A mining operation consisting of $100,000 worth of miners could save up to $40,000/year by switching from an expensive $0.15/kWh electricity rate on the east coast of the USA to a cheap $0.04/kWh electricity rate on the west coast of the USA in Washington. For a relatively small mining operation (~40 ASIC'S), would this ever make sense? Being that small of an operation means you're not hiring a 24/7 on site support person - which would eat a lot of those profits - or building out a custom warehouse with high security, so would it ever make sense at that level to host your miners on the other side of the country with no one there to look out for them? Would the $40,000/year savings be worth it? Obviously just moving to Washington would solve this entire dilemma, but not everyone with families or work or friends and such would want to do that, when instead they could just travel out there when needed then return home.
A round trip ticket from the east coast USA to Washington including car rental, gas, and food for one day is only ~$500. Even if you had to visit your mining operation up to an unlikely, astounding three times per month for maintenance or immediate emergencies like flipping on tripped breakers would come out to ~$18,000 per year, even still netting you an additional $18,000 profit per year. Since it obviously - to me - makes sense from a monetary standpoint, it only comes down to deciding if it's worth your time. If you have a full time job obviously you can't be called away on a moments notice for 48 hours, but if you had a flexible job or no job at all, and didn't mind traveling like that, I wouldn't see the problem. I'm curious to hear what you guys think about it, or if anyone has any such experience with this.
edit: I didn't think of the rewards you could get from using a credit card that rewards air travel as well.
Have to have a local who would be emergency backup, even if they're only on the payroll for 10 hours a week or so. Other than that, you're good.