As crypto continues to take the world by storm, the competition for acquiring PoW cryptocurrencies is becoming fierce. While most miners, including large-scale enterprise ones, still run their fleet with stock Firmware (FW) and in forced air, the sophisticated and forward-looking miners are looking for additional edge and performance.
With the increase in complexity and power of mining rigs continuing to increase, one problem has continued to linger… heat. The enormous processing power of mining rigs produces large quantities of heat. When mining rigs get too hot they don’t perform as efficiently and in extreme cases, they can stop working altogether. Thankfully, there are a variety of solutions to combat this common problem associated with crypto mining rigs.
Location
A typical solution that professional crypto miners have deployed, is simply relocating their entire fleet to a colder geographic location. However, this approach only makes sense for a small portion of mining rig owners and is not scalable.
Forced Air Fans
Fans are the current standard model of cooling mining rigs; the machines come equipped with cooling fans and the Firmware to regulate the fans. For many smaller crypto miners, fans can get the job just fine. But when scaling a large fleet of crypto mining rigs, it is important to reduce operating costs and increase performance and profitability. A great way to achieve this is by using a lesser-known cooling method called “liquid immersion cooling”.
Immersion Cooling
Image via coindesk.com
This method of cooling involves submerging your rig in a thermally conductive but electrically insulating dielectric liquid. While this concept sounds complex, this just means the rig is submerged in a liquid that keeps it cool. Immersion is the most economically viable method of cooling, as well as scaling large fleets of mining rigs while reducing costs. The benefits of immersion cooling are quite substantial, which is why it is trending now in enterprise-scale mining operations. However, before addressing immersion cooling it is worth noting that immersion eliminates the need for a cooling fan (and the power consumption and noise associated). Instead of using a fan or relocating to a colder geographic location, the entire mining rig is instead submerged in a solution that maintains an optimal temperature.
Why does heat matter?
To understand why immersion cooling is the superior method, first, we need to revisit how heat affects mining rigs. In a high-heat environment, the mining rigs will run less efficiently due to leakage current, which will lead to a vicious cycle where the chips will keep drawing more power because of the heat, and the heat causes more leakage so that it’s perpetually drawing more power while the performance does not increase proportionally. The excessive heat and power draw will also cause components in the machine to melt and potentially cause irreversible damage. Fortunately, most of the popular miners have temperature sensors so that the mining rigs will shut down when the temperature exceeds a defined threshold.
The heat is exactly why overlocking air-cooled mining rigs is such a delicate balance: on one hand, you want to draw more power to achieve higher hash rates, on the other, the heat kills efficiency. This is how immersion comes in. The dielectric liquid in the immersion tank cools the miners quickly creating better conditions for efficient overclocking where the system can achieve higher performance vs. air-cooled ones.
Types of Immersion Cooling
There are generally two variables in the immersion cooling set-up: single-loop and double-loop, and two types of liquids: single-phase and double-phase.
In a single loop, the dielectric liquid is pumped directly through a radiator. The fluid is cooled in the radiator and then fed back into the ASIC reservoir.
This shows a single-loop system. Image via Shun Zhang
In a double loop, the dielectric liquid is first pumped to a heat exchanger. The heat from the exchanger is then transferred to a water line. The heated water is then pumped from its loop to a cooling tower or dry cooler to cool down. This second loop usually contains a solution that is a better conductor of heat than simple water.
This shows a double-loop cooling system. Image via Fujitsu
In a single-phase coolant, the fluid stays in the liquid state. This is the simplest solution to immersion cooling and is very tolerant to errors. For example, if a pump stops working, the miner will shut down when the temperature reaches the limit. As the liquid cools, the miner will resume.
This shows the mechanisms of a single-phase coolant. Image via grcooling
In a double-phase coolant, the fluid switches between the liquid and the gas states. The cooling is achieved after a series of evaporation and condensation. This setup requires more precision or otherwise will risk damaging the machinery.
This shows the mechanisms of a double-phase coolant. Image via grcooling
Immersion Cooling Setup Considerations
It’s crucial to remember that immersion-compatible firmware is essential to the whole operation. Depending on how the firmware is set up, running air-cool mode on immersion-cooled machines may cause unnecessary hassles, e.g. excessive power to the fans while they are not required in the fluids, not achieving the maximal performance because of the clock limits imposed by the air-cooled firmware.
So before considering immersion, it’s important to research what mining machines the immersion-compatible firmware supports
Additional Benefits
In general, immersion operation costs about the same or even less than the traditional air-cooled operation while providing higher performance. Simply put: it is a far more efficient operation -a crucial consideration for large-scale enterprise miners. As a side benefit, Immersion cooling also greatly reduces the amount of noise produced by mining rigs. Additionally, it also reduces maintenance costs since it’s now more difficult for dust or debris to enter the system. These are just a select few of the many reasons why immersion cooling is a viable option for enterprise and at-scale crypto mining operations.
Immersion is the Future
Immersion is quickly gaining the reputation of being a very scalable technology for large deployments of data centers and cloud servers. Companies such as Intel have touted immersion cooling for their data centers as a revolutionary technology and thus invested large sums of money. Intel alone is investing $700 million into immersion cooling research and development for their data centers and cloud technologies. It is likely that as time continues we will see more industry pioneers get behind immersion cooling.
ePIC Blockchain Technologies supplies reliable immersion cooling technologies. Our solution spans the electronics, MCU board, and FW to upgrade an existing fleet, or to build a customized large-scale immersion cooling fleet from scratch. ePIC is a North American-based company focused on developing PoW (Proof of Work) blockchain chips, customized mining rigs, and technologies to enhance the efficiency and performance of large-scale mining fleets.
Conclusion
For crypto miners, immersion has become a sought-after method of cooling. As crypto-mining competition continues to grow, large enterprise miners will need to ensure their fleet is as efficient and high-performing as possible. While immersion cooling is still a relatively new concept for many people, now is the perfect time to make the switch… before the competition catches up. At the very least, it would be a wise idea to speak with the immersion technology experts at ePIC Blockchain Technologies.
ePIC Blockchain Technologies
Writer for ePIC Blockchain Technologies
