Bitcoin Forum

Hi all

Its possible to mining with a solar energy?
maybe buy a device who support 12v and plug in the electricity in this adapter and mining with free electricity?

anyone try this?

If you have to buy something to generate electricity, then it is not free.

But, yes, it is possible to power miners with solar energy.

Probably your best option is to use a Raspberry Pi with some USB miners but don't expect to earn much.

Keep in mind that if you want to operate the miners during the night you will need batteries(and a charger).
The more you drain the batteries the shorter their lifespan will be.

Calculate your ROI very carefully and if you do setup a large installation make sure it is insured.

I heard that at the current bitcoin price (~220 USD) it is better to sell solar energy directly to grid than mining bitcoin with it.

It's very likely. Entering BTC mining seriously now probably requires 5-digit investments - sure, there are the small miners but I'm not quite sure on how much they ROI.

It is really cost-ineffective to power altcoin miners with 12v. The biggest solar grade PSU I've had my hands on (I touched it physically) was 300W and costed more than a few 850W ATX PSUs from a well known brand. They just don't scale up.

OP better run out and find some small river; micro-hydro kicks butt. Again, you'll probably be better off selling the energy.

Again I could be wrong.  But the two post are 100 percent the same words, nothing changed with you and other person.

And I don't know if the site your using is really a good 3rd party.  What makes them a good party to judge site?  On a scale to 100 percent they gave them currently a "101.17".  So makes me question how they possibly come up with this percentage as it's over the max.

If your PV station is connected to the grid and your electric power company offers you 'net metering' then probably it can be profitable to mine coins.
In this case you only need the panels and an inverter.

I recall that Maidak was going to setup something like this. No one was really interested in it. They were worried about liability and whether the fact it'd be sunny all the time.

Well at least where I live the sun is out for 13 hours of the 24.  Suppose you could gather moonlight.  For a small setup it would be possible but your least initial investment would be near 1k to do it right.

CMW is a blatant ponzi with an army of shill accounts promoting it.

Of the few actual customers they have, several are reporting payouts that are ~5% of what they should be and these shills suggest buying new contracts because the "new rates" are so much better/more profitable.

CMW is one of the most half assed ponzis I've seen. Stay far away from it.

WoW !!! Is it really possible to mine at moonlight ?

No it isn't! We could just as well pretend to run a double-pair spontaneous-laser-quantum-entangled cell powering quantum computers and rule the whole network for free. Or just to get rich overnight while getting in bed with the hottest movie star of your choice AND finding a cure for cancer.

I worked with a guy who used solar power to run his miners.  I never saw his setup, but he used to rave about it.  I'd be interested myself but I think the cost would be prohibitive.

If you are an alternative energy enthusiast then it will be fun.
At the current Bitcoin price level it is very hard to make a profit even with zero cost electricity. How is that possible? Depreciation of mining equipment.
If you add to your equipment cost the photovoltaic panels, charger, batteries, and an inverter probably you will never break even.
Keep in mind that machines do fail, and add the maintenance cost.
In the ideal case where you don't draw any current from the batteries you will have to replace the batteries within 3-10 years (depending on battery quality, charger)
If you already have an autonomous system installed and even if your charger is dumping energy during peak hours I would still not run miners on it.
Turning on and off your machines is not the best thing to do.

Also, it tends to be warm when the sun is up which means that you will probably need air conditioning otherwise make sure you have stock of at least electrolytic capacitors.

On the positive side now, if you are connected to the grid and your electric company allows net metering then go for it!

But I read somewhere that it costs ~40 USD per bitcoin for large miners due to mass production and hence lower maintenance cost per unit. I dont think none of the large bitcoin firms would have run unless they made profit. Both Cex.io & KNC cloud are closed for customers, but they are mining on their own. Is not it obvious that they are mining because they are making profit ?

Depending on their respective tax laws any business can mine to maintain a hold and a steady rate of coin while using a loss as a deduction in consideration of other business ventures.
Diversity is key.

It's hard to tell on cost's as most don't share this information.  It is somethig that a company really does not have any advantage to release information if they are mining thierself.

