There’s always another way to make money. We just never saw mining Bitcoin using your home’s geyser (the Yanks call it a water heater) as a viable option. And yet, that’s just what a product called Heatbit promises to do. Whether it’ll actually work is something we’d have to see to believe.
The cost of entry into the world of geyser-based crypto mining (as opposed to geezer-based crypto mining) is just R15,000 ($900). That’s just for the first batch of converters for your geyser. If you miss the boat the first time around, one will cost you R22,000 ($1,300). But what does it actually do?
Just a Bitcoin
The Heatbit is a replacement heating element for water heaters. It’ll still do the important thing — keeping your shower toasty warm. But it drops the traditional element. Instead, the device “heats your tank with bitcoin-mining chips instead of a resistance wire.” That’s either a genius idea or lunacy, but it’s often hard to tell the difference.
The heater is made up of twenty Bitmain BM1370 mining chips. It’s got a claimed bitrate of 34TH/s and uses up to 600W of power at a time. Heatbit also reckons that its Bitcoin-mining skills ensure that your geyser element doesn’t develop limescale. That’s because it operates at a lower temperature than traditional hardware. Remote monitoring, a connected app, and a built-in cooling system for your oddball mining rig are also included. Okay, fine, you’re providing the cooling system.
The tricky bit? The Bitcoin mining setup is designed for American water heaters, so you’d need a 1in NPSM screw-in element port to purchase one. Local compatibility isn’t certain at all. Which might be fine, because neither is South Africa’s electricity supply.
