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Back to the Drawing Board: From a Hobbyist Miner’s Perspective
Today, I would like to share my journey as a residential miner and the efforts I am exerting into getting electric work sorted for my shed—an impending crypto mining shed. The process so far has been quite intense, and though I am not a specialist in the field of electrical engineering, I believe I have made great strides. Again, I must reiterate, this is not the work of a professional, so there are a few hiccups here and there, but I have a professional electrician on standby to finalize everything.
Initiating the Electric Work
The first phase involved running the wires from the panel to the shed. To guide you through my endeavor, I thought it best to start from the beginning, the part where we are of, well, laying the groundwork.
Ground Prep and Conduit Installation
Being a DIYer, I have embraced every bit of the experience. Initially, we focused on landscaping around the mining shed, laying down soil and grass seed to patch up some of the areas affected by the construction works of the shed.
Then came the daunting task of installing the conduits. For a first-time miner like myself, this was quite a learning experience. In total, three conduits were installed at the back of the garage. The first conduit houses two Ethernet cables, while the second contains 12 2 and 10 2 Romex with the anticipation of a 20amp 120volt and a 30amp 240volt workstation. The last one, also hosting two 10 2, will cater to an additional 30amp 240volt system.
Despite the hitches encountered, particularly with the second two conduits, they turned out nice and clean, and surprisingly enough, the rubberized flex conduit of choice was pretty beneficial and assured us of a satisfactory end result.
On Patching Things Up and Shed Wiring Preparations
Finalizing Conduit Installation
With all the conduits in place, sealant and caulk were applied on all sides to secure them. We ensured the conduits will properly run into the shed, although some adjustments had to be made due to limited resources. Nonetheless, everything now runs quite smoothly, perfectly patched and well-sealed, ready for mining.
Shed Cable Management
The next phase focused on managing cables inside the shed. A junction box will be installed, where all wires will run into. My plan is to run all the power from here, and possibly install a cable track to the middle of the shed to house the rigs. As for communication, Cat5 cables were used instead of Cat6. Seeing as crypto mining doesn’t require hefty data volumes, I found it more cost-effective to use Cat5 and spare expenses on this front.
The Panel Wiring and Future Plans
The Panel Connection
Now, with shed wiring poised for the next phase, my attention turns to the wires connecting to the panel inside the garage where drywall was cut out to accommodate the wires. Luckily for amateur miners like me, we get access to resources such as a 3D-printed box for drox meters to mount the receptacles. This makes our work a whole lot easier.
Shed Availability
Admittedly, space on the panel is getting filled up fast, with slots allocated for various workstations both in the shed and the basement. However, I am convinced that, with proper planning and an efficient layout, I’ll be able to maximize my operations within the confines of my home.
It’s Worth Noting
In this ambitious project, I have come to appreciate that nothing comes easy. This process hasn’t been all smooth sailing but, despite the challenges, steady progress is being made, bit by bit. The focus now is turning to the installation of the intake and exhaust systems, upon which I intend to finalize the electrical setup by fitting around them.
Parting Shot
There’s no rush, the key here is “trying to do things right”. So, week by week, updates on the crypto mining shed will continue to roll out. Inevitably, there will be suggestions and criticisms, but I welcome them all. After all, it’s through sharing and learning from each other that we get to improve and refine our skills. Until the next update, keep mining!
Dude! How are you gonna open those later, you can’t get to the screws… 🤦🏻♂️
Looks good hope the shed is not to small for the future !🤣🤣
Looking Great Hobbyist !!! I think it's a very smart idea to have Professional do your Hookup. I recently had a Licensed Electrician do my upgrades too as safety measure and incase I ever have an insurance claim – I don't want to give them reason to DENY it.
So much to learn, great though going through it with you, also a great community of knowledge to append to it, thanks THM
FYI the 90 degree going into the house should be vertical like the one you were complaining about (weren't really). That is so the screws could be accessed in the case of an emergency or needed repair. The way you have it now makes this impossible with them being stacked on top of one another.
so much broken code, good luck if the city decides to check…. 😬
What’s your plan for cooling?
All I'm sayn is I hope your town electrical inspector is not a subscriber. 🙂 I do enjoy the videos!!
really enjoying the videos!
a detached structure is only allowed one circuit, if you need more than that you install a sub panel. You cannot run multiple feeds to a detached structure
Looking good sir. What size amp is ur Main panel? Hope all is well and keep living the dream good sir
I'd recommend you have the electrician calculate your loads for that service panel. With all of those 30A 240v circuits being used full-time, I suspect you will exceed the capacity of the main service panel wires coming in from the street and the panel's main (200A?) breaker. Just because you have blank breaker spaces in the panel doesn't mean the panel can handle the combined loads.
Nice work! The electrical is the most important and can be the most expensive part of the process. Well worth it though. I actually need to figure out how to run a direct ethernet line to my garage so that I can use my switch in there that I got. Of course ventilation is still higher on my priority list to deal with. The fun of being a miner!
Just curious. On your exhaust. How do u keep the rain water out. Say during a thunderstorm?
romex isnt supposed to be run in plastic conduit, but with your 80% rule, you probably wont overheat it. I don't think its at all a real world concern, but if you plan to have that inspected they might kick up a fuss. At least you dont have any junctions in plastic boxes. thats the only real no-no.
not worth redoing, but romex from panel to a metal junction box, then THHN wire from J box through plastic conduit to another metal J box in the shed, from there you can go back to romex.
just pop those two cat5 runs in the garage in a 1 gang LV box and terminate them in RJ45 keystones and run a patch cable to your basement feed IMO.
for the network, you could mount cat5e outlets on each side(garage and shed). Should be a cleaner look and leaves room for changes in the future. Great content as always. Would be great if the electrician allows you to film while he does the work on the panel.
That’s a lot of power for a hobbyist miner 😂
Do you have solar?
You could have made your life easier and ran a single SE line from your main panel to a sub panel in your shed. You could have only needed to run 1 conduit for power and saved on the 12/2 and 10/2 lengths.
Why haven't you run an earth cable with the supply cables?
THM looking good! Nothing major jumps out at me other than in my area any outside lines need to be run in a hard tube but that’s just my code here yours maybe different, thanks for a awesome update! Keep them coming can’t wait to see your shed online!
BTW there is nothing wrong with cat5 if you only want 1Gbps uplinks, and that may even be more than your internet speeds right now .. the only thing I would have done differently would be to run a little larger tube for all the power lines 10/2’s and 12/3 in one tube, and match the enter point of the shed in the corner just like the house,, having less outside expose tube as possible, other than that looks great to me.
Still awesome work and great update!
WRONG!!! You stacked the boxes when they should lay flat. Screws out.
Electrical is easily one of the most important areas of mining and I'm having trouble making the proper considerations. This type of content is much appreciated
Excellent mining channel
Nice!! 👏
Be carefull with electricity! Happy 4th of July!