• WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Fuck bitcoin. It should be allocated to desalinisation so less water is pulled from the rivers of the driest continent on Earth. The ecology around waterways is already in the shitter, and global warming is going to 10x that clusterfuck.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      That is a good option too. How long does it take to spool up or ramp down desalination? I mentioned Bitcoin mining because it’s super fast to come online or go offline depending on the energy requirements at the moment.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        22 hours ago

        Pretty fast, from my understanding, because you’re pumping water through a membrane, and the pumps can be turned on and off quite fast.

        The maintenance costs are also quite high though, from my understanding.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        I doubt that would be terribly relevant. The lions share of the surplus energy should be predictable based on recent grid data + 24 hour weather forecasts.

        Based on nothing but wikipedia the primary methods for desalination are distillation (boiling) and membrane; neither of which sound like ramp up time would matter.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        You wouldn’t cover the cost of the miners if you had to shut turn them off and on like that. The worth of their hashing capabilities is nearly always declining as more and better miners come online.

        But using the miners to do something else was always an interesting idea, like using them to heat a building. Maybe you could heat a swimming pool with them.

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          22 hours ago

          For home usage my thought would be use it as a hot water heater or a dryer for clothes or maybe even make a switchable 500 watt and 1500 watt version and use it as a space heater for those cold winter nights.

          • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            21 hours ago

            Ya, if you have a miner at home, it will reduce your heating bill. You just gotta find a good use for it when it’s not cold outside, so something like supplementing your water heater as you mentioned would work ya.

            I think there’s merit in the idea. Someone makes an electric water heater purpose built for this and they build a miner card you can swap in/out as technology improves the the current one becomes obsolete. Uses the miner for primary heat, and when it’s not enough uses regular electricity to make the heat.

            • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              17 hours ago

              See, that would be awesome as hell, because those appliances need heat. And so, mining with it basically subsidizes the heat that I would otherwise just be using anyway. It may not subsidize it completely, but any subsidy is better than no subsidy at all.