Nano 3 - Can you heat your whole house with a bunch of 'em?

20.1k sats \ 38 comments \ @jasonb 19h bitcoin

TLDR: No, but if you own bitcoin and can afford to, you should get one anyway.

Secure the network.

First off, I'm not mining to heat my house, and I'm not mining to earn bitcoin. I'm not mining out of the goodness of my heart either. I'm mining because I store my family's savings in bitcoin, and mining centralization looks like a real threat to me. I've written about it here and here if you're interested in reading more about why this is so important for average bitcoiners. That being said, I'd like to earn (or at least not lose) bitcoin in the process, and I'd also love to heat my home with it.

Nano 3

In one of the aforementioned posts, I made a stink about how little hash one contributes with a lottery miner and @OT called me out on ignoring hardware centralization concerns with Bitmain. Well, Canaan isn't exactly a small company, and they're not open source, but they aren't Bitmain, and I found a miner that's about eight times as powerful as the virtual signaling¹ solo miners at about the same cost.

My big find was the Nano 3. It's actually marketed as a space heater with three heating settings. At it's warmest, this guy mines at 4TH/s and uses about 140 watts. So it's about as efficient as a midrange s19, hashes about the a third as much as an s9, and costs as much as a Bitaxe. As a tool for decentralization, I'd say that's a great combo.

Ironically, most of the folks I see talking about it online are shitcoiners that use it to solo mine Bitcoin Cash. I wonder if this phenomenon is culturally turning bitcoiners off to a better decentralizing tool.

Recycled Heat

So, now that I have them, I can tell you from personal experience how they're doing as heaters. Well, they are pushing heat out. However, it's a very small fraction of what my s9s do. They look better in house², and they're significantly quieter (but not silent), but there's no way these guys are going to let me go furnace free this winter like a similar amount³ of Bitmain products would do.

#Conclusion

So I don't see the Nano 3 as the silver bullet for home miners. I do, however, think it's a great option and am not at all bummed with my purchase. At my current electricity price, I'll pay them off (even denominated in bitcoin) at some point. But I'm also going back to the drawing board about trying to replace my furnace with miners.

totally unfair characterization... I get it. Just trying to make a point with some hyperbole ↩
The lighting is also pretty cool. You can make it pulse or strobe, and the full color spectrum is available. They're keep my kids' rooms a LITTLE bit warmer this winter and double as a cool night lite that teaches them about bitcoin. The ones in living areas do the same for guests. I consider these non-trivial features. ↩
Similar price too! Most s9s online are about the same price as the Nano 3s. ↩

view all related items

0 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

“virtual signaling” should have been virtue signaling in this post.

As always, spell/grammar check always scrambles one’s statements up at the very moments that one is trying to be most dramatic and provocative.

164 sats \ 8 replies \ @TheMorningStar 7h

Can you please post the image or link for which one to buy? I see a lot of options there.

I alsk don't know if they sell it in India?

15 sats \ 6 replies \ @jasonb OP 7h

https://shop.canaan.io/products/avalon-nano-3-nov-future-without-adaptor?VariantsId=10369

This is the link to the site where I got mine. I got the US adaptor, but honestly don’t know what would be good for India. The link on here to the telegram group was helpful, but the moment I started posting on there, I got lots of direct messages that all turned out to be scammers. There are LOTS of predators. So, if you ask there about the right adapter to your country, please IGNORE EVERY SINGLE DIRECT MESSAGE that you get on telegram related to the Nano 3. Actually, maybe just ignore every direct message you get on telegram that isn’t someone you already know in the real world personally.

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @TheMorningStar 7h

Thanks. Can I buy an adapter separately? The real question is will they ship to India? I'm gonna see it.

They ship it but too much shipping cost!

13 sats \ 1 reply \ @bren 7h

I think I will try out one of these also.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheMorningStar 7h

Are you from India?

12 sats \ 2 replies \ @jasonb OP 7h

I know you can buy it without an adapter. I hope it’s build in a way that you can find something locally that works. I don’t know where @Solomonsatoshi is based out of, but it looks like he might be exploring this too.

I will say this. The limited interactions that I’ve had with the Canaan team through both email and telegram have been really helpful. Just make sure you’re actually talking with them and not scammers. There are lots of people impersonating them on telegram and various websites.

61 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheMorningStar 7h

Thanks. I'll only interact with your link. I think I van find adaptors here. We've a big tech market nearby.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 7h

Re: “We’ve a big tech market nearby.” Nice!

I’d also send them an email ahead of time before sending any money, just to be safe. There are lots of scammers both on telegram and the web, but I definitely got my miners from that site and they are both hashing and heating for real.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 7h

They don't sell in India. But you'll find the one at NP without paying too much of shipping charges. I'm gonna go through next week there for buying a lappy. You can join me too. We'll find it there. The shipping charges are way too much. They just double up the costs.

