Topic: Video: Solar-powered Bitcoin Mining farm (Read 7090 times)

Quote from: Borisz on October 26, 2015, 03:13:58 AM

you need to go big with this type of thing otherwise you will only earn few pounds like he said in the video

but at leats it remain profitable, maybe because he sold old miners to have the new equipments

It is a neat idea. But going big with this is just not best way as far as profit. Look at all that equipment for 1 S3. I consider solar and bitcoin mining two different investments.

You will make ROI much quicker from finding cheap regular electricity. Then there is no additional equipment cost for something such as solar. I wish solar or wind made sense but just does not large scale compared to moving to the cheap electricity.

The solar technology isn't as far yet as to be able to be worth the hassle and equipment to power a lot of miners, to be honest.

Maybe in the future with electricity probably getting more expensive (think electric vehicles), and more evolved solar powering methods/equipment might make your s5's-s7's run free on solar power and thus generate free money. That would be sweet though.

Decoded

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Awesome.... I wish I had the space for my own little hut for my miner....

I live in an apartment... What, you want me to put it out in my hallway?!

RichBC

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If you check the video again you will see that the whole setup is connected to the mains as well, hence if the battery runs low, it automatically switches to draw power from the grid. So even though the Sun may only provide x hours of operation, the miner will not stop suddenly. For a proof of concept project this is perfectly acceptable, it is cheaper than sizing up the whole system just to run a few more hours.

I was not suggesting that the miner would suddenly stop. Just making the point that at best he will either be running the miner or charging the batteries, not both at once. Hence either the solar array is too small or the battery bank too large. Idealy you would want sufficient Solar power to run the miner during the day & Charge the Batteries for the Overnight Mining. Agreed on the proof of concept.

But still stick by my earlier point that you are better off to reduce your electricity bill than to Mine Bitcoin. All that said I am gathering parts for a Solar Mining Experiment as I thinks it's a great project.

Rich

Borisz

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Quote from: Amph on October 23, 2015, 01:35:08 AM

Quote from: RichBC on October 26, 2015, 02:54:45 AM

Complicated but certainly a profitable set up.
Using the sun to mine Bitcoin is quite a great idea. It should work in the long run as the electricity is FREE. It takes a lot of skills to do that. I wonder how much you'd spend for such set up.

electricity is free but there are still cost to maintain panel batter and everything else, what if you're pannel get screwed by a storm or bad weather, you need to reinvest again, not convenient at all

the same for the battery which is not cheap, nothing is free in this world unless you find money on the street...

Solar panels are tested against storms, snow, hail and similar. So unless you are talking about a tornado, they should be fine outside.

Quote from: eternalgloom on October 26, 2015, 01:30:37 AM

Cool but looks like a pretty small set-up, I wonder if he actually generates enough power to keep them running at night.

On a really good day in the UK that 500W Solar setup will generate about 4KWh of power. The S3 consumes 360W, so that's about 11 Hours running, so no overnight. On a bad Day they will generate no power at all. On average he will be able to run the miner for about 3 Hours a Day.

As I said above the whole setup, Number of panels, Inverter size, Battery Bank size is all out of proportion for what it can achieve.

Rich

If you check the video again you will see that the whole setup is connected to the mains as well, hence if the battery runs low, it automatically switches to draw power from the grid. So even though the Sun may only provide x hours of operation, the miner will not stop suddenly. For a proof of concept project this is perfectly acceptable, it is cheaper than sizing up the whole system just to run a few more hours.

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Quote from: eternalgloom on October 26, 2015, 01:30:37 AM

Cool but looks like a pretty small set-up, I wonder if he actually generates enough power to keep them running at night.

On a really good day in the UK that 500W Solar setup will generate about 4KWh of power. The S3 consumes 360W, so that's about 11 Hours running, so no overnight. On a bad Day they will generate no power at all. On average he will be able to run the miner for about 3 Hours a Day.

As I said above the whole setup, Number of panels, Inverter size, Battery Bank size is all out of proportion for what it can achieve.

