I have free solar energy - well, "free" except for opportunity cost

[NCDiesel]

Back story on why I have free power below if anyone cares.

So.....

I thought about mining to chew on the free electrons.    The building is probably more of an issue.  Well built, well sealed and concrete floors but has two garage doors and is not air conditioned.  Temps range widely though rarely gets above 80F or colder than 34F.  Humidity is reasonable in the summer but probably not ideal.  I even have a small 220 plug available.  No wiring required.  Seems to me I can make a little money mining since the power is free; even if the currency rate of BTC drops  a good bit.   Reasonable assumption?

So my assumptions:


Machine recommendation?   Research seems to guide me to Antminer S9
For the S9 - is my power calcuation right?  1,000KwH per month it seems like to me?
Does my building sound OK?
Best bitcoin profit calculator on the web?   Seems like the calculation is based on some assumptions so I imagine some sites make better assumptions than others.
Longevity of these machines?  The investment only works if they can be counted on to run for more than 2 years.  Any longevity feedback?
My timing seems to suck:  It seems the high price of bitcoin has new S9s on Amazon triple the price on the bitmain page.   Better to wait for a new batch?

Thanks in advance!!!

Back story:  I have a 5KW solar array that generates around 5500KWH per year.  I was a small scale producer and sold the electrons and pollution credits to the power company, but recently was forced to migrate (don't get me started on the politicians that changed the rules and the power company policies that took advantage of them even when they were not required to   ).  So anyways, now I am on net metering:  All of this in a building that only runs an occasional power tool and some lights.  So I am racking up hundreds of KW hours of credits every month I have to use or lose.   My guess is 5,000KWH of energy credits yearly will get thrown away if I don't use them.

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[alh]

Do you also have ready and reliable Internet access? If not then you are pretty much out of luck for any crypto currency mining.

[NCDiesel]

Do you also have ready and reliable Internet access? If not then you are pretty much out of luck for any crypto currency mining.

Yep - forgot to mention that.   I have do solid, broadband internet access at the shop. (wireless too)

PS:  Do most miners use wireless or would I need to run a cable across the spot I plan to install it?

[alh]

Most miners that I am aware of have an Ethernet jack, and expect "wired" access. There are a variety of ways to finesse that, but I don't think any current miners have WiFi built-in.

[NCDiesel]

Most miners that I am aware of have an Ethernet jack, and expect "wired" access. There are a variety of ways to finesse that, but I don't think any current miners have WiFi built-in.

Good to know, thanks.  Running the wire isn't a problem and I have an extra port available in the NAT/ROUTER/Wireless AP

[aquapanic]

The method that I've been using to hook up wireless miners is 30$ wireless bridges. They are fairly simple to set up - HOME STANDARD WIRELESS ROUTERS WILL NOT WORK they do not support wireless bridging modes.

[NCDiesel]

The method that I've been using to hook up wireless miners is 30$ wireless bridges. They are fairly simple to set up - HOME STANDARD WIRELESS ROUTERS WILL NOT WORK they do not support wireless bridging modes.

Thanks - that is actually good to know and very helpful to us new folks.   Fortunately mine is capable (Buffalo).  I know this because the shop is connected to another building that has the hard line to the world.  The shop connects to that building's wireless router via wireless client bridging

[aquapanic]

The method that I've been using to hook up wireless miners is 30$ wireless bridges. They are fairly simple to set up - HOME STANDARD WIRELESS ROUTERS WILL NOT WORK they do not support wireless bridging modes.

Thanks - that is actually good to know and very helpful to us new folks.   Fortunately mine is capable (Buffalo).  I know this because the shop is connected to another building that has the hard line to the world.  The shop connects to that building's wireless router via wireless client bridging

I learned that lesson when I was trying to hook my two miners up in my hallway, no ethernet to be found - but I *did* have power.
There are some cheap wireless-to-ethernet dongles that support bridging modes for travel use or for making wired printers wireless. Went through about 2 routers in my box-o-network-gear before I found it. Now I'm ordering about 5 for when my ASICs come. Reliability is going to be lower (always want wires) - but sometimes physical space fights against us.

[NiHaoMike]

The method that I've been using to hook up wireless miners is 30$ wireless bridges. They are fairly simple to set up - HOME STANDARD WIRELESS ROUTERS WILL NOT WORK they do not support wireless bridging modes.

Any router that supports DD-WRT will support client mode.

[aquapanic]

The method that I've been using to hook up wireless miners is 30$ wireless bridges. They are fairly simple to set up - HOME STANDARD WIRELESS ROUTERS WILL NOT WORK they do not support wireless bridging modes.

Any router that supports DD-WRT will support client mode.

I honestly totally forgot about DD-WRT firmware and OpenWRT. You just saved my thirty bucks on my next rigs.

[rockie2000]

In the mean time, you can try to grab old power supplies and GPUs at throwing price and try to mine some BTC while waiting for the ASICs...

[coolcoinz]

In the mean time, you can try to grab old power supplies and GPUs at throwing price and try to mine some BTC while waiting for the ASICs...

You want him to mine BTC with GPUs? Are you crazy?

I'd focus on mining altcoins. GPUs are a good idea because if you change your mind you won't have trouble selling them on ebay or amazon.
Don't buy a large quantity, make one rig for starters and see how it goes, what the temperatures will be and so on. It might be possible to run everything without AC just on circulation.

