Water great idea! Bitcoin mining heats this swimming pool

Published at: April 8, 2022

A Bitcoiner has "pooled" off another mining innovation. The 'waste' heat generated by mining Bitcoin (BTC) is used to warm his swimming pool.

Bitcoin enthusiast Jonathan Yuan had kids who “love swimming, but the year before [he started using waste heat], they barely ever did it because it was always too cold for them.” Fortunately, he was interested in Bitcoin mining and understood that Bitcoin mining emits a lot of heat.

Yuan told Cointelegraph that he purchased a “heat exchanger and setup some ASICs,” (application-specific integrated circuits), and subsequently managed to keep “the pool above 90F all summer.”

The process works by immersion, which simultaneously cools the ASICs while "reclaiming that waste heat and putting it to practical applications such as heating living/working spaces, pools, or anything that could benefit from up to 60C/140F of heat."

However, “when the China ban happened” and the difficulty adjustment dropped, Yuan made a tricky decision. Do I mine less Bitcoin or turn the swimming pool into a bathtub?

“When [the] difficulty dropped like a rock, I actually pushed all the ASICs to the limit, which brought the pool temp above 110F, so the kids had to not swim for about month or two. lol. Yes, I had to say "sorry kids, the pool is too hot, you can't swim today””

The difficulty adjustment has since risen to new highs, and his kids are able to swim again. Plus, Yuan has “made money” mining and interestingly: “the best part is the pool acted as a perfect heat buffer.”

In fact, using Bitcoin miners to heat his swimming pool is more effective than traditional methods: it keeps “temperature swings over a 24 hour period down to only 1F to 2F despite ambient temps swinging over 40F on some days.”

Based in Minnesota, the upper Midwestern United States, Yuan has kept the pool "toasty" even in cold temperatures:

-21F this morning here in Minnesota. The pool (blue line) is nice and toasty warm at 92F. pic.twitter.com/eq5b3OLFjV

— Coin Heated (@CoinHeated) January 7, 2022

Yuan recommends anyone with a pool to do the same, as it’s the “perfect use case scenario” for waste heat. Now that his home mining setup has gone swimmingly, Yuan is now building a pool-specific tank that will be rated to run pool water through the heat exchanger directly.

ASICs now heat Yuan's home, and he has turned a passion project into a profession. His Bitcoin mining company, CoinHeated is “dedicated to turning Bitcoin miner waste heat into productive heat.”

The plan now is to bring pool heating projects to other homes, and he's in conversation with “manufacturers of heat exchangers that will be able to make something that won't corrode with the chemically treated pool water.”

In the meantime, the kids are able to enjoy his home swimming pool, warmed courtesy of Proof of Work.

Here's some kiddo's enjoying the nice, warm pool. I don't swim in it myself though. Not really a fan of swimming. pic.twitter.com/MHRW86D6Me

— Coin Heated (@CoinHeated) January 28, 2022