New 10 KW Solar Mining Project

[Longhorn901]

Time for a new Solar Mining Project!
I have 10 KW worth of solar panels on the way.
For this one I think the direction I want to go is with one of the grid backup Inverters, not grid tied, only grid backup.
It will be like a UPS only using the grid as the battery.
There will be a small battery bank just to make things smother during switch overs.

For the most part this system will only mine during the day but will have the option to mine on grid power if there is a reason to, like ETH now...

The way it looks the profit will be higher only mining 6 - 8 hrs on solar vs 24/7 on grid power at my $.10/KWh but obviously less coins.

What do you guys think?
Will it be viable in the long run?

[1714996188]

1714996188

[1714996188]

1714996188

[1714996188]

1714996188

[1714996188]

1714996188

[1714996188]

1714996188

[JayDDee]

I don't understand the obsession with mining using solar power. To me it's the worst
combination because efficient mining requires reliable power 24/7.

I would look at it from a different point of view. How can I best use the solar power in real time?
Can I use it all in real time? How can I schedule my power use to maximize the use of solar and minimize
the use of grid?

Everything you offload from the grid reduces your mining costs.

[Longhorn901]

I don't understand the obsession with mining using solar power. To me it's the worst
combination because efficient mining requires reliable power 24/7.

I would look at it from a different point of view. How can I best use the solar power in real time?
Can I use it all in real time? How can I schedule my power use to maximize the use of solar and minimize
the use of grid?

Everything you offload from the grid reduces your mining costs.

Why do you say efficient mining requires 24/7 power? If you are only trying to maximize coin output then I agree.
However you also need cheap power to make that work, I don't have cheep power available here so that strategy doesn't work for me.
I might be wrong in the way I look at this but I think efficient mining equals generating coins at the lowest possible energy usage.

If you are only concerned in lowering your electric cost from the power company then the way to go would be a properly sized grid tie system.
You will have 24/7 power available and when you have sun most of the power will be supplied by solar.
That is the lowest cost system if you want to run 24/7.

[deskless]

I am curious to know how much solar panels do we need to get 10kwh ?

[JayDDee]

Why do you say efficient mining requires 24/7 power? If you are only trying to maximize coin output then I agree.
However you also need cheap power to make that work, I don't have cheep power available here so that strategy doesn't work for me.
I might be wrong in the way I look at this but I think efficient mining equals generating coins at the lowest possible energy usage.

If you are only concerned in lowering your electric cost from the power company then the way to go would be a properly sized grid tie system.
You will have 24/7 power available and when you have sun most of the power will be supplied by solar.
That is the lowest cost system if you want to run 24/7.

Have you ever heard the expression "If the wheels ain't turnin the truck ain't earnin"?

It's a matter of perspective. Unless you can balance power production with consumption you're
losing efficiency. It's impossible to do with solar and mining alone. Mining needs reliable power
to be efficient, solar can't provide that.

The case for solar should be based on consumers that can use all the solar power when it's available and
not suffer when it's not. Air conditioning is the best one I can think of. You have the most power on the hottest,
sunniest days, a win-win.

Again my point is solar power and mining don't mix. You need other forms of production, consumption or storage
to make it work.

[FloridaKid]

I don't understand the obsession with mining using solar power. To me it's the worst
combination because efficient mining requires reliable power 24/7.

I would look at it from a different point of view. How can I best use the solar power in real time?
Can I use it all in real time? How can I schedule my power use to maximize the use of solar and minimize
the use of grid?

Everything you offload from the grid reduces your mining costs.

Anyways, I'm mining on solar 24/7 with no grid power at all, it's all about calculations, assuming your rig needs only 1000 watt power I suggest going for 3000 watts solar panel, why? You will be able to mine when sun is up and also charge your battery backup for when the sun goes down, I'm running this 24/7 and it works

Do some math, get more solar panels and enough battery bank that will last you from when sun is down to the next day when sun will be up, remember, the more the panels the better

[FloridaKid]

I am curious to know how much solar panels do we need to get 10kwh ?

