Bitcoin Forum

Hello. New to mining and this forum. Would appreciate some help...

Got an Antminer S9 rig delivered today (December 2017) and the Bitmain APW3++ PSU.

I also borrowed an Antminer S7 from a friend together with his Bitmain APW3 PSU.

Both are brand new out of the box (for some reason my friend never bothered to hook up the S7 rig).

I placed a meter against the wall socket and turned the S9 machine on and the power draw goes up to 3100W. I thought I had a faulty S9 but when I tested the S7, I get the same result. Both rigs are consuming around 3100W EACH.  ???
 
On Youtube, I see videos of guys showing that the power consumption should be 1300W-1400W per rig. I am wondering why both my rigs are drawing so much power.

I tried swapping the PSUs around and no luck. It seems unlikely that I would be so "lucky" to get two faulty rigs.

I checked the meter against a standard 1100W heater and it gave me the correct reading so I do not believe the meter is faulty.

I am wondering is it because I am in Australia and we are using 240V? Any Aussies out there with the same issues?

What is this meter you're using?  If you halve the readings from the S9 and S7 it does come out to what would be expected...  ???

I am just using a cheap Arlec energy meter.

Just for clarity, I am not combining the S7 and S9 to get the 3100W reading.

Each of the rigs are consuming 3100W individually.

I plugged the S7 rig into the wall (with the meter). It consumes 3100W. I unplug the S7.

Then I plug the S9 rig into the wall (with the meter). The S9 rig also consumes 3100W.

These readings are vastly above what was advertised by Bitmain and they are vastly above what I see around on the Internet. So I am wondering whats going wrong...

You should try using a different meter, either same brand or different brand - also depending on the energy meter used - you could be using a meter that has different line voltage expected from your house and is measuring current. IE: If the meter expects a 240v circuit and reads 10 amps that would be close to that number.

FYI this is the meter I am using:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlec-energy-cost-electrical-meter_p4410270

When I ran the S9 rig alone, the reading I get from the meter was 3158.9Watts, 239 Volts, 13.2 Amps.

I checked the meter against a 1100W heater and it was accurate (i.e. 1100W, 240V, 4.6 Amps).

Is your line power 240v?

Well it's obviously wrong so it must be getting confused with noise coming from the PSU's when measuring a miner versus a straight resistive load from the heater.
That's weird!  If you have a O'scope handy it'd be interesting to look at the power going to the meter when measuring a miner and see what's going on.

Yes we have 240V in Australia. Sometimes I see it go down to 235V. Sometimes its 242V. Most of the time the meter reads 239-240V. I've tried moving the rigs to three other properties (all on 240V). I still get the same constant 3000-3100W usage by the rigs.

There is no way the machines are pulling that much power. They would have caught on fire well before they could channel all of that power into heat/hash.


You should get an amp clamp and do the math yourself rather than relying on a meter that doesnt sound too reliable.

thanks for everyones help. turns out it was a faulty meter i purchased. i went to an electrician with a proper meter and it drew the correct watts. case closed. thanks again.