jason

Hey jason - Great question! Most ASIC machines like something in the 83F - 86F (28C-30C) for their intake (cold) side but you can be below or above that within a reasonable range. You just want to avoid sustained intake air over 100F, especially if your exhaust isn't damn near perfectly balanced. At that point you may need to shut some (or all) of your miners down during the hottest part of the day. It is a bummer, I know, but it's only temporary and MUCH cheaper than the AC system you would need to cool things off on the intake side. The key to keeping your intake temperatures in a reasonable range is to manage your exhaust and any related back-flow of exhaust air. That positive feed-back loop can be a killer. Calculate how much air flow the machine (s) will be pushing - for instance, the Antminer S19's push roughly 400-450CFM per machine meaning that for every S19 you are operating you need to bring in that much free air flow (plus maybe an extra 20-25%) and have an exhaust fan (s) pushing out the exhaust air flow without pulling from the miners. In other words, don't try to exhaust more than your air flow allows! If you do, you will drive your miner (s) into fault and potentially have big problems. A good rule of thumb is that if your mining room door is sucking shut you have too much exhaust and not enough free air flow. Balanced air flow & venting is probably the most important part of operating your mines efficiently and keeping those fans rocking for three or four years instead of only two. Keep mining!

BTCbro, reach out to BTCU at contact@BitcoinU.us, and someone on the BTCU team will get back with you promptly. ASIC mining is red hot right now (no pun intended) and the machines have almost commoditized themselves making their availability and price fluctuate on a daily basis. BTCU currently has Bitmain Antminer S19jPro 100T's available but only for BTCU members - reach out at contact@BitcoinU.us to talk more about BTCU operating your machine for you at one of their US data centers. BTCU will have more Antminers & Whatsminers for sale (without the membership requirement) available as early as December 2021. Bitmain's new facility in Malaysia should be pumping out consistent machine inventory by early 2022. Make sure to sign up to the email list and you will get a head's up from BTCU when the new batches hit. Keep mining!

Cryptomom - that is a great question and one with two good answers. In the past, mining BTC at home with GPU's has been profitable but those days are over. You can still mine ETH at home for a bit longer (until ETH 2 begins) as well as get on some pools that will switch to the most profitable alt-coin to mine that day. That can be fun and gives you an idea about moving air flow and how hot even one mining rig will get. Today, ASIC mines are the optimum way to mine BTC and require a bit more infrastructure then GPU's. With ASIC's, you need 10-2 electric cable ran on a 30 amp circuit, an L6-30P receptacle, power distribution unit, well-conceived air flow and balanced exhaust. Because most residential locations use single phase power, the cost of electricity is much higher than you want it. To get the most bang for your buck, you will want to operate your machine on a 3-phase system which will reduce your overall kWh (kilowatt / hour) rate by as much as 75% on a month to month basis. With 3-phase power being impractical for most home mining rigs you have another option, and that is to own your machine and have BTCU administer it at one of their US data centers. What you pay BTCU, you will make up in power, air flow & exhaust expense, and you'll have a professional team of crypto-engineers monitoring and maintaining your ASIC on a daily basis. Keep mining!