I’m really sorry it took so long for this to come out. I got distracted and now I’m back on track. Here is part three.
If you haven’t already, then read parts One and Two first, as this will be referencing both of them and building off of what I wrote in them.
Electrical wiring basics
For the first part of this, I’m going to try and explain some of how electrical wiring works. If you already know how it works or you don’t really care, then skip to the subheader “The Plan”
There are three types of wire: Ground, Hot, and Neutral. The wires are different if you are using 110 volts or 220 volts.
If you are wiring 110v, like most household appliances use, there are three wires. A black, a white, and a green. The black wire is the hot wire. It carries the 110v. The white wire is a neutral wire. It is required so that the alternating current of the wires has another wire to travel through (Look it up if you are interested). The green is ground. The ground wire acts as a failsafe. If there is ever a short, the electricity will flow to the ground, which is a safe place for it to disperse.
If you are wiring 220v, like the PDUs use, there are also three wires. A black, a white, and a green. Tn 220v, the black and white are both hot and each carry 110v, making 220v. The green is always ground. 220v wires do not have a neutral. This is because alternating current requires two wires, and 220v already has two so therefore has no need for another
Getting electricity to the shed
This was by far the most annoying part of the whole project. We needed to run a completely new electrical line from a box in our neighbor’s backyard into our house, and then right back to the shed. To do this and comply with laws, we had to dig a 2ft deep trench running all the way through our backyard. Once we did that, we ran a large pipeline through that hole and a very thick wire through that pipeline. We then connected that wire to the breaker box in the shed. After that, we had the electricity company come and install a new meter for the line and then we were good to go
The plan
Once we had electricity in the shed, we needed a plan. We needed to:
- Figure out where we were going to put the PDUs
- Wire up plugs for the PDUs to the breaker box
- Wire up lights (so we could see)
- Wire up a plug for the huge fan
- Wire another few plugs just in case
With a list in order, we started work. (Side note: All of this was done before we were finished building all the walls so that we could move around easier [Half way through Part Two])
Execution of the plan
My father had a job, so we couldn’t just work all day and get it done in a few days. We had to work at night. We would go out there and do a fair amount of wiring and miscellaneous electrical things. If you are doing this your self, I would recommend hiring an electrician to do all of it unless you have prior electrical wiring knowledge like we did.
There were two different types of PDUs. 30Amp ones and 50Amp ones. We had 3 30Amps and 2 50Amps. In theory, the 30Amps should be able to support 5 miners, and the 50Amps should be able to support 8 miners. The miners plugged into the PDUs using a specific cord that looks like this:
A lot of time was spent running wire, which looked like this:
All of the wires ran into the breaker box.
The plugs for the 30A PDUs looked like this:
This is one of the lights we put in so that we could see when it was dark.
The two right plugs are for the 50A PDUs and the left one is for a 30A PDU. We had to put them under where the miner racks would be to be able to fit all of the PDUs in.
We needed a plug for the big fan to plug into so we put it in the front. Also, that light switch lights up when it is off. (My dad was very proud of that)
We drilled holes in the studs so that wires could get through and not get in the way. As an added bonus, it looked a lot cleaner.
When the wiring was all done it looked like this:
The process was simple enough.
- Figure out where the plug goes. Screw box into place
- Drill holes in studs to let wires come through and thread wires through to reach empty plug box.
- Use wires and wire the plug in.
- Test plug. If electricity is not flowing, figure out the problem
- Screw wired-plug into the box it belongs and put a cover on
After all the plugs were wired in and working we plugged the PDUs in and they worked! We also now had working lights in every room and a plug for the fan to push air in. All that we had left to do was install miners.
That’s all for Part Three
That felt great to type. I’m going to immediately start working on Part Four, which is the final part. To get some updates on how it is coming along, follow me on Twitter @BitcoinboyBlog.
-Bitcoinboy
