Getting started

[Yaseen]

Hey there I'm a newbie and I was just wondering say I have 7  antminer S5 machines ...and free electricity would it be a worthy investment and how long would it take to pay off?

[Pro Gamers]

Ow come on you already answered your question, having a free electricity would be so profitable most specially designed for s5 miners.

[Yaseen]

Thank u I just wanted to confirm... I would also like to know if it is safe to buy used antminers? Or should I buy brand new?

[VirosaGITS]

Thank u I just wanted to confirm... I would also like to know if it is safe to buy used antminers? Or should I buy brand new?

I dont think you can buy brand new. If someone has been holding brand new miners on shelves, at the price they devalue, they are doing it wrong. The upside of buying used is, you know it work. In the ASIC business its not too bad. So their price is pretty much the same whether they are new or used.

If you could get all of them at 300USD each with actual free electricity then yeah. I just hope you have a good way to dissipate the heat.

[YuginKadoya]

With the number of S5 Machines you have it is possible to achieve your ROI with free electricity the only enemy here is
how to keep your Rigs cool, good luck in mining! 

[Nextgen]

Hey there I'm a newbie and I was just wondering say I have 7  antminer S5 machines ...and free electricity would it be a worthy investment and how long would it take to pay off?

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator
7 s5's would be around 8k ghs and its close to 2 coins monthly.

[notlist3d]

Hey there I'm a newbie and I was just wondering say I have 7  antminer S5 machines ...and free electricity would it be a worthy investment and how long would it take to pay off?

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator
7 s5's would be around 8k ghs and its close to 2 coins monthly.

I would use a calculator more like this : https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

It can take difficulty change into effect.   Coinwarz does not show difficulty change, so it's not really realistic.

[jonnybravo0311]

Another thing to consider: exactly how much free power can you access?  7 S5s will be approximately 4.1kW.  Standard US residential power is 120V/15A circuits - which translates to 1440W available for each circuit... at 2 S5s per circuit, you'd need 4 available to you.

Maybe you've got a a 240V/30A circuit available (like where a clothes dryer used to be plugged in), in which case you've got enough juice at 5760W.  Now you'd need to pick up a good PDU to plug those miners into.

If you're in an apartment, or dorm, or something else like that where electricity is included in your rent, chances are extremely slim that you're going to have access to enough power to drive those 7 S5s.

[jonnybravo0311]

3 per 15A breaker will trip.  If it's a 20A breaker, he'll be alright, but won't be able to run much of anything else on that same circuit.  Could probably run a decent LED TV and a lamp or two

[notlist3d]

3 per 15A breaker will trip.  If it's a 20A breaker, he'll be alright, but won't be able to run much of anything else on that same circuit.  Could probably run a decent LED TV and a lamp or two

You're right I just checked the S5 wattage it is higher than I had thought, if hes running 20amp he'll be fine, he could underclock the s5 to 500w each and run all 3 on a 15amp breaker and have ~200w to spare, this would give him led lights, clocks, and what not.

Good math on it.  Really depends on how much he has on that breaker. 

OP do you have access to the breaker box?   If so what amp does it say for the area your wanting to put it.  Also do you have any other items on that breaker?

[VirosaGITS]

3 per 15A breaker will trip.  If it's a 20A breaker, he'll be alright, but won't be able to run much of anything else on that same circuit.  Could probably run a decent LED TV and a lamp or two

You're right I just checked the S5 wattage it is higher than I had thought, if hes running 20amp he'll be fine, he could underclock the s5 to 500w each and run all 3 on a 15amp breaker and have ~200w to spare, this would give him led lights, clocks, and what not.

The 15A breaker are designed to run at less than 12A continuous you won't have 200w to spare you'll be 60-120watts over limit for "continuous load" = over 3 hours. It would then be very likely to trip over any little thing. If you're lucky it wont cause a fire, too. I have breakers who randomly tripped because they were at 13A~ A less sensitive breaker might of burnt out.

Proper power bar will tell you that the circuit is overloaded as well. If you have actual 120v you should limit yourself to 1400-1440. Many have less however, the range is 110v-120v.

[notlist3d]

3 per 15A breaker will trip.  If it's a 20A breaker, he'll be alright, but won't be able to run much of anything else on that same circuit.  Could probably run a decent LED TV and a lamp or two

You're right I just checked the S5 wattage it is higher than I had thought, if hes running 20amp he'll be fine, he could underclock the s5 to 500w each and run all 3 on a 15amp breaker and have ~200w to spare, this would give him led lights, clocks, and what not.

The 15A breaker are designed to run at less than 12A continuous you won't have 200w to spare you'll be 60-120watts over limit for "continuous load" = over 3 hours. It would then be very likely to trip over any little thing. If you're lucky it wont cause a fire, too. I have breakers who randomly tripped because they were at 13A~ A less sensitive breaker might of burnt out.