65 sats \ 1 reply \ @kristapsk 18h

This reminded me to finally order Avalon Nano 3 too.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

Woot!

67 sats \ 11 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 18h

Where did you buy your nano3s from?

12 sats \ 1 reply \ @nym 18h

Wondering the same.

6 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

…just reposting this in case you don’t get notified of my response to weareallsatoshi.

Direct from https://www.canaan.io/

I should have mentioned this in the post. There is a scam site that looks VERY legit. It allows you to choose different models of various hash rates. Nano 3 only comes in the 4TH/s model. That’s how I finally figured out the scam site was too good to be true.

The real Canaan site had lots of links to social media, including their telegram channel.

After shipping and handling, I paid $160 per unit to Ohio, USA.

100 sats \ 8 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

Direct from https://www.canaan.io/

The real Canaan site had lots of links to social media, including their telegram channel.

After shipping and handling, I paid $160 per unit to Ohio, USA.

76 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 17h

I was thinking to buy one for my wife. She's always complaining that is cold and want something to warm her feet. So one of these under her desk will be a fix.

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @jasonb OP 17h

To be honest with you, the heating element has been the part that didn’t really meet my expectations. If you’re used to the blazing heat of an industrial miner, this is WAY more mild. It definitely pumps out heat, but you may either want to get her a couple or just use one of the crypto cloaks conversion kits for an old Bitmain model.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 17h

Yes I want only for heating a single room. So you think and old S9 with a nice box will be much better?

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 17h

I just ran this by my wife, who has one in her sewing room, and she says a single Nano 3 is warm enough if the primary concern is keeping her feet warm under the desk.

50 sats \ 2 replies \ @jasonb OP 17h

It would be significantly warmer. I have an s9 without the box in my garage. It’s ugly and loud as hell, but that makes sense in that environment. I’ve never used the ones that use the crypto cloak thing, but if they aren’t under locked, they should be really warm.

Maybe the best bet is three or four Nano 3s? The upfront cost would be more, but you’d actually have enough hash and efficient enough hash that it’d start paying it off and heating her room for free.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 17h

Sincerely I am not interested in a ROI or to balance the cost of electricity with the earning sats. I am more interested in warming my wife feet 😂😂😂 so she can shut up, meanwhile I am paying the same money for heating I am paying now.

As far I can see and calculated, I would pay around 10k-12k sats/month just to warm wife feet. So with a 4T hash rate I could make like 7-8k sats/month. It means I still have to put from my own pocket 2-5k sats/mo.

Keeping in mind that right now I am paying the same 10-12k sats/mo but nothing in return.

Am I right with my assumptions?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 16h

Yeah, I think you are.

reply on another page

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 18h

Awesome, thank you!

268 sats \ 4 replies \ @k00b 19h

For a couple of days, I've been configuring a BitAxe Gamma, wondering if I should get one for my office.

I just don't need another project. I have a Pixel phone (replacement for 6-7 year old iPhone) I haven't unboxed for a month and likewise with a framework laptop (work laptop backup).

227 sats \ 2 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

Reviewing my post in light of this comment really underscores how insatiably judgy it is… 😳

That said, the Nano 3 is truly plug and play. You plug it in and then do the one step of putting in your mining pool/worker name. I set up…let’s just say more than are pictured…in about half an hour.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 18h

lol I didn't feel judged at all.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

192 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 19h

I just don't need another project.

I feel this. There's always so many thing I want to do, but I just don't have the capacity.

50 sats \ 3 replies \ @OT 14h

Thanks for the mention!

I hope that the "call out" was positive. I'm just hoping for more competition for more mining hardware.

59 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 12h

Absolutely, we’re all learning, right? That’s definitely something that wasn’t on my radar yet.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 14h

BTW, what are those little bitcoin ducks on top?

45 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 12h

To be honest, I don’t even know where those came from. They’re in my daughters’ room and ended up there after I set up the miner.

150 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bee_Aye 17h

does it take an ethernet cord, wifi or both options?

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 16h

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that. It’s WiFi only.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 18h

Can you tell roughly how much is the monthly energy consumed with 1 of these?

I know, they say on their website is 140W and I can calculate myself, but I want to hear it from somebody that already use it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 18h

If I’m doing my math right, they each consume 100 kWh a month.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 10h

Am hoping to try one or two of these on my offgrid solar power system soon. They can be purchased without the power supply for USD$99 plus freight. I am hoping I can power them directly using the DC output from my '24' volt LifePo4 batteries which in practice operate between 28-26 volts dc. Has anyone tried this and does it work or will there be problems with the voltage not being precisely 28v all the time?

Secure the network.

Nano 3

Recycled Heat

Footnotes