Rich

eternalgloom

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Cool but looks like a pretty small set-up, I wonder if he actually generates enough power to keep them running at night.

Betwrong

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Quote from: Amph on October 23, 2015, 01:35:08 AM

Complicated but certainly a profitable set up.
Using the sun to mine Bitcoin is quite a great idea. It should work in the long run as the electricity is FREE. It takes a lot of skills to do that. I wonder how much you'd spend for such set up.

No, it's not free. Do the math and you'll see that the price of kW⋅h in such farm will be higher than in a country where electricity is the most expensive.

enhu

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Complicated but certainly a profitable set up.
Using the sun to mine Bitcoin is quite a great idea. It should work in the long run as the electricity is FREE. It takes a lot of skills to do that. I wonder how much you'd spend for such set up.

electricity is free but there are still cost to maintain panel batter and everything else, what if you're pannel get screwed by a storm or bad weather, you need to reinvest again, not convenient at all

the same for the battery which is not cheap, nothing is free in this world unless you find money on the street...

In every business you got to have funds to save for whatever happen. I assume he has saves maybe 10% of his earnings going to its maintenance.
I assume if you set this up in your place then you gotta have a tropical weather, maybe Arizona or somewhere.

Storm is predictable anyway, so you can take the panel out whenever storm is coming. but i doubt you would while you can just tighten.

Amph

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Quote from: Amph on October 21, 2015, 01:46:08 AM

Complicated but certainly a profitable set up.
Using the sun to mine Bitcoin is quite a great idea. It should work in the long run as the electricity is FREE. It takes a lot of skills to do that. I wonder how much you'd spend for such set up.

electricity is free but there are still cost to maintain panel batter and everything else, what if you're pannel get screwed by a storm or bad weather, you need to reinvest again, not convenient at all

the same for the battery which is not cheap, nothing is free in this world unless you find money on the street...

enhu

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Complicated but certainly a profitable set up.
Using the sun to mine Bitcoin is quite a great idea. It should work in the long run as the electricity is FREE. It takes a lot of skills to do that. I wonder how much you'd spend for such set up.

okae

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Quote from: highaltitude20322 on October 20, 2015, 12:18:56 PM

Quote from: Arcteryx on October 19, 2015, 09:58:53 AM

Very cool idea and that's one way to cut out the electricity use. Most turn away from mining because of the high electricity costs, me included. This brings it back to my to do lists now.

The price of solar is coming down more and more every day. It's getting a bit more attainable and cost effective to consider.

there is always the problem of the battery, in winter or in every big period of time where there is no sun, it could happen easily

i doubt the battery can last long enough in those time frame

well yes, in all those times where you don't have enough periods of sun you will have some problems, i must agree with that, but thats one of the reasons that i always recommend to dont stop using renewable energy, i mean, if you can use wind energy too, go for it.

that way you will cover all those type of bad situations, btw i understand that now not everybody have the money to invest on it or just the place where he live is not good for wind, for example...

some day i will start to build something like that Wink

RichBC

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Just looking again at the original video it's way too complicated a setup and the size of the solar panels way out of proportion to the Battery bank and the rest of the system.

The guy has an S3 that consumes 366W, the solar panels are 500W, however the setup is in the UK. 500W of panels will generate about 400KWh in a Year. So ignoring any inefficiencies that will run the miner for only 45 Days. An S3 on current difficulty makes about 85 Cents a Day so that's about $39.

Now here's the sobering bit... If you have 15 Cent Electricity (About as good as you can get in the UK) If you were to just use those 400KWh to reduce your electricity bill then that would be worth 400 x $0.15 = $60.

Rich

Amph

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Quote from: highaltitude20322 on October 20, 2015, 12:18:56 PM

Quote from: Arcteryx on October 19, 2015, 09:58:53 AM

Very cool idea and that's one way to cut out the electricity use. Most turn away from mining because of the high electricity costs, me included. This brings it back to my to do lists now.

