Bitcoin as a Solar Battery

[BitUsher]

Bitcoin as a Solar Battery

Essentially, you would purchase enough solar panels to provide energy during the day, with an excess of energy used to mine btc and than use bitcoin profits to purchase electricity(grid based) or fuel for energy use at night. This would reduce the need of 20+ batteries to 1-2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-kjz2wkoE

I could see this could work in certain circumstances when you are forced offgrid or cannot sell electricity back to the grid.

Some general considerations to consider...

Does periodically replacing deep cycle batteries exceed the cost of periodically purchasing more efficient ASICs?
How many people run their ASICs directly from a charge controller instead of transforming it to AC and back?

[1713480909]

1713480909

[Kozlov]

Bitcoin as a Solar Battery

Essentially, you would purchase enough solar panels to provide energy during the day, with an excess of energy used to mine btc and than use bitcoin profits to purchase electricity(grid based) or fuel for energy use at night. This would reduce the need of 20+ batteries to 1-2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-kjz2wkoE

I could see this could work in certain circumstances when you are forced offgrid or cannot sell electricity back to the grid.

Some general considerations to consider...

Does periodically replacing deep cycle batteries exceed the cost of periodically purchasing more efficient ASICs?
How many people run their ASICs directly from a charge controller instead of transforming it to AC and back?

Solar is a brilliant idea. If I were to ever go off the grid, I would bring some miners with me! Solar energy is ultimately the way forward, unless we look to geothermal options, we will never find an energy source that's as effiencient.

I'd like to hear from some of the users on this too. How much are the batteries you've seen?

[BitUsher]

I'd like to hear from some of the users on this too. How much are the batteries you've seen?

Batteries come in all sizes and prices... but good solar deep cycle batteries go for around 600 a piece and will last between 3-12 years depending upon usage. This means that you would need to spend 6000 to 12k every 3-12 years on batteries .

[torepia]

This idea is quite genious, or fun at least! ^^

I'm building a gapahauk (small outdoor cabin) thats gonna be heated by an asic, powered by solar. The thing is, I'm going to use batteries tho
Or am I.. hmm.

[BitUsher]

This idea is quite genious, or fun at least! ^^

I'm building a gapahauk (small outdoor cabin) thats gonna be heated by an asic, powered by solar. The thing is, I'm going to use batteries tho
Or am I.. hmm.

ASICs quickly depreciate in value so one would want to run them 24-7 thus removing the principle benefits in off the grid solutions. You wouldn't want to discharge your batteries nightly with ASICs as this would force your to replace the batteries within 3 years or less as well. This idea could still be very beneficial in applications where a home is grid tied but the utility company refuses to buy back the electricity or with microhydro setups instead of solar where energy can be produced all day.

[torepia]

This idea is quite genious, or fun at least! ^^

I'm building a gapahauk (small outdoor cabin) thats gonna be heated by an asic, powered by solar. The thing is, I'm going to use batteries tho
Or am I.. hmm.

ASICs quickly depreciate in value so one would want to run them 24-7 thus removing the principle benefits in off the grid solutions. You wouldn't want to discharge your batteries nightly with ASICs as this would force your to replace the batteries within 3 years or less as well. This idea could still be very beneficial in applications where a home is grid tied but the utility company refuses to buy back the electricity or with microhydro setups instead of solar where energy can be produced all day.

As for the video, you could run them on-grid when the sun is down. Basically buying electricity with the coins you mined "for free" during the day. But yeah, it's pretty much always better to run them 24/7 on the grid.
But, if your into earning money, you wouldn't be mining in the first place, you would buy the coins.

[Kozlov]

This idea is quite genious, or fun at least! ^^

I'm building a gapahauk (small outdoor cabin) thats gonna be heated by an asic, powered by solar. The thing is, I'm going to use batteries tho
Or am I.. hmm.

ASICs quickly depreciate in value so one would want to run them 24-7 thus removing the principle benefits in off the grid solutions. You wouldn't want to discharge your batteries nightly with ASICs as this would force your to replace the batteries within 3 years or less as well. This idea could still be very beneficial in applications where a home is grid tied but the utility company refuses to buy back the electricity or with microhydro setups instead of solar where energy can be produced all day.

But solar batteries don't, so if you reinvested in solar panels and added a few extra miners at a time you could technically find a nice stable middleground. Even running a 50/50 setup where you were half solar/half powered would be much more effiecient. I'm sure hybrid possibilities are actually quite profitable.

[BitUsher]

As for the video, you could run them on-grid when the sun is down. Basically buying electricity with the coins you mined "for free" during the day. But yeah, it's pretty much always better to run them 24/7 on the grid.
But, if your into earning money, you wouldn't be mining in the first place, you would buy the coins.

True, but there are possibilities of making more money here by mining if you are going to invest in Solar panels anyways as you can eliminate much of the cost of batteries and the ongoing maintenance associated with them. If you have the cash Solar panels will eventually give a ROI and produce profit as well.

