immersion and hydro-cooled machinery.
Tensions are high at UCT where members and supporters of the LGBTQIA+ community are protesting ahead of a guest lecture by controversial Professor Patrick Lumumba, a vocal supporter of an anti-homosexuality bill recently passed in Uganda. pic.twitter.com/vXLc1Fr5NG
— Cape Times (@CapeTimesSA) July 24, 2023
The device, created by Heat Core and Microbt, can warm water in a home up to 200 square meters in size and supports two Hydro-powered Microbt Whatsminer units.
According to the report’s authors, the level of noise is quite moderate and equal to that on “a residential street or a normal conversation between two people.” ASIC mining produces a lot of heat, which can be used to power a variety of small- and large-scale heating processes.