And yes some of the big hardware companies, and some big data centers are making money.  There is no doubt as they continue to mine, even at this lower level of price.    Home miners still can pull a profit to, but you have to mine smart.  You might be underclocking more, and doing lots of math.

And as far as thread mining with solar just does not add up.  There is so much up front costs, a company is better off getting cheap electricity then installing ton's of solar equipment.  It's just a cost vs amount of time to get a ROI on solar.

Depends on the "Generating Cost" of the utility your trying to sell it to, as what they pay. 

I mine with solar energy. Works well for me. Lifecycle cost should be around 4.5cents per kwh where I live.

When you say you mine with it how many watts are you getting from solar?

If you don't mind me asking what did it cost for install, and what is your normal electricity price?

I have 20,000 watts (20kw) of solar power online currently. I'm bringing another 20kw online in the next 2 months (already installed the panels just need to hook up the inverters) and another 60kw over the next 12 months. My cost per kw installed is about $1.5/watt for grid connected solar system after all the state and federal incentives. Cost of electricity in my area is about 16cents/kwh

How much kWh do you get per year out of the 20kW? (Or how much do you expect)

I envy your set up would be very nice to mine with solar.

I just cannot commit to the ROI of it.  30,000ish is a heck of a upfront cost.  Assuming you had 10 cent /Kwh and at 20k watts you spend 1440 a month on electricity.  Your spending around 20 months of electricity all at once.   But I can see your side you will have a heck of a solar setup in the end.

Batteries or just 12 hours of mining a day or supplemental of grid tied system?

Conservatively I expect about 24,000 kwh/yr out of the 20kw system in my area.

It's a grid tied system, so I have no trouble mining 24/7. But I do have a battery back up unit as well (although I don't include the battery back up in my cost analyses because it's optional and just in case shtf).

YES and it can ROI PV panels in less than 8 years at price of USD 0.1/kWh. Mining at solar energy must be backed by either battery or grid electricity. Your PV panels can be directly connected to miners (grid PSU also) and voltage of PV controller should be few mV higher than grid PSU, so all energy from PV will be used to power miners even at cloudy, the rest will be backed by grid.

This model keeps your miners stable voltage and running smoothly, but when used with "string design" miners like Antminer S5 or S4+, it needs additional DC-DC convertor. By the way, this model reduces investment by missing expensive grid invertor.

Can you please tell me what system are using (sollar panels, accu and other tehnical). I'm interested in building my system. Thank you!

I used all grade A tier 1 solar products on my system. You can save money in the short term by going with used or lower quality products or products that have less or no warranty. 
The inverters are manufactured by SMA are UL listed and come with a 10 year manufacturers warranty that can be extended to 20 years.
The solar panels, I'm using a bunch of different brands with wattages between 230watts per panel and 400watts per panel. But they are all UL listed and come with a manufacturers warranty of at least 20years.
For the solar mounting rack I used 2 different types a 1)custom rack I designed 20 years ago and 2)unirac   
The rest of the components are mostly standard off the shelf components available at your local electrical store.

I have been looking at doing mining with solar.

You can get 1500W solar panels for about $2000 direct from china, perhaps even cheaper. From memory they can run about 800W 24 hours, from 12 hours of sun light.

They are big too, thats 6 foot by 3 foot i believe, it would be sitting in your back yard taking a bit of room. If you had enough room, you could setup 20 or 100 of these, i bet you could get them cheaper if you buy in bulk from china.

And you might make more money selling the electricity, but mining gives you the op to earn alot more in the future if bitcoin and altcoins really take off.

I think its possible to get a good ROI, but expensive to start.

I am going to buy a 60w or 300W solar panel just for fun and stick a rasperry PI on it with a few USB miners or something to mine altcoins, not expecting a ROI but just for fun it will be cool, you can get them from china for about 100 bucks or less.

Yes I can get you solar panels for about $1/watt including shipping here in N. America, with at least a 20 year manufacturers warranty. The 1500watt modules are a bit bigger than most people can comfortably carry. 180watts to 400watts is what most prefer, for ease of handling.

Edit: Forgot to mention that you can buy the solar panels with bitcoin