Blast I didn't know that; so unless you spend thousands to get state of the art with ASIC it's still a lost cause because of energy rates, what does HW stand for as well please.
That's correct, it's a petty but that's the reality... I had to stop mining myself (also on EU power rates). Btw: even if you invest in latest generation ASICs, you still need a very good power rate... Personally, i think that if you pay over 5-6 cents/Kwu, the risk becomes to large even with the most efficient ASIC. Maybe, if you're a risktaker, you might be able to go up to 8-9 cents, but most EU domestic power rates make it impossible to mine with profit (you might still mine to support the network, or you might mine if you want to use the ASIC's heat to heat up your house, otherwise it's more or less a lost cause)
HW = hardware
You can do the calculations yourself if you want... Pick an ASIC here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparisonAnd compare it to the non specialised hardware speeds and power consumption:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparisonYou can write down the hashrate and look up the power draw to achieve this hashrate, look up your energy rate and see how much the ASIC/non specialised HW costs (don't forget custom charges and shipping and handling)... plug everything in a tool like this one:
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculatorAnd you can see how much this piece of HW would earn you, at current diff, price and block reward (each one of these things will change over time, so your earnings will probably go down)