It depends mate, there is 200, 300, 340 watts panels, I suggest leaving this for the professionals, hire them and explain what your plan is, I'm sure you will be satisfied, the only let down here is not running the miners overnight, to get the best result it's always wise to mine 24/7

[JayDDee]

Anyways, I'm mining on solar 24/7 with no grid power at all, it's all about calculations, assuming your rig needs only 1000 watt power I suggest going for 3000 watts solar panel, why? You will be able to mine when sun is up and also charge your battery backup for when the sun goes down, I'm running this 24/7 and it works

Do some math, get more solar panels and enough battery bank that will last you from when sun is down to the next day when sun will be up, remember, the more the panels the better

You made my point. You had to overengineer your solar production and buy batteries, increasing cost and
reducing efficiency.

[FloridaKid]

I am curious to know how much solar panels do we need to get 10kwh ?

Give me this results and let me see if I can give you better answers

1. What is the exact amount of watts you need for the rigs?
2. How many hours per day you always have sun in your area?
3. Are you planning on getting backup batteries?

For example I'm using 1600 watts solar panels and 4x tubular batteries connected in 24v 440ah, my rigs takes 300 watts per hour so I have enough juice to charge up my battery bank and still keep mining

[FloridaKid]

Anyways, I'm mining on solar 24/7 with no grid power at all, it's all about calculations, assuming your rig needs only 1000 watt power I suggest going for 3000 watts solar panel, why? You will be able to mine when sun is up and also charge your battery backup for when the sun goes down, I'm running this 24/7 and it works

Do some math, get more solar panels and enough battery bank that will last you from when sun is down to the next day when sun will be up, remember, the more the panels the better

You made my point. You had to overengineer your solar production and buy batteries, increasing cost and
reducing efficiency.

Please explain the reduction in the efficiency part, I'm kinda lost there, if the cost is what you referring to well mining isn't for the poor, it's a long term investment that may never end well if you don't know what you are doing, I'm from a country where grid power sucks so going solar isn't only for the mining sake, I hope you get my point

[Looper_U]

Going solar and batteries will you extend your ROI far longer and you may never get your ROI back, there are two things to be worried about here, first is getting the money you spent on the gpus back and second is getting the money you spent on solar panels and batteries back, this should be for those who wants to spend thousands of dollars on a mining rig farm

[JayDDee]

I'm from a country where grid power sucks so going solar isn't only for the mining sake, I hope you get my point

That's part of my point, don't think of solar and mining in isolation, it has to fit in with the bigger picture.

Using batteries reduces efficiency 2 ways, it costs more money up front and they're not 100% efficient.

If economics don't matter ignore everything I've said.

[Longhorn901]

Why do you say efficient mining requires 24/7 power? If you are only trying to maximize coin output then I agree.
However you also need cheap power to make that work, I don't have cheep power available here so that strategy doesn't work for me.
I might be wrong in the way I look at this but I think efficient mining equals generating coins at the lowest possible energy usage.

If you are only concerned in lowering your electric cost from the power company then the way to go would be a properly sized grid tie system.
You will have 24/7 power available and when you have sun most of the power will be supplied by solar.
That is the lowest cost system if you want to run 24/7.

Have you ever heard the expression "If the wheels ain't turnin the truck ain't earnin"?

It's a matter of perspective. Unless you can balance power production with consumption you're
losing efficiency. It's impossible to do with solar and mining alone. Mining needs reliable power
to be efficient, solar can't provide that.

The case for solar should be based on consumers that can use all the solar power when it's available and
not suffer when it's not. Air conditioning is the best one I can think of. You have the most power on the hottest,
sunniest days, a win-win.

Again my point is solar power and mining don't mix. You need other forms of production, consumption or storage
to make it work.

I guess we have a different outlook on this, I'm looking long range.
With everything going on in the world power prices are set to skyrocket, when your diesel prices are eating up all your profit your wheels ain't gonna be turnin.

The only thing I need to ROI will be the solar, my miners have been paid a long time ago. I'm looking at 15 months to pay the solar off running 10 tuned L3's.
After that for 6 - 8 hrs a day my power is free if nothing breaks.

[FloridaKid]

Why do you say efficient mining requires 24/7 power? If you are only trying to maximize coin output then I agree.
However you also need cheap power to make that work, I don't have cheep power available here so that strategy doesn't work for me.
I might be wrong in the way I look at this but I think efficient mining equals generating coins at the lowest possible energy usage.

