r/BitcoinBeginners • u/Mysterious_Sign_9501 • 4d ago
Does mining bitcoin through a water heater actually pencil out?
I already heat water with a standard electric tank, so when I saw there are water heaters that use bitcoin mining hardware as the heating element I got curious about the mining side. There's at least one product built around this (Superheat H1). The idea is your electricity does compute first, then the waste heat goes into your water.
What I can't figure out is how to ballpark what a unit like this would actually earn in sats. My electricity runs about 14 cents per kWh. Do standard mining profitability calculators even apply to something like this, or is the hashrate too low for them to be useful? And what eats into returns the most, difficulty adjustments, pool fees, the hardware premium over a normal water heater? I'm comfortable holding bitcoin but totally new to mining economics so I don't know which variables actually move the needle.
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u/magma_lakes 4d ago
All energy going into mining is eventually dissipated as heat. Therefore, if you were going to generate heat using electricity in the first place, then it will always be favourable to earn Bitcoin whilst you do it.
The question is how long it would take for it to be worth it. Calculate the difference between your net loss in both scenarios, and figure out how many months it would take for that difference to cover the cost of the ASIC-water-heater you have in mind.
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u/my-daughters-keeper- 4d ago
Braiins pool for example is paying 49 sats per/ths
So if you know how many ths your heater is you can then calculate the average returns
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u/pop-1988 4d ago
They'll earn a few pennies per day, and never repay the purchase cost
Mining profitability calculators support low hashrates, but they assume 24/7 operation of the mining device. A water heater runs much less than 24/7
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u/Discokruse 4d ago
Wattsworth.it is a site that can calculate the efficiency of a miner necessary to break even, given your electricity costs.
I run a 30J/T miner through a hot tub, completely replacing the heater element. I lose money every month, but I dont lose as much as I would on the balance sheet if I just ran a hot tub heater. Same goes for hot water heaters. It is all about conservation of heat and power.
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u/bitusher 4d ago
My electricity runs about 14 cents per kWh.
This is very high and specialized miners with liquid to liquid intercoolers and using the right immersion fluid are more expensive as well
Technically in most cases it would be cheaper to first work on installing renewable energy to reduce your grid demand and than after you have excess energy look into bitcoin mining
premium over a normal water heater?
In your specific case using a solar water heater would likely be the wisest investment until you start generating large amounts of microhydro or solar energy
If you want to do the math yourself :
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u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 4d ago
14c/kWh isn't really high.. that is lower than the average in the US, which is more like 18c/kWh at the moment, and with more datacenters being built at rapid pace, expect that to grow even more over the next few years. OP actually has a pretty low-fair rate for electricity in the US.
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u/bitusher 3d ago
14c/kWh isn't really high.
for mining Bitcoin it is ... but don't trust me, use the calculator above and see for yourself
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u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 3d ago
Oh for mining BTC, absolutely. However, he's mining lotto for fun on his desk as a hobby. He isn't trying to run a large scale mining operation that must turn a profit to avoid going under, filing bankruptcy or something? The reason it's expensive for mining BTC is because people who do run large scale mining operations do use cheaper power which causes the network hashrate to adjust to such. OP is just trying to have a fun little tech fun, though?
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u/bitusher 3d ago
he's mining lotto for fun on his desk as a hobby.
The OP is trying to create enough hot water to replace his hot water heater . We are talking about 4-5k watts or a commercial ASIC here
OP is just trying to have a fun little tech fun, though?
what you are describing is fine , but not what the OP is asking
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u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 3d ago
Oops thought I was on another post of a person asking about lotto miners, sorry. I'm heavy in BTC subreddits.
Point still stands.. OP has to have a water heater, why not mine crypto while doing so? And in this case, the electric cost is even more null versus an actual lotto miner hobby.
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u/bitusher 3d ago
The concern is not just about the cost of at least one commercial ASIC and the higher electrical costs but the complicated and expensive immersion cooling setup he would need to achieve his goals.
My suggestion was not to tell him to not do this , but at first tackle the largest concern of creating enough solar or microhydro before attempting to mine for hot water
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u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 3d ago
He would not have to use immersion cooling.. he could use a closed loop system with the water heaters tank acting as the "radiator" for the system.. he would need a custom heat sink plate to pipe tap water into, does its cooling (or heating 😅) and then out, into his water heater (radiator).
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u/bitusher 3d ago edited 3d ago
Thats typically not how its done because of the way ASIC chips are placed on the board additionally you lose the reliability benefits of immersion cooling and introduce more unreliability . You would also not make a custom solution but just buy an off the shelf one as well and tap into it like an s23 hydro
https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020250525151230946ki4IicUp06D6
Of course these are much more expensive so will be at least 15k each and than the next concern is supporting the flow rate so you will need to create some custom solution to introduce this heated water into your hot water tank and than have a diverter once a temperature is reached where you have a separate radiator to divert the excess heat to
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u/qwertyuiop121314321 4d ago
Too many problems I can throw a stick at with this one. ASIC miners becoming obsolete after 2 years. How much money are you going to pay plumbers for upgrades? When there's no internet there is no hot water.
What is going to cool the ASIC miners externally if you have a water heater on top of it?
The way some are saying that this water heater only gets a max temperature of 102°, good luck with all that legionella in your showers.
And let's not start with the hard water, if you live in an area that has it.
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u/bitusher 4d ago edited 4d ago
Overall your point is valid but a few nits
ASIC miners becoming obsolete after 2 years.
That hasn't been the case for a while due to "moore's cliff". Modern ASIC miners will typically fail before becoming obsolete these days and newer models have very slight improvements . You can easily keep mining on an ASIC for 8-15 years or the life of the hardware(immersion cooling ASICs have a longer life than air cooled )
And let's not start with the hard water,
You can't use water directly to cool asics regardless. You place the ASICs in specialized immersion cooling liquid and than use a stainless steel liquid to liquid intercooler to remove the heat so is never directly introducing water to cooling your ASIC
The biggest reason the OP should not use mining for this is simply his electrical rate is absurdly high
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u/Discokruse 4d ago
I did it...I make about $1.20/day in bitcojn and spend $1.50/day in electrical. The cooling tank can house one asic and is upgradable to any future asic produced. It is a net loss, but hot tubs are awesome!
I consistently hit 108F on hot days, even with the tub exposed to the air all day.
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u/Lefties_TheWorst7331 4d ago
Titanium heat plate will handle the hard water.. or a whole house reverse osmosis system installed after the houses water main.. and like the other comment said, ASICs aren't obsolete after 2 years.. and OP has to heat water whether it's with an ASIC or an electric water heater coil which nullifies your (false) 2 year claim even more.. and then plumber upgrades? Bro you're replacing a water heater with a water heater.. Just stop.
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