The price of solar is coming down more and more every day. It's getting a bit more attainable and cost effective to consider.

there is always the problem of the battery, in winter or in every big period of time where there is no sun, it could happen easily

i doubt the battery can last long enough in those time frame

hardtime

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Yes it would be profitable but not much by solar-powered bitcoin mining. But anyway you can check your luck and you may get more bitcoins from mining.

highaltitude20322

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Quote from: Arcteryx on October 19, 2015, 09:58:53 AM

Very cool idea and that's one way to cut out the electricity use. Most turn away from mining because of the high electricity costs, me included. This brings it back to my to do lists now.

The price of solar is coming down more and more every day. It's getting a bit more attainable and cost effective to consider.

Arcteryx

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Very cool idea and that's one way to cut out the electricity use. Most turn away from mining because of the high electricity costs, me included. This brings it back to my to do lists now.

Betwrong

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Quote from: SFR10 on October 19, 2015, 09:20:16 AM

everything from the beginning was setup perfectly there but it seems that he have done too much of some stuff and too less of the others and as for the mining farm itself , correct me if I'm wrong but why spend or rather invest on a solar panel while he have only 1 miner running , is in it a waste of money for that matter? He should double or triple the space and add a better cooling system as the place for that single miner was sort of small space only which he could have used to place it somewhere else on that small room

IMO you right about "a waste of money". And why there is only one miner? I think the answer is simple: The power you can get from that solar system is enough for one miner only. I may be wrong of course )

SFR10

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everything from the beginning was setup perfectly there but it seems that he have done too much of some stuff and too less of the others and as for the mining farm itself , correct me if I'm wrong but why spend or rather invest on a solar panel while he have only 1 miner running , is in it a waste of money for that matter? He should double or triple the space and add a better cooling system as the place for that single miner was sort of small space only which he could have used to place it somewhere else on that small room

flikflak

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The owner of this Solar-miner said something about £1000 in his first comment. He got the panels for bitcoins (I guess thats not included in the £1000).

That seems to be quite possible (640Ah 12V batteries ~ $800, solar-charger/-controller ~ $150, S3 miner $150 (back then), inverter = $200, plus 200-300 for wiring and the Grid/solar switches) thats $1'800 -> of course you will never see a return on investment with an S3. I still wonder, why he invested into batteries with having an inverter and the automatic grid/solar switch. Better inverters have a built-in switch to change between grid and solarpower like an ups. There is no need for batteries at all, its inefficient (90% and degrading with its cycles), pricey, heavy, Pb... So if the Powergrid is reliable and without blackouts, I wouldn't recommend batteries or go for LiFePo4s with 10'000 cycles.

Raimonn

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Solar power system has its ROI in long term, if its only for mining would be difficult.

Betwrong

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Quote from: Borisz on August 03, 2015, 04:08:58 AM

Quote from: Deathwing on August 02, 2015, 12:59:59 PM

I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

Could you please explain why do you think this?

The only explanation I can see is that if you get all this solar power system for free.

Considering that a solar power system like in the video might cost around US $3,000 - 3,500 or even more it would be pretty hard to get ROI fast.

tennozer

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Solar panels, charge units and also the batteries need a huge amount of investment. On the oher hand, you need a huge area to setup these solar panels too. If you got enough area space it can profitable with solar energy because your electricity will be free, if you do not think the first investment costs. You can use these solar equipments for other jobs after your mining system is over.

densuj

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I think it is not profitable, but i don't know Huh

Blawpaw

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Using solar Power to mine is the best options to cut expenses with mining. However, it will only be favorable if you already have the installation made and it can produce a good amount of power. otherwise, you wont be able to connect many miners.

Hannu

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Quote from: LiteCoinGuy on July 19, 2015, 12:59:00 AM

Solar-powered Bitcoin Mining farm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AmMV-Bmhh8

looks complicated Cheesy

I like build everything cool allso

You have own house o.O Are you buy it bitcoin money or are you in day/nightjob?
Personal guestion :I

Undermood

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have a look here https://forum.cryptomining.farm/index.php?topic=2.0
They are doing the same.

miguelmorales85

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Quote from: Amph on July 21, 2015, 01:59:54 AM

Quote from: Amph on August 03, 2015, 04:59:21 AM

is it me or is this setup just way too complicated? Cheesy

yeah i was imagining at the end many miners connected for all those cables that he put in a labyrinthic way, then you see only one miner, a bit underwhelming

same here... at least he could change if to one S7... but iono

RichBC

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I think it's a great project to show that it can be done. However in practice a very high upfront cost in particular the battery bank which will have limited life.