If you are only concerned in lowering your electric cost from the power company then the way to go would be a properly sized grid tie system.
You will have 24/7 power available and when you have sun most of the power will be supplied by solar.
That is the lowest cost system if you want to run 24/7.

Have you ever heard the expression "If the wheels ain't turnin the truck ain't earnin"?

It's a matter of perspective. Unless you can balance power production with consumption you're
losing efficiency. It's impossible to do with solar and mining alone. Mining needs reliable power
to be efficient, solar can't provide that.

The case for solar should be based on consumers that can use all the solar power when it's available and
not suffer when it's not. Air conditioning is the best one I can think of. You have the most power on the hottest,
sunniest days, a win-win.

Again my point is solar power and mining don't mix. You need other forms of production, consumption or storage
to make it work.

I guess we have a different outlook on this, I'm looking long range.
With everything going on in the world power prices are set to skyrocket, when your diesel prices are eating up all your profit your wheels ain't gonna be turnin.

The only thing I need to ROI will be the solar, my miners have been paid a long time ago. I'm looking at 15 months to pay the solar off running 10 tuned L3's.
After that for 6 - 8 hrs a day my power is free if nothing breaks.

The choice is yours, if 6 hrs mining is perfect enough for you then going solar panel is the best choice for you, it will definitely work but running 10 L3 ASIC miners will requires double panel set because one have to consider is the sun isn't really that shiny or when there is part cloudy, if 10,000 watts is what you need per hour for 6 hrs it's wise to double the panels, go for 20,000 watts solar so you have enough buffer if the sun isn't that shining

[Longhorn901]

Why do you say efficient mining requires 24/7 power? If you are only trying to maximize coin output then I agree.
However you also need cheap power to make that work, I don't have cheep power available here so that strategy doesn't work for me.
I might be wrong in the way I look at this but I think efficient mining equals generating coins at the lowest possible energy usage.

If you are only concerned in lowering your electric cost from the power company then the way to go would be a properly sized grid tie system.
You will have 24/7 power available and when you have sun most of the power will be supplied by solar.
That is the lowest cost system if you want to run 24/7.

Have you ever heard the expression "If the wheels ain't turnin the truck ain't earnin"?

It's a matter of perspective. Unless you can balance power production with consumption you're
losing efficiency. It's impossible to do with solar and mining alone. Mining needs reliable power
to be efficient, solar can't provide that.

The case for solar should be based on consumers that can use all the solar power when it's available and
not suffer when it's not. Air conditioning is the best one I can think of. You have the most power on the hottest,
sunniest days, a win-win.

Again my point is solar power and mining don't mix. You need other forms of production, consumption or storage
to make it work.

I guess we have a different outlook on this, I'm looking long range.
With everything going on in the world power prices are set to skyrocket, when your diesel prices are eating up all your profit your wheels ain't gonna be turnin.

The only thing I need to ROI will be the solar, my miners have been paid a long time ago. I'm looking at 15 months to pay the solar off running 10 tuned L3's.
After that for 6 - 8 hrs a day my power is free if nothing breaks.

The choice is yours, if 6 hrs mining is perfect enough for you then going solar panel is the best choice for you, it will definitely work but running 10 L3 ASIC miners will requires double panel set because one have to consider is the sun isn't really that shiny or when there is part cloudy, if 10,000 watts is what you need per hour for 6 hrs it's wise to double the panels, go for 20,000 watts solar so you have enough buffer if the sun isn't that shining

Yes, that is why the inverter I'm using is a grid backup inverter, when solar goes down during the day the grid will take over.

[JayDDee]

I guess we have a different outlook on this, I'm looking long range.
With everything going on in the world power prices are set to skyrocket, when your diesel prices are eating up all your profit your wheels ain't gonna be turnin.

The only thing I need to ROI will be the solar, my miners have been paid a long time ago. I'm looking at 15 months to pay the solar off running 10 tuned L3's.
After that for 6 - 8 hrs a day my power is free if nothing breaks.

I guess so. The case for solar should consider your entire power consumption profile. Some things are more flexible and
can be shifted to suit the availability of solar. Others, like mining, aren't so compatible. Heating is another,
it's needed mostly when the sun is weak during winter or at night. Lighting isn't a good fit either. Water heating can be shifted
somewhat by doing things like laundry during the middle of the day. Etc.

