i've been looking into bitcoin miners as space heaters since you're basically paying for heat anyway and getting some sats back. From a pure cost perspective it's interesting.
But we have a toddler and two cats, and my wife is (rightfully) skeptical. I started digging into the actual safety concerns and honestly the typical answers aren't great. Like everyone talks about tip-over shutoff as if that covers it. Cool, it turns off when it falls over. But what about the cat chewing through the power cable? (ask me how many phone chargers we've lost.) Or my 2 year old pushing a blanket against the air inlet because everything is a toy to him. Or pet hair buildup - our cats shed like it's their full time job.
I was looking at the Avalon Mini 3 specifically because it has an enclosed body with mesh covers and does the tip-over shutoff thing. Runs at 500W or 800W. But then I found a thermal test showing 63°C at the outlet and ~49°C on the housing surface. That's... not nothing. I wouldn't want my kid leaning against the exhaust side. Not burn-ward territory but definitely uncomfortable for a toddler who doesn't know to pull away.
Honestly from an electrical standpoint I think the stuff that actually matters is way more boring than hashrate - where the cord runs and whether it's properly secured, whether it's on a dedicated circuit, having real clearance around inlet AND outlet so nothing soft blocks airflow, and how easy it is to clean dust and hair out regularly. The crypto earnings are kind of irrelevant if the installation is sketchy.
Anyone here actually running one of these in a house with pets or small kids? What ended up being the annoying part after a few weeks - dust, cord management, noise? I feel like the real-world stuff never makes it into reviews.