The real cost of mining

[John Naylor]

For anyone else, here is a primer...
The efficiency is the PS conversion efficiency - to make 600W available for the PC, it takes from the electrical outlet 600/0.87=690W=0.69kW. So that's your full power bill, you don't pay just the losses in the PS. 0.69kWh per every hour of mining. 16.56kWh per every day. 5895 kWh per year. I am paying approx $0.1/kWh (10 cents), so that would be $589. Of course if your rig uses less than 600W, numbers scale down.

Ya lose very little with the rounding to 2 significant digits but more than close enough ... I wind up answering this question frequently so have a spreadsheet do it for me that just needs wattage, cost and efficiency. Im 24 cents per kw hr.

If anyone would like to have.

Gaming (Hours Per Week)
Wattage: 600
Efficiency: 87.00%
Hours/ Week: 168
Weeks / Year: 52.18
Hours / Year: 8,766.00
KwHrs / Year: 6,045.52
Cost of KwHr: $0.24
Cost per Year: $1,450.92

Mining (Hours Per Day)
Wattage: 600
Efficiency: 87.00%
Hours/ Day 24
Days / Year: 365.25
Hours / Year 8,766.00
KwHrs / Year 6,045.52
Cost of KwHr $0.24
Cost per Year $1,450.92

 

[SoNic67]

Must love to live in Long Island, NY... pay more than double the electricity

 

[damian246]

A 600 watt rig w/ 87% efficiency would cost me $1,450.92 per year in electric

Great a number and what comes out of the rig at the end of the year? 1 BTC, 2 , 3 or more?

 

[John Naylor]

It does have it's advantages an disadvantages ... you decide.

a) Prolly one of the largest coastline / land area ratios in country.
b) The land of Big Hair and "LawnGuyland Goilz who drink cawfee"
c) "Da Hamptons"
d) Access to "Big Apple"
e) Have 4 different seasons with weather extremes moderated by ocean currents.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Hours/ Week: 168

U wot mate? Four full time gaming jobs? Never sleep? I game a lot (excessive amount in fact) and the most I could absolutely see is 112 hrs/week. That's 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. People got to eat, use restroom, and do other humanly things so...can't be 16 hours.

Your average gamer doesn't exceed 4 hours per day/28 hours per week.

Cost of KwHr: $0.24

Holy crap is this in the Democratic Socialist Republik of Kalifornification? Oh... Long Island...
https://www.chooseenergy.com/electricity-rates-by-state/
Rank 9 versus rank 7 for most expensive. My power is something like $0.17 for the first MWh (always exceed that with heating/cooling) then $0.05 after that.


Keep in mind that game rendering isn't a constant load (it ebbs and flows) on a GPU so power consumption is significantly lower than compute loads that are constant. You'd have to sample an average of both to get a good idea of long-term power consumption.


Also, power supply efficiency/rated capacity doesn't matter much: it's what is being pulled from the wall. If you have a 600w power supply but are only drawing 50w from the wall, 50w is what you're paying for, not 600w.

 

[R-T-B]

This small device is "smart" enough to actually measure the power factor. See that PF label? What do you think it does?

Seemingly, it has been revised from when I was looking at their first gen circuits. Good catch.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

400 W * 4 hrs/d * 365.25 d/yr = 584.4 kWh/yr
584.4 kWh/yr * $0.1247/kWh (US average) = $72.87/yr for your average gaming computer with average gaming usage

Let's say the same computer is mining. We subtract 60w for the monitor rarely being used and 40w for the CPU because it's a GPU-centric coin...
300 W * 24 hrs/d * 365.25 d/y = 2,629.8 kWh/yr
2,629.8 kWh/yr * $0.1247/kWh = $327.56/yr for the same machine mining on GPU.

450% more power...and that's tipping the numbers in favor of mining.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Its about the same as the length of a piece of string

Twice the distance from the middle to the end

It's easy to know how much mining takes. And then that power (heat) can be converted in BTU (removed by AC) if you insist to be precise.