[NCDiesel]

In the mean time, you can try to grab old power supplies and GPUs at throwing price and try to mine some BTC while waiting for the ASICs...

You want him to mine BTC with GPUs? Are you crazy?

I'd focus on mining altcoins. GPUs are a good idea because if you change your mind you won't have trouble selling them on ebay or amazon.
Don't buy a large quantity, make one rig for starters and see how it goes, what the temperatures will be and so on. It might be possible to run everything without AC just on circulation.

Thanks for all the thoughts and replies.   Couple of questions:

Can you install multiple cards in a single system?
Ethereum?  Monero?  What altcoin would you do on a GPU?

I had ruled out GPUs because I don't have a PC chassis - just a laptop - to my name.   So by the time I am done buying a halfway decent used chassis with a good power supply and an operating system I figured I was pretty close, money wise, to an ASIC miner like the Avalon.   But now that I learned ASIC hardware will be not available for months, maybe I'll revisit that.



Thanks in advance,

[xIIImaL]

In the mean time, you can try to grab old power supplies and GPUs at throwing price and try to mine some BTC while waiting for the ASICs...

You want him to mine BTC with GPUs? Are you crazy?

I'd focus on mining altcoins. GPUs are a good idea because if you change your mind you won't have trouble selling them on ebay or amazon.
Don't buy a large quantity, make one rig for starters and see how it goes, what the temperatures will be and so on. It might be possible to run everything without AC just on circulation.

Thanks for all the thoughts and replies.   Couple of questions:

Can you install multiple cards in a single system?
Ethereum?  Monero?  What altcoin would you do on a GPU?

I had ruled out GPUs because I don't have a PC chassis - just a laptop - to my name.   So by the time I am done buying a halfway decent used chassis with a good power supply and an operating system I figured I was pretty close, money wise, to an ASIC miner like the Avalon.   But now that I learned ASIC hardware will be not available for months, maybe I'll revisit that.



Thanks in advance,

GPU mining would not be option for anyone since you will not able to get the better profit like ASIC miner. If the electricity cost is higher means also some USB miner and lower end ASIC miners will not be good if electricity consumption in your location is pretty high.
I understand you will not be able to get the higher miners for some months due to sites are not providing production and delivery from bitmain.
Doing mining using PC will not be effective to get the profit but that will be provide for the experience alone.

[aquapanic]

In the mean time, you can try to grab old power supplies and GPUs at throwing price and try to mine some BTC while waiting for the ASICs...

You want him to mine BTC with GPUs? Are you crazy?

I'd focus on mining altcoins. GPUs are a good idea because if you change your mind you won't have trouble selling them on ebay or amazon.
Don't buy a large quantity, make one rig for starters and see how it goes, what the temperatures will be and so on. It might be possible to run everything without AC just on circulation.

Thanks for all the thoughts and replies.   Couple of questions:

Can you install multiple cards in a single system?
Ethereum?  Monero?  What altcoin would you do on a GPU?

I had ruled out GPUs because I don't have a PC chassis - just a laptop - to my name.   So by the time I am done buying a halfway decent used chassis with a good power supply and an operating system I figured I was pretty close, money wise, to an ASIC miner like the Avalon.   But now that I learned ASIC hardware will be not available for months, maybe I'll revisit that.



Thanks in advance,

GPU mining would not be option for anyone since you will not able to get the better profit like ASIC miner. If the electricity cost is higher means also some USB miner and lower end ASIC miners will not be good if electricity consumption in your location is pretty high.
I understand you will not be able to get the higher miners for some months due to sites are not providing production and delivery from bitmain.
Doing mining using PC will not be effective to get the profit but that will be provide for the experience alone.

GPUS are still profitable - the real question is for how much longer. I'm keeping them running on ROI'd rigs. I'll even run them at a loss because I believe in Eth as a coin. If Vitalik figures his stuff out it could legitimately replace bitcoin as a Medium of Exchange (store of value....maaaaaaybe not, it isn't designed that way). If you can run them for like a month or two and still sell for decent prices to the bigger farms it might be worth, or if you're prepping for a move to a bigger space with cheaper power.

[Miningstore]

Making everything easier, I would just invest into ASIC miners. The resale value isn't there if you can't use it to mine anymore, but that won't be an issue for years. Also the return on investment for ASIC miners, if you can get them at list price, is 2-3 months, which is insane. Here's a short list of ASIC miners and how much they make a month compared to Miningstore.co's GPU miners:
Antminer S9: $262.32 (BTC)
Antminer T9: $203.87 (BTC)
Antminer R4: $163.71 (BTC)
Antminer S7: $16.92 (BTC)
Antminer U3: $-3.73 (BTC)
Antminer C1: $-41.93 (BTC)
Antminer D3: $2,177.31 (DASH)
Antminer L3+: $510.57 (LTC)

Miningstore Imperium: $229.41 (ETH)
Miningstore Nexus: $195.55 (ETH)

Income Rates set for the market prices at 11:05 EST 9/19/17

[aquapanic]

Email sent. Your ROI is also fantastic because your power is "free" (as in you're already paying for it whether you're using it or not) so as long as you don't want to scale operations you should be able to mine them until they're mining dust.