Topic: I have 75KW solar power available (Read 1936 times)

40kw = 40 x 4000 btu = 160,000 btu  


 my ac is 25000 btu and will drop  a 2000 square  foot home 10f  in  10 hours  say 82 to 72 f

so your 160000 btu of heat   would jump a  14000 square foot space 10f     say 82 f to 92 f


  I think you need two big fans  like these

http://www.lowes.com/pd_416730-11292-SFDC2-600T_1z11on0__?productId=4755305&pl=1&Ntt=fans


1 brings air in 1 brings air out  




               shed  150 ft  long
     ____________________________________________
     l                                                                              l
     l                                                                              l
     door or window                                                         l
     F>may need a fan here?     push-fan>>>Miners>>>pull-fan>> window door
     l                                                                              l
     l                                                                              l
     l___________________________________________l
  
 the push fan  and the pull    could be moved around for best spots

With that much space, do you think I could install 40KW worth of Antminer S5's w/o having to worry about a cooling system?  SE Idaho isn't that hot of a place (mid 90's in July, but cooler the rest of the year).

let us know once you set it up.

also feel free to ask for help.

that psu can do 1 s-3 pretty easy.

it may not do 2 very well.

the price you paid is okay.

I just purchased an antminer S3 and a power supply on eBay to get my feet wet (http://www.ebay.com/itm/141670019553).  I think in a month or so I may purchase quite a few bitminer machines to take advantage of the power supply.

I'm thinking of waiting for the S6 as it sounds like there are rumors that it will be like the S4 and have the power supply built right in.

I was going to say look into SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits).
You get SRECs on the amount of energy you generate, don't remember what the factor was, but I think 1000kwh = 1srec
Then you could sell those on the market. It doesn't matter what you did with the power, it's just credits because you generated renewable electricity.
But Idaho doesn't do SRECs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Renewable_Energy_Certificate)

If you have a "big" town it's possibe craigslist or something like it.  But by far ebay is most common. There is also a board on this site to buying hardware.

One suggestion is use a decent power supply.  If you get a very cheap PSU it's asking for problems, and efficient is good I personally like gold or better. 

I think I'll get one or two S3's to try to get familiar with Bitcoin.  When you say to buy them used, do you find them on ebay or is there a more popular source out there?  I don't see a classifieds section on these boards.

And there are a LOT of them for resell.  So if cheap electricity such as this some can pull a nice profit from them.

It's true they are like tank's on running.   I never had a issue with the ones I had.

s-3's are nice they have been around since July of 2014 they work.  you only need a decent internet connection. no pc's are needed.

they run on their own hooked up to a switch then a router

worker's 1 and 2 have been working since July  2014

Wow, you guys are a ton of help! I may purchase a very small system to try out at home first just to figure out what I am doing.  I'm embarrassed to say that as much as I read about bitcoins, the mining part doesn't sound simple and sort of eludes me.  I'm guessing that if I jumped right in with a small setup and learned the ropes a bit then I'd feel more confident building up a farm.

yep he can do it in stages like judypug1956 said.

the s-3's are studs.  once he gets used to seeing how to run them he can decide if making a 50-100 unit farm is what he want to do.
here is a link for a 16 port switch.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-ProSAFE-16-Port-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B000063UZW/ref=sr_1_1?

simple router like this

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Router-External-Antennas-WNR2020v2/dp/B00MRVJYEI/ref=sr_1_9?

and cat6 cable

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters%C2%AE-5-Color-Snagless-Ethernet/dp/B00E5I7XC6/ref=sr_1_3?

the switch = 58
the router = 32
the cables = 48 for 15

that comes to 138   and you can run about 14 units.

I would say you ve got yourself a nice farm to build.

don't rent the space.  mine on your own.  buy used s-3's  75 to 85 usd each. even less.

buy server psu's that run on 240 volts.

there are psu's sold on site for under 200 that will give 2880 watts that is 6  s-3's


so if you buy 6  s-3's for  500 usd and 1 psu for 200  you are out 700usd    oh 1 16 port switch and a router

you can mine 3000gh.  and jump to 6000gh for 700 more .

I can run 12 s-3's in a garage you can run 12 in a big shed easy.

you can see if you want a bigger expansion without betting your left nut so to speak.

