Hydro & waste heatPublished by Cipheron
Heating with miners – explained briefly
A miner turns one kilowatt hour of electricity into one kilowatt hour of heat and earns Bitcoin while doing so. The principle in a few paragraphs.
In physical terms, a miner is an electric heater that does calculations on the side.
How much heat you get
Practically all of it. 1 kW of electricity becomes 1 kW of heat. The computing work does not consume energy that would end up somewhere else; sound and radiation amount to fractions of a percent.
In what form
- Air-cooled: warm exhaust air, about 30 to 60 °C. Good for a workshop, hall or drying.
- Hydro: warm water, up to 80 °C depending on the model. Good for the heating circuit and hot water.
How it differs from an immersion heater
The immersion heater delivers only heat. The miner delivers the same heat and pays back part of the electricity bill through its mining revenue.
When it is worth it
When you need the heat anyway and your electricity is cheap, for example from your own solar system. With normal household electricity a heat pump is usually cheaper, because it turns 1 kWh of electricity into about 3 to 4 kWh of heat.
More on this on our page Heating with miners.
Sources
- Fraunhofer ISE: seasonal performance factors of heat pumps in existing buildings, 2025
- MicroBT: Whatsminer M64, manual with outlet temperature (PDF)
As of October 2026.