I think you are better to think of Solar as a separate investment and have it professionally installed so that you can get the Feed In Tariff payments from your supplier. Those payments will probably be better than any money you make mining, and any miners you have plugged up in your house will still benefit from the Solar Electricity you are generating.

Rich

rohlander

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Thats impressive , i never imagined nothing like that Shocked

Jorge320

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Very cool, I like this a a model for something I've been thinking about. "Eco-friendly" mining that has the potential to ROI without constantly upgrading your hardware is an interesting strategy. With solar technology getter better and cheaper this type of setup seems more and more likely.

Cheers!

Borisz

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Quote from: u9y42 on August 02, 2015, 09:18:13 PM

Quote from: Deathwing on August 02, 2015, 12:59:59 PM

I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

Well, you do have to take into account the cost of setting up that source of power - if you factor in how much that will cost, ROI will likely be much harder to get. As several other users have pointed out already, it would make more sense to just find a place with cheaper electricity. Tongue

yeah because with a thing like that sostantially you're paying your electricity upfront, so not really free as many think, not to mention that there are maintanance cost like the battery which can last forever, the same for the panels

Well, actually the panels and probably even the battery (if you use such a system, although most likely unnecessary) will last longer than your profitability from your mining gear. Panels last 20-25 years and batteries up to 5-10 years whereas bitcoin itself is 6 years old. Solar power is a long term investment whereas mining is probably short term, perhaps medium.

Nevertheless, you are right about the initial investment and paying upfront for electricity part.

Amph

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Quote from: u9y42 on August 02, 2015, 09:18:13 PM

Quote from: Deathwing on August 02, 2015, 12:59:59 PM

I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

Well, you do have to take into account the cost of setting up that source of power - if you factor in how much that will cost, ROI will likely be much harder to get. As several other users have pointed out already, it would make more sense to just find a place with cheaper electricity. Tongue

yeah because with a thing like that sostantially you're paying your electricity upfront, so not really free as many think, not to mention that there are maintanance cost like the battery which can last forever, the same for the panels

Borisz

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Quote from: Deathwing on August 02, 2015, 12:59:59 PM

I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

Could you please explain why do you think this?

u9y42

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Quote from: Deathwing on August 02, 2015, 12:59:59 PM

I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

Well, you do have to take into account the cost of setting up that source of power - if you factor in how much that will cost, ROI will likely be much harder to get. As several other users have pointed out already, it would make more sense to just find a place with cheaper electricity. Tongue

Deathwing

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I actually liked the built, a lot of people wonder about the "electricity" while they are running miners, ROI will be A LOT better with this.

WalkerIVIV

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solar bitcoin farm are too much complicated to built it by myself

aureuscoindev

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this is neat, but I'd like to know what it cost and if you built it yourself etc. it does look very complex for this little thing. Still like to know the total cost to build, battery life expectation etc. Also would like to know the power output of the solar cells, like peak and off peak and overall real performance. Nice setup though, thanks for sharing

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@Borisz

yes i think so too (but i cant build such stuff Cheesy

).

i was kidding.

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Quote from: LiteCoinGuy on July 23, 2015, 01:30:54 AM

is it me or is this setup just way too complicated? Cheesy

that is a "copyright trick" i guess - nobody can do this without his explanation Wink

It really depends on how familiar you are with the topic and how much money and time can you or are you willing to invest. You could start off with a much smaller system trying to first power a small USB miner. Ths should not be a hard task for anyone with a basic knowledge about electrical circuits and some hands-on experience with DIY projects and bitcoin.

Also, you can ask on the internet on a range of forums (including this one) for help from other people. If you have a plan in mind (more than "this is interesting, can I do it?") then there will be people helping you.

