Thanks. The heating is an obvious benefit. About how much heat (in USD/day) does your rig generate?
Obviously, the returns and costs are low. Assuming USD 0.02/GRC and assuming away heating benefits, the breakeven electricity price is about $0.04/kWh. That's the number I'm looking for.
Now assume a school running Gridcoin for a net profit of $0.10/day (very optimistic). 1000 boxes would generate $100/day or $52,000/year, a not insignificant sum. Of course, electricity would have to be very cheap to begin with, an extremely unrealistic assumption. I looked at Iceland's electricity prices and read that prices are rising as demand grows to levels above some US states.
So, my idea is pointless. Run BOINC for the science and get GRC as a bonus. That's what we've been doing all along. Maybe in the future, GRC will rise enough to make BOINC profitable, but don't make any decisions based on that.
You might as well consider it infinite for me. I dont have to heat at all thanks to crunching. My appartment is about 30 by 24. ( I would have to pull my measuring tape to verify)
It's not really infinite. The return to the heat can be quantified as the cost of other heating avoided. I assume you live in a cold climate. How do control the temperature besides opening the windows when you feel too warm?
I assume @ragnarokdel gave flat dimensions in feet, so it is around 70 sqm. His rigs use ~6000 kWh per year, what gives ~ 80 kWh per square meter per year. (If my calcs are ok).
For many (in non extreme weather areas) flats / houses you can assume heating demand is at 100 to 200 kWh per sqm.
But gas heating is often ~3 times cheaper than electric heating.
In extreme case when source of heating is grid electricity, roughly you get a net profit equal to mined GRC switching from standards electric radiators / heaters to CPUs / GPUs.
3 generations old pc might use the same energy as a new one and produce 5x less GRCs, another variable to account for (just loose numbers).
We have extreme climates, our houses are really well isolated and the snow also acts as an isolant. Since I live in a basement appartment, most of my surface is either underground or covered with snow in the winter.
Of course it's not actually infinite. but I dont use heating except maybe one or two days a year at those super peak lows (-35°c let's say). I wish it was separate on the bill so I could give you a number but it isn't.
In Québec most building even with water heating use electricity, older houses might be different as for my apartment, it's in a house basement but it's definitely on electricity as well.
As for summer, I dont mine in heatwaves and yes I crack a window open. Being in a basement keeps it relatively cool.