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Old 06-01-18, 11:28 AM   #4
NiHaoMike
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There are coins that mine well on CPUs but not GPUs. I would say that Monero is probably the most stable one. I mine earnhoney (more profitability but more uncertainty/less stability) on really cold days, and even my old Core i7 from 6 years ago ends up with a lower net cost per heat generated than a heat pump - on the order of getting back 90-95% of the power cost. Something more efficient will actually make a profit.

I personally have found that just one GPU and one 6 core CPU will easily keep my apartment warm, but your place gets much colder. The nice thing about used servers is that they're crazy cheap if you wait for a deal. (Reddit's homelab section is a good resource.) I would say that 10 or so total CPUs (chips, not cores) would be a good start for your case.

And then there are infrared heat lamps for localized heating, easily fine tuned with ordinary dimmers. The point of those is not really to reduce the cost of getting heat but to try to get more of it where it's really needed.
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