[gizmo686]

A good engineer knows the difference between safe and dangerous. Setting up an AI computer is safe. Maybe you trip a circut. Maybe you interfere with something else running on your hobby computer. But nothing bad can really happen.

Residential electrical is dangerous. Maybe you electrocute yourself. Maybe you cause a fire 5 years down the line. Maybe you cause a fire for the next owner because you didn't know to protect the wire with a metal plate so they drill into it.

Having said that, 2 4090s will run you aroud $5,000, not counting any of the surrounding system. At that cost point, hireing an electritian would not be that big of an expense relativly speaking.

Also, if you are at the point where you need to add a circut for power, you might need to seriously consider cooling, which could potentially be another side quest.

[XMasterrrr]

I agree with you on all of that. I went down the rabbit hole to understand what's up, but I also hired someone and told them exactly what I wanted: breakers amps and volts, outlets type, surge protector over the entire breaker box up to 120k, etc (I am going to be writing about power and electricity in part 3 of this blogpost series). Electricity was on top of the things I was not going to cheap out on because the risk vs reward made no sense to me.

Re: cooling; I have an AC vent directed on the setup, plus planned out in-out in the most optimal way possible to maximize cooling. I have installed like 20 more fans since taking these pictures :D

[vunderba]

Just a slight clarification, an RTX 4090 card currently runs about $1700 USD at least in the states, so it's more like $3500 pre-tax.

[XMasterrrr]

A year ago it was a struggle to get one for anything below $2100 pre-tex. Glad it came down a bit.

[tjoff]

Add to that is that it is likely illegal to do yourself. Which of course has implications for insurance etc.

[m-s-y]

In the US, it’s fully legal to perform electric/plumbing/whatever work on your own home.

If you screw it up and need to file a claim, insurance can’t deny the claim based solely on the fact that you performed the work yourself, even if you’re not a certified electrician/plumber/whatever.

What you don't want to do is have an unlicensed friend work on your home, and vice versa. There are no legal protections, and the insurance companies absolutely will go after you/your friend for damages.

Edit: sorry this applies to owned property, not if you’re renting

[earleybird]

In my jurisdiction I can certainly do the work but am under the same requirements to pull a permit and pass a provincial inspection. It very quickly becomes the most effective to have an electrician involved, maybe not for all the work but some of it. They're more that willing to review the work you do and talk about it. Think of it as pair coding - great opportunity to learn and they'll tell you when you've done a good job. (at least the ones I've found)

[gizmo686]

Around here, the bar is lower for work on your own property, but you still need to be qualified by the county to be allowed to do so. Qualification consists of a 2 hour open book exam, where the book is a copy of the national electrical codes.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DPS/Process/combuild/home...

Granted, if you actually do unlicensed work in your house, no one will know. But it is still illegal.

[jefftk]

Depends on the state and municipality. Mine doesn't allow homeowners to pull electrical permits.

[scubbo]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[zamadatix]

As with most regulations in the "US" I have a feeling the answer is really something like "Depending on the city and state you live in the answer lies somewhere between 'go nuts' and 'that could lead to criminal charges and you being liable for everything that happens to the house and your neighbors kitchen sink'".

[defrost]

It's like that in Australia, liability and insurance hinge on licenced work by trade qualified professionals.

What is common here, in the handy crowd at least, is to do your own electrical, plumbing, gas work and leave it open and accessable for a licenced professional to check and sign off on.

You're still paying for an hour or two of their time and a surcharge for "taking on the responsibility" but it's often not an issue if the work is clean, to current code, and sanity tests correct (correct wiring, correct angles on plumbing, pressure testing on gas pipes).

[tourmalinetaco]

It‘s hardly an extraordinary claim. Just because you can’t install a ceiling fan doesn’t mean it‘s an “extraordinary” feat that is “likely illegal”.

[scubbo]

> insurance can’t deny the claim based solely on the fact that you performed the work yourself

_This_ is the claim that is extraordinary. I'm not saying that the government would bust down my door for doing work on my own home, but rather that the insurance company would then view that work as uninsured.

The entire business model of insurance agencies is to find new, creative, and unexpected ways to deny claims. That is how they make their money. To claim that they would accept liability for a property that's had uninspected work done by an unlicensed, untrained, unregistered individual is just that - extraordinary.

[bigiain]

> Also, if you are at the point where you need to add a circut for power, you might need to seriously consider cooling, which could potentially be another side quest.

There should be an easy/reliable way to channel "waste heat" from something like this to your hot water system.

Actually, 4 or 5 kW continuous is a lot more than most domestic hot water services need. So in my usual manner of overcomplicating simple ideas, now I want to use the waste heat to run a boiler driving a steam engine, perhaps to directly mechanically run your air conditioning or heat pump compressor.

[raxxorraxor]

Instant water heaters use up to and sometimes even more than 27kW. Of course boilers use less, but still...

These aren't power requirements that are insurmountable. They would get pricey though and I wish my rig for computing would use something around .1kW under load...

Using the heat from PCs would be nice. I guess most just use them as electrical heaters right now.

[XMasterrrr]

Let me know if you figure it out, I would be really interested hahaha

[BizarroLand]

I'm doing this myself now. I have a homelab server setup and a hybrid water heater.

Stuffed the homelab next to the air intake of the water heater, now when I need hot water my water heater sucks the heat out of the air and puts it into the water.

It's obviously not 100% efficient, but at least it recaptures some of the waste heat and decreases my electrical bill somewhat.