Do Vast Majority of People run Bitcoin Miners Precisely 0hrs/Month?

Some analogies are crazy just like the one below where Dan McArdle points to how cloth dryers from across the world use more energy than Bitcoin mining.  And, the onlookers did not take to the statement lightly, they had their own say. The energy arguments about bitcoin is never going to end though.  It helps to know what different people have to say.

Dan McArdle shared: Clothes dryers globally use more energy than bitcoin mining. But neither dryers nor BTC uses globally-meaningful amounts of energy. And neither is on track to grow into such. The outrage over BTC specifically is because people are ignorant of the above, or they just don’t like BTC.

Also because bitcoin mining is location-independent, several other positive factors emerge: – mining is increasingly used to curtail otherwise-flared natural gas, thereby *reducing* emissions – it’s used to monetize stranded energy assets (hydro).

Since miners can be easily turned on/off, it can incentivize renewables projects by making them more cost-effective – as an easily switchable load, mining can be used to stabilize grids (eat power during low demand, turn off during high demand).

Anyway, all this means bitcoin mining has a better emissions profile than grid averages (unlike clothes dryers), it’s likely to continue improving, and can be a boon to power companies and grid stability.

Community Response: 

I should have been mining this whole time instead of drying clothes.

If there is a more efficient way to reduce energy consumption we should, like POS instead of POW.

(Also, obviously, we’re not in that world, which one can understand even by reading Vitalik’s Weak Subjectivity piece….one may come away from that thinking the tradeoff is worth it, but pow vs pos is, quite clearly and fundamentally, a tradeoff).

You – can you point to that data on clothes dryer electricity consumption? Would be helpful.

Here are the figures for clothes dryers in *just the US*: – There are 130M US households (US Census) – The average household uses 12,000 KWh/year (EPA) – Dryers make up 6% of household energy use (EPA), which is 720 KWh/year – 720 KWh * 130M = 93.6 TWh – Bitcoin uses ~90 TWh.

But driers don’t run all day… Maybe 10hrs/month.

The vast, vast, vast majority of people run miners precisely 0hrs/month.

In one Week you miner used up more energy than my dryer in 1 year.

How about we use bitcoin mining to dry all of our clothes? Yes, it’s possible, just a matter of controlling airflow.

Plans for ASIC heated dryer?

Spec sheet from a commercial dryer of similar electrical requirements. (So yea possibly) I tagged band tech back then. Maybe they are ready now to start integrating (maybe they already have?) Multi filters and maintenance. Or the immersion2air idea?

You would need a moisture filter. If it turns off and you’re mobos get steamed you drop the life of your boards to half. I have a buddy who is heating his water with ASICs. Also, indoor cannabis farms eat a lot of heat- legal ones of course.

For sure more engineering is required, with fail-safe exhaust to outside in an emergency, etc. The water heating or at least preheat for higher temp boiler if needed, that part is “easier” but let’s just immerse them all and pull the dryer heat out of radiators?

I’m sure Las Vegas uses tons of energy, they never seem to talk about that.

The casinos make so much money and bring so many tourists to the city from all over the world, not to mention, paying so many hundreds of millions in taxes to the city of Las Vegas, I’m sure they’re not too concerned about energy use City that never sleeps needs lots of power!

Likewise, Bitcoin produces many benefits, including helping unbanked people in countries like El Salvador or helping people being persecuted by authoritarian governments. The point is that all judgments about energy usage are subjective.

The day will come when someone will make washers, dryers, AC/Heating units, etc., that also mine #Bitcoin.

What a novel idea, re-purpose all that heat given off by clothes dryers, and use it to power your lights at home, or something else that’s low-powered, and mine BTC to offset your electricity costs, which are higher because of those same clothes-dryers.