LiteCoinGuy

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Quote from: valkir on July 21, 2015, 07:30:34 AM

is it me or is this setup just way too complicated? Cheesy

that is a "copyright trick" i guess - nobody can do this without his explanation Wink

Borisz

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The think people do not understand is that if the miner is useless or he wants to sell it, he still have solar power to use at home.
Doing this kind of setup is really nice, you learn solar power and bitcoin!

Yes and at this point it comes back to the same discussion as above: why not keep the two investment separate?

valkir

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The think people do not understand is that if the miner is useless or he wants to sell it, he still have solar power to use at home.
Doing this kind of setup is really nice, you learn solar power and bitcoin!

erpbridge

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I don't see how this wil be profitable at the end. Solar power has a HUGE initial investment and to run miners its even bigger . Unless they run it for 10 years or more atleast it is hard to be assured of a return . Kind of a risk if the price falls or something. The setup is also too complicated it seems.

Amph

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Quote from: notlist3d on July 19, 2015, 04:09:03 AM

is it me or is this setup just way too complicated? Cheesy

yeah i was imagining at the end many miners connected for all those cables that he put in a labyrinthic way, then you see only one miner, a bit underwhelming

smoothie

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is it me or is this setup just way too complicated? Cheesy

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Quote from: LiteCoinGuy on July 19, 2015, 12:59:00 AM

you need to go big with this type of thing otherwise you will only earn few pounds like he said in the video

but at leats it remain profitable, maybe because he sold old miners to have the new equipments

It is a neat idea. But going big with this is just not best way as far as profit. Look at all that equipment for 1 S3. I consider solar and bitcoin mining two different investments.

You will make ROI much quicker from finding cheap regular electricity. Then there is no additional equipment cost for something such as solar. I wish solar or wind made sense but just does not large scale compared to moving to the cheap electricity.

Hopefully the tech for solar power comes through and we see a sharp increase in power possible in a similar form factor as the panels in the video. If graphene works out could be a kw or more per panel.

okae

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Solar-powered Bitcoin Mining farm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AmMV-Bmhh8

looks complicated Cheesy

awesome just awesome, i live in a zone with lot of hours of light per day, i wish someday i will need to download the info about how to do that, well done!!!

also im planning to run wind power too, the problem is about how many will cost it and how many will cost to maintain it, but hell, that infraestructure looks awesome, again, well done!!!

Borisz

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Quote from: notlist3d on July 19, 2015, 04:36:36 AM

Quote from: Borisz on July 19, 2015, 04:30:39 AM

Quote from: notlist3d on July 19, 2015, 04:09:03 AM

Quote from: Borisz on July 19, 2015, 04:30:39 AM

you need to go big with this type of thing otherwise you will only earn few pounds like he said in the video

but at leats it remain profitable, maybe because he sold old miners to have the new equipments

It is a neat idea. But going big with this is just not best way as far as profit. Look at all that equipment for 1 S3. I consider solar and bitcoin mining two different investments.

You will make ROI much quicker from finding cheap regular electricity. Then there is no additional equipment cost for something such as solar. I wish solar or wind made sense but just does not large scale compared to moving to the cheap electricity.

This is it exactly. Its 2 separate investments that produce their own income,
1. You can sell mined bitcoins
2. You can sell solar electricity
so why not keep them separate from the beginning?

Also, most of the time you get a fixed price for feeding-in solar generated electricity. This could be e.g. 15 ct/kWh. Now, if you mine less than 15ct worth of Bitcoins with 1 kWh (aka a 1000 watt miner running for 1 hour) then it is not worth it any more to mine coins, but you would be better off selling your electricity.

The other thing is if you already want to invest in solar power at the same time, I am not getting why it has to be directly connected to the miner if you live in a residential house. Just attach solar power to your home network feed back and forth in the grid depending when you use more or less than you generate and simply plug your miner in the sockets. Using the national grid as a battery is the cheapest and most reliable option.

Nevertheless, it looks like a nice project and must have been a worthwhile learning exercise. If one has a few panels lying around, why not make them pay back for themselves.

