Merkle Standard

Heat Reuse Series Part 4 - Small Scale Radiant Snowmelt Starting in the winter of 2024-2025, Merkle Standard kicked off a new heat capture demonstration project. This project is using hydro-cooled miners on a smaller scale, with potential for wider commercial potential. The project connected the built-in glycol cooling of 4 miners in a standalone miner rack to an existing concrete slab heater at the Usk site. Historically the concrete slab was the papermill shipping area, where dozens of trucks a day would load large rolls of paper destined for pressrooms. With the local winters typically experiencing temperatures below 50°F for 192 days, and snow covering the ground for 76 days per year, it was important to keep the concrete clear. Our amazing maintenance employees and miner technicians set up the rack and plumbed it into the existing heat exchanger. The result, a warm, snow and ice-free slab with no additional heating cost. We can’t help but wonder what other applications could this have; is the radiant heated floor in your home next?

We're #hiring a new Financial Controller in Usk, Washington. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Heat Reuse Series Part 3 - Food Production in Winter Conditions At Merkle Standard one of the heat capture and reuse projects we are most proud of is our greenhouse. At our site in Northeast Washington winters are long and cold with temperatures ranging between an average low of 18°F and an average high of 30°F. The challenge of growing food locally, even in these conditions, is one we are working to overcome. A 450-square-foot greenhouse has become our proof-of-concept demonstration that we are hoping to continue expanding. Today the greenhouse is home to a variety of vegetables, fruit, and herbs that are thriving because 3 digital asset miners keep it warm even in January. In the first half of 2024 we added a home-built aquaponic set-up testing the ability to keep plants thriving in a different growing media. In the future, we hope to add more greenhouses and diversify the types of crops raised. It doesn't end there, Merkle Standard is also working with Cusick High School to connect their agricultural department with our greenhouse project; and it just so happens that the greenhouse is kept warm all year with heat from three miners that we donated to and are hosting for the 3 local school districts.

Heat Reuse Series Part 2 - Pulp and Papermill Winter Heat When Ponderay Newsprint Co. went bankrupt, the estate took action to preserve the site buildings and infrastructure, maintaining the value and future use of those assets. In the winter of 2020 - 2021 that included running the propane boiler to prevent everything from freezing during the cold months. That winter the site burned nearly 200,000 gallons of propane. When the site was bought and plans for redevelopment began to include a digital asset data center, company leadership came up with an “out of the box idea.” Rather than fire the boiler back up, the company installed more than 400 miners in front of the building air handling intake vents and began blowing heat from the miners throughout the main building. And guess what, it worked. The building, nearly 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space, was kept warm by miner exhaust air. Over the last 3 winters, the company has taken the same approach and has avoided around 600,000 gallons of propane and approximately 3,000 metric tons of CO2e emissions. We continue to increase the conservation this year, during the 2024 – 2025 winter, as we keep the heat flowing inside.?

Heat Reuse Series Part 1 - An Introduction Did you know that at Merkle Standard we prioritize using electricity as efficiently as possible? Since the company started, projects to use “waste” heat from our data centers has just made sense and over time it has become part of what defines us. We like to say, “we use the electricity more than once,” meaning we use the electricity to run miners and then use the heat produced by the miners to do more work. We are proud of these efforts and our innovative approach to data center operations. Through this series of articles, we would like to share details about each of our heat capture projects and hope you find them as unique and interesting as we do. Next up in the series…. Heating 500,000 square feet of space during cold winter months.

With New Year's Eve upon us, we at Merkle Standard, want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. We can't wait to see what 2025 brings!

From our Merkle Standard family to yours - we wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas.

We're #hiring a new Financial Controller - Bitcoin Mining and HPC/AI Data Centers in Usk, Washington. Apply today or share this post with your network.

For all the men and women who presently serve and those who have served, we thank you for protecting our country.

In this employee spotlight, let’s get to know Laura Verity, our Director of External Affairs. Laura joined the Merkle Standard team in 2022 taking on a similar but expanded role to the one she held with Ponderay Newsprint Co. Laura brings to our team expertise in environmental compliance, community outreach, land use, lean manufacturing, and more. Outside of work, Laura and her husband Jon stay busy raising their three very busy kids. Laura also spends her time as a coach of multiple soccer teams, a POSA basketball coach, and supporter of the Pend Oreille Playhouse.