Bitcoin Forum

    When the human race collects solar power, the most effective way is to create a "solar flower" which is, simply put, a cleverly positioned cluster of solar panels that collect the most energy possible.
    What if, I were to make a small cluster of rigs that did the same but for bitcoins.
The summer has come along, and, being a student, I have a summer job and time on my hands.
Being knowledgeable in the building of computers, but not bitcoin mining, I turn to you. The BTC community, to help me make a set of rigs that are entirely cost efficient.

My idea is this: get a series of cheap but powerful, built rigs that mine for me and are powered off of the hot Texas summer sun.

So I need your help to create powerful but cheap machines.
What makes a powerful miner?
What do I need to have to effectively mine bitcoins?
How do I set these up to be powered by solar panels?

Please. I will figure out the solar part if you help me with the hardware build part. Then I will post to this thread the end result and hopefully improve our knowledge of the home made mining cluster.

You have a lot, lot, lot more googling to do before you post something like this. All the information about bitcoin is out there in the public domain as it has been since the start.

Your not mining BTC with vid cards,free power or not,even ASIC's will be & are hard pressed to make any return  :(

MAYBE mining altcoins can do a bit better,but even they will be over run very soon by large altcoin ASIC miners that are going to be shipped,maybe by august or September  :(

I don't see the problem. Obviously I made this forum post to create a pool of knowledge that I may or may not know. To learn. To say that there's more to read on google is like telling me there's more to read in the library. Obviously that's a true statement. I'm asking what people know and what they are willing to tell me. Let's get some helpful replies.

first off how much power can you supply.

 4 x 15 amp circuits?

 100 amp 120 volt

200 amp 220?

pick the number of watts you can produce and tell us what those watts will cost to produce.

here is a hint  to see if you can   make money.  your power cost is 5 cents an hour.

  this number makes up for the more efficient gear.  some of the best gear now does .7 watts a hash

the newest thing coming out will do .46 watts per hash.  that is the sp30 it is due in  aug.

right now the sp10 is .7 watts a hash


if you can give   100 amps at 120 volts  that is 12000 watts  which is 12000 x 75 % = 9000 watts

If you buy  some dragon miners they do 1th at  900- 1100 watts      

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=514758.0   this guy sells reliable gear.  buy 11 for   for   about 17000 usd  


  use your cheap power of 5 cents and hour  and you would turn a profit.

if you can not get way under 10 cents  an hour you need to re invent the asic chip to compete with the low power users.  Here is a hint the cheap power angle is easier to do then the better asic chip.

the problem is the goal posts have yet to stop moving.

whatever you come up with will be trumped in a matter of months by better tech.

20nm chips are already on their way, so you could start there but by the time youve got something set up, 14nm tech will render your effort redundant.

not trying to stop you from trying but its going to be difficult to keep up.

love the mental image of a solar flower btw, i have a couple of pre-order/kickstarter 500w panels i paid for in feb that will not even scratch the surface of what im using now... roughly 6kw.

and thats assuming they even ever arrive.

if you have the space/time/capital id suggest wind + solar flowers + the best chips/rigs you can find and an aggresive strategy to keep updated with the latest tech - best of luck and keep us informed on how it goes.

i love your enthusiasm, dont let the trollfags hold you down!!

this is true.   maybe he can find some super cheap solar/wind setup for his power.  The second tier rigs (ie affordable ones) look all the more better.

I have 4 s-1's down clocked and under volted  pulling 960 watts.   

 they hash at  630 gh.      that is 1.5 watts a hash   sucks compared to the sp10 at .7 watts on low power.

but I have my 960 watts at 7.8 cents. 


 well 560 watts at 3.5 cents and 400 watts at 14 cents.    this 7.8 watts is a big edge for me to roi.  the 4 s-1's were purchased for  910 usd in fiat terms. psu was paid for with earlier mining so all this translates to a profit.


So op this us what you can do power wise

Don't?

Buy BTC?

Did no one read what he actually posted? He wants to know how to MAKE miners. Make. As in chips.

There is one major problem with this idea. Solar energy's payback is over the course of years. Bitcoin mining hardware's return is over the period of several months before it becomes obsolete.

Even if you had a solar array that provided 10kW and had miners that efficiently used that power, it isn't going to generate enough income after 6 months to pay for the array and mining equipment. And after that 6 months, your BTC income is going to be virtually nil and you'll need another batch of more efficient miners and/or more solar panels to continue to generate significant income.

Mining is a losing battle for everyone, even hardware manufacturers, in the very near future unless there is some new groundbreaking technology that doesn't yet exist. Even moving to a process node of 14nm isn't hardly going to extend mining for much longer.

Don't!

Buy BTC.

Yes I did and I had this in  my post above:

 " Here is a hint the cheap power angle is easier to do then the better asic chip."




https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=641161.msg7158575#msg7158575


to add to my answer :

Enough free power or low cost power trumps chip efficiency .

 enough power at 4 cents a watt   makes  7 x  s-1 antminers running at

1.4th   2800 watts ($2.68 usd a day)

 better then a sp10   running 1.4 th at 1200 watts  and 11 cents a watt

 ($3.17 usd a day)

Found a cool calc  ;)

http://www.808.dk/?powercalc

The real problem with solar powered mining is that the sun only shines for 8hrs of direct sunlight per day.  ;)

You'll need a tonne of batteries.


1Th Miner @ 1GH/W = 1000W x 24hr = 24,000 watt-hours/12V = 2000AH = 20x100AH Marine Batteries. (about $2000 worth)

24,000 watt-hours/8hrs = 3000W solar array. (about $5000 worth, and assumes it's running 100% to spec)

so $7000 before other costs like invertors.

Mains electricity 1kWh = 15c x 24hrs x 365days = $1314pa (so about a 5 year breakeven risk)

... on his summer break.   ::)

 :D good work!

funniest post I've read since some time, please keep on debating this idea


*eagerly watching*

Actually, I mean building rigs. Cheap, efficient towers to stack somewhere and quietly mine away while I chill by the pool.

Why would you try and build rigs when you can buy the most efficient miner? Check my sig and you will be able to chill by the pool having a couple of towers of SP30 hashing for you.

Obviously, if someone knew how to make CHEAP but POWERFUL "rigs" that they could just leave running to make money while they sit quietly at the pool, they would not just give such information to you for free. 

Aren't they pretty expensive?

At 0.85$/GH they aren't. Show me a cheaper miner :)

Link?

It's in my signature. 5100$ divided to 6000Gh/s=0.85$/Gh/s

Oh come on, you're comparing an imaginary device that doesn't exist yet to current market prices?