You say it very well. I want to add I don't hate the idea. I really like the idea of "eco" miners, but I like my ROI much better.

I live in decent priced electricity so as far as me investing it is hard to justify solar/wind. If you live in a very high priced electricity (or place with lots of incentives) solar could be a good investment.

But it is a different investment then BTC.

Yes, of course. I also didn't mean to discredit or "push down" the idea. I do believe in renewable energy, but the fact is that a ROI is taking priority in every field of business. And rightly so, no one would invest in something that makes him/her losses on a larger scale.

I think that as a first step such a project can teach one a lot about both solar power and mining setups as well. It is a good maker project to take on for those who like to tinker with hardware a bit and are interested in cryptocurrencies.

notlist3d

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Quote from: notlist3d on July 19, 2015, 04:09:03 AM

Quote from: notlist3d on July 19, 2015, 04:09:03 AM

you need to go big with this type of thing otherwise you will only earn few pounds like he said in the video

but at leats it remain profitable, maybe because he sold old miners to have the new equipments

It is a neat idea. But going big with this is just not best way as far as profit. Look at all that equipment for 1 S3. I consider solar and bitcoin mining two different investments.

You will make ROI much quicker from finding cheap regular electricity. Then there is no additional equipment cost for something such as solar. I wish solar or wind made sense but just does not large scale compared to moving to the cheap electricity.

This is it exactly. Its 2 separate investments that produce their own income,
1. You can sell mined bitcoins
2. You can sell solar electricity
so why not keep them separate from the beginning?

Also, most of the time you get a fixed price for feeding-in solar generated electricity. This could be e.g. 15 ct/kWh. Now, if you mine less than 15ct worth of Bitcoins with 1 kWh (aka a 1000 watt miner running for 1 hour) then it is not worth it any more to mine coins, but you would be better off selling your electricity.

The other thing is if you already want to invest in solar power at the same time, I am not getting why it has to be directly connected to the miner if you live in a residential house. Just attach solar power to your home network feed back and forth in the grid depending when you use more or less than you generate and simply plug your miner in the sockets. Using the national grid as a battery is the cheapest and most reliable option.

Nevertheless, it looks like a nice project and must have been a worthwhile learning exercise. If one has a few panels lying around, why not make them pay back for themselves.

You say it very well. I want to add I don't hate the idea. I really like the idea of "eco" miners, but I like my ROI much better.

I live in decent priced electricity so as far as me investing it is hard to justify solar/wind. If you live in a very high priced electricity (or place with lots of incentives) solar could be a good investment.

But it is a different investment then BTC.

Borisz

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you need to go big with this type of thing otherwise you will only earn few pounds like he said in the video

but at leats it remain profitable, maybe because he sold old miners to have the new equipments

It is a neat idea. But going big with this is just not best way as far as profit. Look at all that equipment for 1 S3. I consider solar and bitcoin mining two different investments.

You will make ROI much quicker from finding cheap regular electricity. Then there is no additional equipment cost for something such as solar. I wish solar or wind made sense but just does not large scale compared to moving to the cheap electricity.

This is it exactly. Its 2 separate investments that produce their own income,
1. You can sell mined bitcoins
2. You can sell solar electricity
so why not keep them separate from the beginning?

Also, most of the time you get a fixed price for feeding-in solar generated electricity. This could be e.g. 15 ct/kWh. Now, if you mine less than 15ct worth of Bitcoins with 1 kWh (aka a 1000 watt miner running for 1 hour) then it is not worth it any more to mine coins, but you would be better off selling your electricity.

The other thing is if you already want to invest in solar power at the same time, I am not getting why it has to be directly connected to the miner if you live in a residential house. Just attach solar power to your home network feed back and forth in the grid depending when you use more or less than you generate and simply plug your miner in the sockets. Using the national grid as a battery is the cheapest and most reliable option.

Nevertheless, it looks like a nice project and must have been a worthwhile learning exercise. If one has a few panels lying around, why not make them pay back for themselves.

notlist3d

legendary

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