Solar Panels in UK for small mining Rig

[speedyrazor]

Hi, I currently have a single mining rig (x3 1080Ti's) running 24/7 on Nicehash, luckily been runing somewhere were I get free electricity. Sadly, that option is coming to an end. I would like to continue to mine, but not really worth it if I have to pay for the electricity, so was looking into solar power, which I know absolutly nothing about, but keen to learn. I am based in the UK, so the sun is somewhat limited. What are my options please, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards.

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[tertius993]

Do you have somewhere to install the solar plant?
What is your required power?

Solar installations are a lot cheaper than they used to be but I suspect the cost of the system will far outweigh the saving in electricity.  Most solar systems in the UK take several years just to cover their own costs (if they ever do).

Some considerations:
1. Location and aspect - this makes a big difference to system efficiency. I have a S facing system that is hardly overshadowed but it still produces almost nothing in the winter months - December will be about 50 kWh vs over 400 in the summer months!
2. Size of system - typical systems are based on 360 watt panels - output depends on the number of panels. My system has 12 panels so a theoretical output of 4.32 kW - however, you will never see that high, perhaps 3.8kW as a realistic maximum
3. Battery or not - you will be using power 24x7 but only generating in daylight hours, a battery means you can store the excess (if there is any) and use it when the panels are not generating. Obviously this adds more cost as you will need not only the batteries but also an inverter to manage the batteries.
4. There is no longer a feed-in-tariff available so you don’t get any payment for power sent back to the grid (in some cases there are very tiny payments available, but best to assume nothing).

[speedyrazor]

Thanks for your reply.
If I look at whats currentyl being used, I use a smart plug which reports the power usage, its reporting:

Single PC, with x3 1080 Ti's
Current Power: 39.0w
Daily Average: 0.94 kWh

So, I was thinking of just buying enough to support this small rig to start with.
I have a south facing garden. I have a single story kitchen extension, which has a flat roof, south facing, so could easily mount a some panels there.

With all the above in mind, It's also a bit of a hobby, and learning about green energy, what would I need to purchase? Is there any alternative options to power this?

Kind regards.

[titular]

I wonder how efficiently solar power can fuel mining rigs. More specifically; How much solar energy would you need for the given hashrate you will be producing?

I wonder if you would need a crazy-large solar farm to fuel some of these large-scale mining operations.

[tertius993]

Thanks for your reply.
If I look at whats currentyl being used, I use a smart plug which reports the power usage, its reporting:

Single PC, with x3 1080 Ti's
Current Power: 39.0w
Daily Average: 0.94 kWh

So, I was thinking of just buying enough to support this small rig to start with.
I have a south facing garden. I have a single story kitchen extension, which has a flat roof, south facing, so could easily mount a some panels there.

With all the above in mind, It's also a bit of a hobby, and learning about green energy, what would I need to purchase? Is there any alternative options to power this?

Kind regards.

I think the simplest approach is to think along the lines of "the rig uses ~1kWh per day, so if I generate (and use) at least that, it'll offset the cost of running the rig."  That way you don't need to worry about a battery or similar.

I did a quick calculation and my 12 panel plant has generated an average of ~9 kWh per day over the 10 months it has been installed.  So 2 panels will (roughly) give you 1.5 kWh per day, more than enough.

So you would need the panels and a basic inverter plus the grid switch/connector and installation, general cabling etc..  You might also want/need a monitor to keep track of it - mine has a Wi-Fi dongle that allows remote monitoring.  Maybe £1000-1500? Remember this is generating 240V AC and is connected to both your house and the electricity grid so it needs to be done right.  

All this to save yourself the cost of 1 kWh per day - the price cap means that electricity costs no more than about 21p per kWh!  If it costs £1000 it'll take about 9 years to payback the cost of the installation at 1.5 kWh per day.

So the actual answer is to pay the 21p!  

[speedyrazor]

Thank you tertius993, very detailed and informtive information, I appreciate it.
I hadn't actaully looked into exactly what 1kWh per day would cost me, so you are absolutley correct, and pay the 21p per day!
Thanks again for all your help.

[BioFrog]

Solar panels could be a good solution but if you have little sun i think you can try wind power as an alternative

[Tash]

Solar Power is negative business, the money invested is never recouped.

[franky1]

average PC with 3 gaming GPU uses more then 600w PSU

this is not 600w a day.. this is 600w an hour
39w is if computer is in sleep mode/standby

active use 24/7 is actually more like 12kwh. which is about £2.50 a day in electric
..
because you are GPU mining. your obviously altcoin mining.
so before even investing. find a way to calculate how much hashrate you can produce with the 3 gpu's and see how much altcoin you can get for that hashrate, and see if it even comes close to or more then £2.50.

many people GPU mining and asic mining bitcoin in 2012-13(GPU) 2013-21(asic) found that as soon as they broke even
on the miners in 9 months, the hashrate had doubled which meant endlessly paying for more asics just to ensure they got same satoshi earnings. and meant paying more in electric each year

now here is the next thing.. how often does the hashrate/difficulty go up.
this is important because for every 2x in hashrate/difficulty. means that you are going to need to 2x your GPU amount just to stay inline with same altcoin earnings.
this then also means that you will have to 2x your solar panels to power it.

so a word of warning. when buying solar panels which might not break even for 10 years compared to just buying electric from the grid.. you will end up buying endless solar panels and GPU's just trying to stay ahead.

so unless you start with enough solar to be 16x your first years demand, and the cost of such can break even in 5 years.. its not ideal to be playing with solar panels.

the idea being if you have 16x first years demand. if the hashrate doubles each year
(Y2:2x  Y3:4x  Y4:8x Y5:16x)
in years 1-4 you can sell your excess back to the grid to help pay for the panels. and by the 5th year you still have capacity and breaking even/profiting still because its all paid off

just having 3 panels producing 1kwh.. wont even last you a year before needing to change, upgrade,add more