Proper power bar will tell you that the circuit is overloaded as well. If you have actual 120v you should limit yourself to 1400-1440. Many have less however, the range is 110v-120v.

I think we are over speculating on OP's living situations as a small unit with very few breakers, he may be able to push 2 units on 3 and 1 unit by itself.

I'm wondering apartment.  Lots of apartments are not really great on how much electricity you get as landlord likes cheap electricity bills if its' included in rent (most don't include in rent but some do).

Owning is nice it allows much more options.  Specifically  if you pan to have it with a plan plan you pick.   For me i have around 300 amps together for everything, 100 amps just for mining.  And no one can say no but the electricity company and they are happy to sell you as much as you can use.

[Amph]

it depend on how much you've payed for those 7 unit, if it is 1.5 btc x 7, then you have 10.5(le'ts say you payed 10 btc, just to have a rounded number)

7 of those can hash 0.066 btc a day if diff remain flat like the last time

[p0k3r]

Well, if you already have the miners and on top of that, you have the free electricity... Go for it you WILL make a profit.

[VirosaGITS]

3 per 15A breaker will trip.  If it's a 20A breaker, he'll be alright, but won't be able to run much of anything else on that same circuit.  Could probably run a decent LED TV and a lamp or two

You're right I just checked the S5 wattage it is higher than I had thought, if hes running 20amp he'll be fine, he could underclock the s5 to 500w each and run all 3 on a 15amp breaker and have ~200w to spare, this would give him led lights, clocks, and what not.

The 15A breaker are designed to run at less than 12A continuous you won't have 200w to spare you'll be 60-120watts over limit for "continuous load" = over 3 hours. It would then be very likely to trip over any little thing. If you're lucky it wont cause a fire, too. I have breakers who randomly tripped because they were at 13A~ A less sensitive breaker might of burnt out.

Proper power bar will tell you that the circuit is overloaded as well. If you have actual 120v you should limit yourself to 1400-1440. Many have less however, the range is 110v-120v.

I think we are over speculating on OP's living situations as a small unit with very few breakers, he may be able to push 2 units on 3 and 1 unit by itself.

I'm wondering apartment.  Lots of apartments are not really great on how much electricity you get as landlord likes cheap electricity bills if its' included in rent (most don't include in rent but some do).

Owning is nice it allows much more options.  Specifically  if you pan to have it with a plan plan you pick.   For me i have around 300 amps together for everything, 100 amps just for mining.  And no one can say no but the electricity company and they are happy to sell you as much as you can use.

I am indeed in a grey/weird area.
My lease however cover me and to be honest, i don't think they would care in the first place.

Having someone use double or triple the electricity in an arrangement of hundreds of apartments, while every single rent is 200-300$ over the area's average for a typical apartment is not really worth the man power required to police electricity usage when its damn dirt cheap and they don't even have individual meters for the the individual apartments.

Their interests is protected with the circuits only supporting 50-75A continuous at 120v.

So i think my situation is ideal if you want to run a couples of obsolete miners, partly for warming up during the cold times. But its not like you can ramp it up and start your dedicated hosting service datacenter-style in your living room.

[QuintLeo]

they don't even have individual meters for the the individual apartments.

 Are you in the USA?
 If so, check with your state Utility Regulatory Board - that sort of arrangement is illegal in at least one state, though it is also specifically legal in at least one other state.

 In any event, unless your rental contract specifies some sort of specific applicable limits or conditions (I had an apartment once that stated I would pay $25/month more if I had an A/C unit), the landlord has ZERO legal standing for trying to charge you if you use the maximal electric available to your appartment.



 The odd thing is that I've NEVER seen a large apartment building anywhere in the USA that didn't have individual meters somewhere, just small "house converted to apartment" type places.

[notlist3d]

they don't even have individual meters for the the individual apartments.

 Are you in the USA?
 If so, check with your state Utility Regulatory Board - that sort of arrangement is illegal in at least one state, though it is also specifically legal in at least one other state.

 In any event, unless your rental contract specifies some sort of specific applicable limits or conditions (I had an apartment once that stated I would pay $25/month more if I had an A/C unit), the landlord has ZERO legal standing for trying to charge you if you use the maximal electric available to your appartment.



 The odd thing is that I've NEVER seen a large apartment building anywhere in the USA that didn't have individual meters somewhere, just small "house converted to apartment" type places.

There has to be a way to make it legal.  I lived in student housing and they had a max electricity charge for me and 3 roommates. It was 25 each.  Even if we used more then max it could not go over this amount. 

But we only got like a few bucks a month during heavy ac usage or heat usage.  But I signed an agreement to it and i was a big corporation that owned student housing buildings so there has to be some way they can  come up with these numbers and still is legal.