I would still suggest that people look towards efficiency (insulation, LED lights , ect...) before even considering buying one solar panel.

[BitUsher]

But solar batteries don't, so if you reinvested in solar panels and added a few extra miners at a time you could technically find a nice stable middleground. Even running a 50/50 setup where you were half solar/half powered would be much more effiecient. I'm sure hybrid possibilities are actually quite profitable.

I would advise against a 50/50 setup as the cost savings come from the reduction in sunk costs of deep cycle batteries and their ongoing maintenance/replacement. The idea here is to eliminate the need for most of the batteries(1-2 would remain for power outages) and use the ASIC's as a "battery"(BTC earned would buy night electricity) from excess electrical production during the day. Thus you would want to produce 120-200% of your daytime electrical use.

[flikflak]

Those CALBs are pretty good. Of course you need a balancer for the LiFePo4's, but if you have enough batteries and therefore no deep cycles, you can run them up to 10'000 cycles.

[Kozlov]

But solar batteries don't, so if you reinvested in solar panels and added a few extra miners at a time you could technically find a nice stable middleground. Even running a 50/50 setup where you were half solar/half powered would be much more effiecient. I'm sure hybrid possibilities are actually quite profitable.

I would advise against a 50/50 setup as the cost savings come from the reduction in sunk costs of deep cycle batteries and their ongoing maintenance/replacement. The idea here is to eliminate the need for most of the batteries(1-2 would remain for power outages) and use the ASIC's as a "battery"(BTC earned would buy night electricity) from excess electrical production during the day. Thus you would want to produce 120-200% of your daytime electrical use.

So what would suit? I think 50/50 would work quite well on a summer day, or even 75% solar, 25% mains. I don't think the efficiency would be that reduced.

I'm not super good at maths, but I hear photovoltaics are becoming much more effiencient as time goes by. I think a Bitcoin early adopter should invest in solar powered ASIC PSUs.

[torepia]

200W solar panel = 1x0.8 meters. You need a lot of area to power a few miners, just saying!
Solar are generally a great investment tho, especially if you can sell the excess power back to the grid.
It takes about 15 years to ROI a solar install, depending on size, they last about 25 years.
Gives you 10 years of passive income/free power, where you can re-invest in more solar! #TheDream

[notlist3d]

200W solar panel = 1x0.8 meters. You need a lot of area to power a few miners, just saying!
Solar are generally a great investment tho, especially if you can sell the excess power back to the grid.
It takes about 15 years to ROI a solar install, depending on size, they last about 25 years.
Gives you 10 years of passive income/free power, where you can re-invest in more solar! #TheDream

That is the thing is it's a LONG term investment on solar.  Bitcoin miners are more short term to a point at least compared to solar.

And the thing is whall you wait those long years for the solar to ROI you will be behind the ones with cheap electricity.  You really just cannot compete against the cheap eletricity.  They will ROI many times over whall you are still working on solar to ROI.  It just does not work out as much as I wish solar did.

[RichBC]

The original Video proposal of a Solar Powered Miner, generating BTC during the Day & then spending the BTC during the Night in place of a battery for storage is a terrific idea...

Fortunately the Guy that made the Video is very honest about the flaws in the proposal so I wont repeat them here, but you have got to admire the thought process. If only the Sun would shine most of the Day (I am in the UK...) there was no difficulty change or halving and the BTC Dollar exchange remained constant it might even add up.....


Rich

[QuintLeo]

Solar cells degrade over time though - but IIRC they commonly don't lose more than a couple percent of their capasity a year.
20 years seems to be a common "write-off" timeframe for them, but that might be fueled in part by increasing efficiency as the technology gets better.

[notlist3d]

Solar cells degrade over time though - but IIRC they commonly don't lose more than a couple percent of their capasity a year.
20 years seems to be a common "write-off" timeframe for them, but that might be fueled in part by increasing efficiency as the technology gets better.

That seems pretty bad are they still usable after 20 years?  With such a investment long term I would really want to milk them for as long as possible.  If they lose a few percent per year that sounds not so good on a already long term investment.

I still think cheap electricity will always win out.  Does not matter what it's up against.

[RichBC]

Solar cells degrade over time though - but IIRC they commonly don't lose more than a couple percent of their capasity a year.
20 years seems to be a common "write-off" timeframe for them, but that might be fueled in part by increasing efficiency as the technology gets better.

That seems pretty bad are they still usable after 20 years?  With such a investment long term I would really want to milk them for as long as possible.  If they lose a few percent per year that sounds not so good on a already long term investment.

I still think cheap electricity will always win out.  Does not matter what it's up against.

Warranty on a panel is typically for 80% output after 20 or 25 Years. However it is normal for panels to loose about 5% in the first 12 Months. They are an ok investment particularly if you can benefit from a generous Feed In Tariff. In the UK there is a massive cut in the Tariff coming in January from 12.47p to 1.63p. There are going to be lot of out of work Solar Installers....

Rich