The case for mining depends mostly on the availability and average cost of power regardless of the source.

I don't see any inherent benefit to linking the two*. In fact I see a negative bias. Mining makes it more difficult to balance
the supply fluctuations while keeping the miners running 24/7.

I am a miner but I don't have solar. Mining would not be a factor in my decision should I be considering solar.

Good luck with your project.

* I mean conceptually, not electrically.

[crazydane]

I totally agree that one should mine 24/7.  I have a 50 KW solar array that is grid tied with net metering.

I sold almost all of my GTX 1000 series GPUs back in November/December and got 5700 XTs to replace them.  I have been able to score a few RTX 3000 series cards as well.

So my power draw from mining is currently right around 4,000 watts 24/7:



Don't take Awesome Miner's word for it, here's the real power draw and AM has been adjusted to match:  (Yes, I had a rig fall over last night which is why the power draw dropped below 4,000)



4,000 watts per hour works out to 96 kWh a day, or about 2,918 kWh a month.

Here's my solar production for 2020:



The orange bars represent solar production, the green ones consumption.  The green ones are misleading because my rigs are not in the shop building during the winter (where they can be measured by the device that is capturing production).  I keep my rigs in my house where they assist with heating during the cold months.

Anyway, total production was 67,200 kWh, or 5,600 kWh per month on average.  That works out to about 185 kWh per day, or 7,700 watts per hour.

I'm located in Virginia, so depending on your location, you might do better or worse with 50 KW worth of panels.

With 10 KW, you should average about 37 kWh per day, which would be enough to power a 1,500 watt rig 24/7 when averaged out for a year.

[Longhorn901]

I guess we have a different outlook on this, I'm looking long range.
With everything going on in the world power prices are set to skyrocket, when your diesel prices are eating up all your profit your wheels ain't gonna be turnin.

The only thing I need to ROI will be the solar, my miners have been paid a long time ago. I'm looking at 15 months to pay the solar off running 10 tuned L3's.
After that for 6 - 8 hrs a day my power is free if nothing breaks.

I guess so. The case for solar should consider your entire power consumption profile. Some things are more flexible and
can be shifted to suit the availability of solar. Others, like mining, aren't so compatible. Heating is another,
it's needed mostly when the sun is weak during winter or at night. Lighting isn't a good fit either. Water heating can be shifted
somewhat by doing things like laundry during the middle of the day. Etc.

The case for mining depends mostly on the availability and average cost of power regardless of the source.

I don't see any inherent benefit to linking the two*. In fact I see a negative bias. Mining makes it more difficult to balance
the supply fluctuations while keeping the miners running 24/7.

I am a miner but I don't have solar. Mining would not be a factor in my decision should I be considering solar.

Good luck with your project.

* I mean conceptually, not electrically.

Thanks and also for your contributions with cpuminer-opt.

[JayDDee]

I totally agree that one should mine 24/7.  I have a 50 KW solar array that is grid tied with net metering.

A grid tie in with full credit solves all issues, I'm jealous.

[Longhorn901]

I totally agree that one should mine 24/7.  I have a 50 KW solar array that is grid tied with net metering.

I sold almost all of my GTX 1000 series GPUs back in November/December and got 5700 XTs to replace them.  I have been able to score a few RTX 3000 series cards as well.

So my power draw from mining is currently right around 4,000 watts 24/7:



Don't take Awesome Miner's word for it, here's the real power draw and AM has been adjusted to match:  (Yes, I had a rig fall over last night which is why the power draw dropped below 4,000)



4,000 watts per hour works out to 96 kWh a day, or about 2,918 kWh a month.

Here's my solar production for 2020:



The orange bars represent solar production, the green ones consumption.  The green ones are misleading because my rigs are not in the shop building during the winter (where they can be measured by the device that is capturing production).  I keep my rigs in my house where they assist with heating during the cold months.

Anyway, total production was 67,200 kWh, or 5,600 kWh per month on average.  That works out to about 185 kWh per day, or 7,700 watts per hour.

I'm located in Virginia, so depending on your location, you might do better or worse with 50 KW worth of panels.

With 10 KW, you should average about 37 kWh per day, which would be enough to power a 1,500 watt rig 24/7 when averaged out for a year.

Hi crazydane! am I seeing this right, are you selling your power back to the grid @ $.12 KWh?