I’m Building a Pi-Controlled, Crypto-Heated Hydroponic Garden
Raspberry Pi + Crypto + Hydroponics + Solar = Some Wildly High Tech Tomatoes
I am planning to build a Raspberry Pi controlled, cryptocurrency heated, indoor hydroponic garden that uses recycled water and solar power to grow plants in my garage.
No, this isn’t a clickbait article where I try to throw as many irresistible tech concepts into a headline as possible. This is really a project, and I’m really doing it.
Why? There are a bunch of reasons.
For one thing, I’ve been studying new models for crypto mining in a ton of detail. And I’ve been obsessing about solar for a while, too. In this very publication, I wrote an article talking about combining the two.
I’ve also been experimenting with crypto heating for over a year. It’s nice to add a little extra heat to my house with a crypto computer, but I think one of the most promising applications of crypto waste heat is for industrial and commercial uses, like growing plants in cold climates. Greenhouses already use a ton of electricity for heat — why not derive this from cryptocurrency mining, as this 5 acre tomato greenhouse has done?
Hydroponics and indoor farming is a fast-growing (pun certainly intended) field…
