Practical Guide for Mining Noise Control

Noise prevention has become a big concern for most mining workers since it has affected not only the sleep but also the physical and mental health as well as neighborhood and family relationship… However, the mining for profits cannot be stopped. How to make profits by mining while reduce the noise? Now, the issue of noise reduction will be discussed as follows.

Where does the miner noise come from?

The ASIC miner is usually equipped with two fans, one at the air inlet and the other at the air outlet, to exhaust the heat generated by the miner chip and prevent the miner from being damaged due to high temperature. To effectively dissipate heat, the miner fans must run a certain speed, thus the noise will be generated.

Take the Antminer S9 as an example. During the normal operation, the fan speed on the mining status page is about 4320-4560 rpm and the tested noise about 1m away is about 76dB(A), which is almost equivalent to the noise at a busy transportation hub.

Cooling Methods Prohibited by Engineers

In terms of decibels, the noise generated by a single miner seems to be acceptable. However, the mining workers nowadays usually have multiple miners. In addition, all the miners usually run for 7X24 hours. Even if the workers can pretend to be immune from the noise, how about the neighbors?

Therefore, the workers have come up with many creative ideas to reduce the noise. Unfortunately, some methods are completely wrong, for instance:

Worker A: Since the noise comes from the cooling fans, why not remove the fans?

Response from Engineer: No. Without cooling fans, the high temperature generated by the chip cannot be dissipated, which may result in irreversible damages to the miner. In addition, if no operation of cooling fans is detected, the miner will never work.

Worker B: Is it feasible to arbitrarily lower the fan speed to reduce noise?

Response from Engineer: No. Antminer is capable of automatic adjustment of fan speed. When the ambient temperature is low, the fans will automatically slow down, so that the miner can run in the most suitable temperature with less noise decibels. However, if the fan speed is arbitrarily slowed down (for instance, replaced by other low-speed fans), the heat cannot be dissipated in time, which will affect the miner operation.

Worker C: It’s said that water cooling and oil cooling are also applicable, so I intend to modify the miner by myself.

Response from Engineer: Better not. Unauthorized modification may damage the precision parts inside the miner and make the warranty invalid. Indeed, many computers have adopted water-cooling/oil-cooling devices to replace the traditional fan cooling system, which seems to be a new idea for miner cooling. However, none of the mainstream miners in the market nowadays has ever adopted the water-cooling/oil-cooling systems (expect for Antminer S9 Hydro). The reason is most probably related to the technical limitation. Therefore, it is recommended not to have a try arbitrarily.

How to reduce the miner noise in a scientific way?

Theoretically, there are three ways to reduce noise:

Ⅰ. Reduce noise from the source.

As being discussed above, the miner fans will automatically adjust the speed. Therefore, if the miner is placed in low-temperature environment, the fan speed will be reduced to some extent to produce less noises. Hence, the mining workers can choose to cool location to place the miners.

Ⅱ. Reduce noise in sound transmission.

Many mining workers have installed soundproof panels and sound-absorbing cotton indoors. In addition, some have also equipped the miners with soundproof boxes. These methods are usually adopted by those who conduct mining at home. It should be noted that the indoor temperature should be properly controlled when trying to realize noise reduction.

Ⅲ. Reduce noise at human ears.

It’s a good choice to wear earplugs and earmuffs during sleep.

Creative noise reduction methods by EastShore customers

In addition, the EastShore customers have also come up with a lot of creative noise reduction methods as follows (Tips: Not verified, be cautious to follow).

A: It will bring very good result to install a large soundproof cloth or sound insulation board. However, it’s necessary to control the temperature since it’s not easy to dissipate the hot air out of the room, so it’s easy to catch fire.

B: Set up a mobile room on the roof which is installed with soundproof cotton as well as window and ventilating fan on the top. The effect is not so bad actually.

C: Several steps to reduce miner noise:

Choose a room with two windows;
Use plasterboard to separate the miners inside the room;
Drill air inlet and outlet on the plasterboard;
Connect the ventilation pipe attached with soundproof cotton to the air outlet and window;
Install negative-pressure fan at the air outlet to blow the hot air out of the pipe;
Set up heatproof boards between miner racks to stop heat returning;
Connect the ventilation pipe to the air inlet window;
Keep the room door shut.

D. Three focuses on noise control

Source control (place cushion materials under the miner chassis);
Transmission control (keep space sealed or set up noise barriers around the miners on the premise of good ventilation);
Receiving end control (headphones or other self-control methods for noise insulation);

E: I have a small mining farm with 15 Antminer S9 machines. I prepared a big box made of tinplate with 15 150mm holes on one side to be connected to the air outlet of Antminer S9 with 150mm exhaust pipe. I also installed a bent pipe to connect with the fan over 400mm diameter on the wall to reduce the indoor temperature as well as the noise. The heat generated by the miners will be directly blown into the box and exhausted outside!

F: The miner noise really results from the fans, that is, the sound of airflow generated by the vibration of fan blades. Since the noise comes from vibration, it is possible to make it offset by means of opposite phases. Try to place two machines side by side and slowly move one to an appropriate position, then the noise can be greatly reduced! Keep patient to find the right point! (EastShore remarks: it’s really a futuristic attempt)

Do you have any other good methods on noise reduction? Please share your attempts in the message box below.

Appendix

Series articles on crypto miner maintenance: