Thank you very much! I am glad that my four weeks of pouring through data has yielded some decent results.
I wanted to show respect for your folks' time by researching to the point where I couldn't get a specific answer to what I was looking for. I appreciate your reply and your help!
I actually was looking into solar power. I am in the south, and get strong sun. So far, though, it seems that I am not south ENOUGH to have a solar installer nearby. With solar, the panels would be earning their keep more than if I were only running my lights, etc. off of them. If I can make that happen, I will most likely try an ASIC miner. I hear that the 10nm chips are in the pipleline, and would look to becoming an early adopter (if I can be lucky enough to get an order through!).
I was looking at this year's upcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday to assemble a new computer. I have built two previously. From your perspective, even if it were just "for fun," would it be worth putting together a smaller GPU rig with a maximum of four cards? I wouldn't even try for Bitcoin with it. So, it would be for altcoins only. Or, is the difficulty level so high now even with altcoins that I would never see enough to even partially pay back a rig with a hobbyist intention?
Thank you again for your help!