Figured you guys might enjoy my little winter project. I have an always-on server + my gaming PC in my office set up with xmrig. I have electric baseboard heaters in my apartment (PNW, USA) so as long as I’m not heating my office past my normal setpoint the electricity is essentially free.

How I set this up:

  • ESP32 flashed with ESPHome + MCP9808 temperature sensor takes a reading of the ambient temperature every minute and sends it to homeassistant
  • Homeassistant feeds that temperature (as well as a controllable setpoint) to a python script
  • Python runs a PID controller based on the room temp and setpoint
  • I use the XMRIG http API to pause/resume and dynamically control the number of threads used for mining

Here’s the result: image

Keeping my room +/- 0.5 degrees from the setpoint while mining

If you guys are interested I can post more details. I’ve had my baseboards off for over a month now with outside temps below freezing.