I wanted to say that you can do mining essentially in 2 ways (but with (*) bonus)
1) Do it using your normal PC (that you use for everything else), so on the single GPU you have inside
1*) if possible, you can put more GPUs in your desktop just for mining
2) Get a - how I called it - purpose-built mining rig. I mean: a separate desktop that's only purpose is to run mining 24/7.
So (1) is pretty straightforward - your only cost is electricity and faster hardware wear (I'm putting extra heat and noise aside).
(1*) is just like (1), but you're actually investing money into GPUs - now it's not just simple making extra cash by leaving your PC on - you have to think about ROI and so on.
However, (2) is a big commitment, because it takes a lot of space, produces a lot of heat and noise. Also the maintenance complications are much higher.
So what I meant is: I don't find (2) to be attractive at all in my case. I don't have time to worry about these rigs, I don't have a place to keep them (I live in a flat). And that's despite the fact that I'm in PL, so electricity is pretty cheap and - more importantly - the relative value of 1 EUR for me could be 4x more than for you in DE.
Mine is 19 pence per k/h which is 0.22 Euro or 25 cents
That is quite a lot, to be honest. Did prices go up in UK compared to 2016 or maybe you have a relatively expensive supplier?
Once again, according to EUROSTAT data (
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Electricity_price_statistics) for UK one kWh had costed (mid-year prices in GBP):
2014: 0,160
2015: 0,152
2016: 0,151
Now let's forget the 02/20 cents or whatever it is
Those are free hardware, where i work ( Airport ) we get a shopping card and every year we get 1500€ bonus, but you cant withdraw that money you can just buy in some stores, local and online.
I don't get the math behind some of your posts.
Electricity cost is one of the more severe in coin mining (especially for those not very limited by space). Depending on card efficiency and electricity price it will consume a lot of mining revenue. For a GTX1060 in US that could be as low as 10% (but still a lot of money). For an RX580 in UK (based on price mentioned by
@CAPSLOCKSTUCK ) it would be around 30%.
And that's just the GPU - the rest of the rig also draws power. And then there's the PSU efficiency...
I'm sorry to say, but, since Germany has one of the highest electricity prices in Europe, it is quite possible that electricity cost will consume even as much as 50% of your mining inflows.
But even more importantly: how can you say that this is "free hardware"?! You get part of your salary in a form of a voucher. This is real money. You've spent it on PC stuff, so you can't buy something else.
This is exactly what I'm afraid of when listening to some coin mining "adventures". People don't consider electricity costs at all ("I pay high bills anyway"), they don't analyze GPU amortization and they don't control the actual result on this investment.
What I mean is: if someone is putting all of his mining revenue into getting more mining hardware (which seems to be a very popular approach), he's not making ANY money at all. In financial terms he's just increasing equity (the value of his "company"). When mining boom stops (GPUs stop being profitable) he'll be left with a huge
Insolvenzmasse with very low value (as we know that used GPUs will become very cheap). And of course he'll also have a huge electricity bill to pay.
