Using computer as space heater

[swl551]

It is cold here in New Hampshire, and I have placed a PC in each bedroom to act as a space heater...

As we know GPUs/CPUs create a lot of heat and I am harnessing the heat in a positive way. The problem is that there is no thermostat in the PC and the rooms end up overheating. If I knew of a programmable hardware thermometer with .NET api I could literately control the on-off of MfaktC and Prime95 based on room temperature.

Does anyone have any knowledge of such a thermometer and api to read from it?

[kracker]

Originally Posted by swl551

It is cold here in New Hampshire, and I have placed a PC in each bedroom to act as a space heater...

As we know GPUs/CPUs create a lot of heat and I am harnessing the heat in a positive way. The problem is that there is no thermostat in the PC and the rooms end up overheating. If I knew of a programmable hardware thermometer with .NET api I could literately control the on-off of MfaktC and Prime95 based on room temperature.

Does anyone have any knowledge of such a thermometer and api to read from it?

If I am not mistaken, there are temperature sensors on the motherboard that you can read, try Speedfan and compare the values with a actual thermometer inside the case. Mine right now says 26C=78F

[swl551]

Originally Posted by kracker

If I am not mistaken, there are temperature sensors on the motherboard that you can read, try Speedfan and compare the values with a actual thermometer inside the case. Mine right now says 26C=78F

Kracker,
The MOBO will always read around 110f, since it is a small box. The room temp on the other hand will be too hot if it exceeds 72f.

So some type of external sensor is required.

[sdbardwick]

There are a ton of cheap ($10-20) USB thermometers out there, like this one via Amazon.

from an Amazon review on the device:

Cheap, small and it works.
I bought two of them for our serverroom.
The software is very bad, but you can use UTAC (it's free).
You can use the "HidFTDll.dll"(included with the software) to get the values from the device, so you can write your own programm for the TEMPer [Edit: 'TEMPer' is the name of the device]. I used VB6 and VB.net and it works fine.
In the last 2 years there were <5 measuring errors. For <15$ it's very good.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by swl551

So some type of external sensor is required.

IMO, that is a very clever idea! I have always been concerned about how many dead animals (read: oil) we burn to fulfill our hobby, but for those who need to heat spaces with electricity the work we do is carbon neutral...

Do a "Goggle" for "usb temperature sensor". Many inexpensive COTS solutions are available.

It would be interesting to collect some empirical data, and determine if the internal temperature sensors (to the computer's volume) can be correlated to the external ambient air temperature.

It would probably be a very complicated equation (taking into consideration what processing was going on), and with very large errors, if even possible.

[swl551]

"usb temperature sensor" was the phrase I could not come up with...

Amazon and the world has tons of these. (thx for the suggestion)



Let's see where this takes me....


thx

[swl551]

Originally Posted by sdbardwick

There are a ton of cheap ($10-20) USB thermometers out there, like this one via Amazon.

from an Amazon review on the device:

Thanks. This is exactly what I needed.

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by swl551

If I knew of a programmable hardware thermometer with .NET api I could literately control the on-off of MfaktC and Prime95 based on room temperature.

As both the MfaktX Controller and Prime95 have "Pause While Running" features, you could write a simple .Net app that starts and stops a second process when you want to cycle the apps off. E.g. let's say you have a "thermostat.exe" and a "cooloff.exe". "thermostat.exe" would read your thermometer's API and, when it reaches a certain temperature (e.g. 80 F), start "cooloff.exe" (which itself does nothing, but stays open as long as you let it). "cooloff.exe" is on Mfaktx and Prime95's Pause While Running lists, so they both stop. When the temperature reaches a lower temperature (e.g. 70 F), you kill "cooloff.exe" and your crunching resumes.

Easier than trying to directly work with Mfaktc and Prime95, I think.

[swl551]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

As both the MfaktX Controller and Prime95 have "Pause While Running" features, you could write a simple .Net app that starts and stops a second process when you want to cycle the apps off. E.g. let's say you have a "thermostat.exe" and a "cooloff.exe". "thermostat.exe" would read your thermometer's API and, when it reaches a certain temperature (e.g. 80 F), start "cooloff.exe" (which itself does nothing, but stays open as long as you let it). "cooloff.exe" is on Mfaktx and Prime95's Pause While Running lists, so they both stop. When the temperature reaches a lower temperature (e.g. 70 F), you kill "cooloff.exe" and your crunching resumes.

Easier than trying to directly work with Mfaktc and Prime95, I think.

I currently have a batch file that toggles MFAKTC on/off creating a duty cycle
of one hour on, one hour off. That has helped control my room temps, but has no precision.

Are you saying that if Cooloff.exe is in memory Mfaktc and prime95 automatically suspend processing?

[Manpowre]

Nothing new to report, but I have one node in my office which is one side of the house, and the titan node in living room when I am not using it for something else, and one node in garrage to keep garrage at positive temparature.. now with 2 new 580 boards, I plan to put that node in basement to heat up there too. hehe.

heat exchanger is off.. so I do use the heat for warming up the house.

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by swl551

Are you saying that if Cooloff.exe is in memory Mfaktc and prime95 automatically suspend processing?

With Prime95, you can add "PauseWhileRunning=cooloff.exe" to prime.txt, and if you use the MfaktX controller, you can have the equivalent in its .config:

<add key="PauseWhileRunning" value="cooloff" />

So, it's not that the processes magically know that "cooloff.exe" is anything special, it's that you can tell them both that it's special.