Why is this being downvoted? If you have a kilowatt (I wanted to type that out instead of write KW to emphasize it) coming out of the wall that energy has to go somewhere. Literally warm your room during winter and turn down your heater.

And make your AC work even harder during summer or if you live in a tropical/desert/…etc. climate.

I've idly been considering ducting my desktop's exhaust outside like a clothes dryer vent.

My previous computer didn't run very hot at all so the exhaust fan on the top blew onto the underside of my desk and then at me, it was actually uncomfortably cold in the winter. This new one is something else, though.

This got me thinking. ( I must be missing something or having wrong assumption in my high overview of the issue. )

Do Crypto People use their GPU generated heat as heater assuming they lives in a place that requires heating anyway?

Doesn't that equate to free money assuming they could actually mine crypto?

Heating with a Heat pump or Gas is significantly cheaper, so if you look at the big picture, it’s not “free money”.

Open air heat pumps have a lower limit for their operating temperature, so can't be used efficiently in cold climates (around < 25F), since they start to use more energy than they provide as heat. Geothermal heat pumps solve this, but cost more.

Gas is somewhere around half the cost of electricity. Back in the day, you would still profit with a GPU.

Yes. That's one of the benefits.

Some people use electric heating even without crypto so using GPUs to mine crypto to get the same effect is a no brainer.

Problem is that during the summer you have to get rid of the excess heat, so you need air conditioning or perhaps open air cooling.

Not gonna lie, I've used my GPU to heat up my small room before.

It's not a "no brainer" if you include the cost of the GPUs. You need to do at least a little math to figure out whether it's actually cheaper that a simple resistive heater (or a heatpump).

Pretty sure that he was implying that if you already have a GPU then you should mine during the winter instead of using conventional heating.

That's how I read it at least.

> so you need air conditioning or perhaps open air cooling.

Or icebergs - Reyjavik is a popular place to build data-centres, so I have heard. They also have good geothermal in those parts.

Im no expert but coupled with solar panels you get more power during summer to run the AC

Check out this video on using the heat from computing beneficially.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNytmvltsWk

All of the energy is converted to heat. Some energy from your rig is emitted as light; but that's your monitor, and your monitor has its own power supply (which means that 600W is an underestimate).

Well, all the energy is eventually converted to heat.

The RTX 3080 already uses 320W (peak?). By next GPU generation who knows.

Good lord, just 2 generation back GPUs like the 1070Ti consumed 180W. Even if you add a CPU (of that era) like the i7-7700 with it 65W draw, that just 245W. Now a video card alone can draw more power.

I have a 2xRTX 3090 rig under desk. At close to full GPU load the temperature on the desk is about 3F higher than in the room.

It helps save on the winter heating bill if you live in Wisconsin.

Most? Where does the rest go?