Just plug the rig in one of those:

sorry for off topic, but i love the expression on the sockets face

 

[FordGT90Concept]

sorry for off topic, but i love the expression on the sockets face

Standard NEMA 5-15R outlet.

 

[Space Lynx]

Hi guys

How about some fact finding, we all have seen numbers:

To mine a BTC in the US the price is around 5000 US$ and I find that hard to believe.
It becomes a bit more tricky due to the reward schemes.

There are rigs that cost you 1500, 2000, even 3000 US$ and there are self armed rigs.

Approximate price of mining equipment, power consumption are the data we need.

How is the real cost to mine?
BTC:
ETH
Any other Crypto you mine.

Just fyi, a lot of the miners steal their electricity for free, one way or another. The biggest farms in China steal from the grid as well.

 

[hat]

I'm not sure how you can steal that much electricity. Surely someone would notice and put a stop to it?

 

[SoNic67]

Surely someone would notice and put a stop to it?

Electricity in China is state-owned, so... corruption. 80% of the mining rigs are there. Power plants there burn a lot dirty coal, with no filters (because those are electro-static and consume electricity).

 

[damian246]

Electricity in China is state-owned, so... corruption. 80% of the mining rigs are there. Power plants there burn a lot dirty coal, with no filters (because those are electro-static and consume electricity).

Have you been there?

 

[SoNic67]

I grew up in a communist country. Worked there too. Visited others.
Don't need to see another one to know how is to live in one.

Eventually we raised up and shoot the leaders. Only to have the country taken over by the second echelon. Corruption always wins because greed is in the human nature, inherited from animals. Natural selection...

 

[damian246]

I grew up in a communist country. Worked there too. Visited others.
Don't need to see another one to know how is to live in one.

Eventually we raised up and shoot the leaders. Only to have the country taken over by the second echelon. Corruption always wins because greed is in the human nature, inherited from animals. Natural selection...

I agree on human nature but not on every country being similar.
Corruption is also endemic on western capitalism, every credit a state takes the organizers collect a fee.
With billions at stake a few millions each head (of State)

 

[moproblems99]

400 W * 4 hrs/d * 365.25 d/yr = 584.4 kWh/yr
584.4 kWh/yr * $0.1247/kWh (US average) = $72.87/yr for your average gaming computer with average gaming usage

Let's say the same computer is mining. We subtract 60w for the monitor rarely being used and 40w for the CPU because it's a GPU-centric coin...
300 W * 24 hrs/d * 365.25 d/y = 2,629.8 kWh/yr
2,629.8 kWh/yr * $0.1247/kWh = $327.56/yr for the same machine mining on GPU.

450% more power...and that's tipping the numbers in favor of mining.

That may be true but which one of those systems actually has a chance to pay for itself?

 

[R-T-B]

That may be true but which one of those systems actually has a chance to pay for itself?

Depends on whether the ram cartels jack up the price of ram again and if you bought the ram on the cheap.

I actually sold a rigs ram once for more than I paid. I could see that changing your somewhat rhetorical question.

 

[moproblems99]

I like what you did there but I don't see RAM paying for multiple GPUs any time soon, likely never.

 

[R-T-B]

I like what you did there but I don't see RAM paying for multiple GPUs any time soon, likely never.

I like to try to mess with peoples rhetorical statements, give me kudos for trying at least.

 

[moproblems99]

I'll give you kudos but I payout in Ether so I don't think the kudos are worth what they once were but I'll still offer.

 

[mouacyk]

How could this have been a good idea if it gets progressively more difficult to verify if a transaction is legitimate?

 

[hat]

How could this have been a good idea if it gets progressively more difficult to verify if a transaction is legitimate?

I think this is done to curb the very real possibility of a large number of miners jumping on the bandwagon, each receiving a large sum of whatevercoin... effectively making the coin in question worthless.

As such, "fake" difficulty like this means the payment network is more and more expensive to maintain the more people support it.

 

[damian246]

As such, "fake" difficulty like this means the payment network is more and more expensive to maintain the more people support it.

Basically that is how everything works. society, philosophical movements, companies even families. Larger they get more ......