6 s-3's + psu =   2400 watts  700 cash and 200 more for cables router and a switch
12 s-3's + psu = 4800 watts  700 cash  and you will not need more cables router or switch

first money up 900 usd next set of money = 700 usd

The 12 cent will kill profits especially once you add cooling, etc.  So the idea of stocking up for night is good, if you are able to use half during day and get credit during night you will have a better profit margin by far.

From what I read I think you can finish a area inside your shed to house some miners. I think what I would get enough to use half of your electric on mining and get credit from the electric company for other half. Then you can use your credit at night or during shorter hour days in the winter.

Edit: I see you posted that this is what you where thinking.

Rates are as follows:

Sept-May
Tier 1   Tier 2     Tier 3
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate(cents per kWh)   7.97 ¢   8.78 ¢   9.73 ¢

------

June-Aug
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate (cents per kWh)   8.57 ¢   10.31 ¢     12.25 ¢

I probably would try to only use half of the 75KW (to account for the night time) so as to not have to pay the electric company anything.

Thanks for the explanation... and I learned something .  If I read what you wrote properly, the power company provides you with credits that never expire... so that seems to me sort of like they're buying your power, right?  Couldn't you shut down your 75 kW generation and use the credits it made to pay for the power your operation consumes from the grid?

Anyway... your primary concern for the miner space should be airflow.  If you're going to utilize the entire 75 kW, that's 75 kW of heat you're going to have to dissipate.

How high does the grid power run?  You mention it's in blocks... how many blocks do you get at $0.08... $0.09... $0.10... etc?  Remember, if you do set this up for mining, it's 24/7.  So nights and cloudy days you're going to be pulling 75 kW from the grid.

Assuming absolute best case scenario here at current network difficulty, and you can fill your space with SP35s.  You'll get 110TH/s for 73 kW of power.  That's $8140 a month.  Realize these numbers are based on today and you using all of that available power exclusively for mining hardware.

Unfortunately, there was little that one could do to forecast the water situation.  We've been pumping water for decades at this location and there is no shortage of groudwater in our area.  Historically, Idaho has not allowed surface water users to make a water call on ground water users.  Times have changed, though.

The electric pump is 40HP and runs about 6 months out of the year.

I don't have pics now (this is at Dad's farm).  However, I can send you the solar project paperwork via a PM.  I'd rather not publish it on this public forum for all to see as it does have phone numbers, etc.  The bid was originally for 100KW (that is what this document has written up) and we reduced it to 75KW based on cost.  He modified the bill but these in-depth projections are still based on the 100KW.

Why would you build a irigation system on a place without a solid water source?  If true you would be insane.   Most do all kinds of projections and serious looking into before even getting a system.   And what kind of motors are you using on your system that take near 75 KW?

Are you able to show a picture of the solar workings?  This would make me believe.   Talk just makes me think high chance of troll on this.

Let me explain the setup in more detail.  I am in Idaho and their electricity rates start at about 8 cents and go up based on the amount of electricity used. So the first block of KWH is 8 cents, the next block is 9 cents, etc.  They support net metering for homes and businesses with a solar setup under 100KW. Net metering will never make a payout to the generating person.  It will simply build up electricity credits that, at this time, never expire until they are used.  They cannot, however, be transferred to a different account.

If it is over 100KW, then they off a commercial buyback of the electricity.  The rates they offer for this are very low 1-2 cents and you have to contract for providing the electricity.  If your system goes down for a week or two or there are to many cloudy days, then you need to pay the electric company for the delta that you did not deliver.  Regardless, I'm too small for this option but it doesn't seem to payout enough even if I wasn't.  I'd also have to increase my solar size by 25%.

Regarding the water call, I live in Idaho and ground water users are making a water call on the well water users saying that our pumping affects their surface water volume.  There has been very little snowpack the last couple of winters in the mountains and means troubling times for surface water irrigators. We didn't know that this would affect us as we have terrific amounts of ground water in my region.

My 85x150 shed is a brand new heavy duty metal building.  However, it was not meant to house servers.  To this end, it does not have sides on the building or concrete on the floor.  It just has compacted gravel.  Depending on the amount of space the bit coin hardware would take, I may consider putting sides on the building as well as concrete.  I'm guessing, though, that I wouldn't need near that much space to hold the hardware.  I may be cheaper to put up a small building for the purpose of housing the bitcoin hardware.  

Any idea on how much space the hardware would take that would consume the solar provided by the array?  The solar generates 480v but has a transformer just for the shed at 240 (shed has lights and some electric outlets).