Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

Post by tzs » Fri, May 28, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

arsome wrote: post #146

bluGill wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just electrical rate, also what you do with the waste heat. I know at least one person who is heating his garage. Mining bitcoin is cheaper than an electric heater for the same task. A heat pump would probably be more cost effective in the long run, but I didn't tell him that.

Yeah, during the winter I mine on my video card because I'm basically just swapping some of my natural gas heat out for a few hundred watts of electric heat and my electricity is primarily provided by nuclear and hydro. Kind of weird to think of mining as a way to reduce your carbon emissions but in some cases it certainly can be. I'll definitely look more into heatpumps when it comes time to replace my furnace or ai…

Post by capableweb » Fri, May 28, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

teebs wrote: post #187

pengaru wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A heat pump would probably be more cost effective in the long run, but I didn't tell him that. Last I checked, heat pumps didn't produce assets of potentially increasing value as a side effect of moving heat around.

You could always buy Bitcoin with the money you saved

Post by bialpio » Fri, May 28, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

phire wrote: post #42

Looking at the picture, they are using really old bitcoin ASIC miners from 2017. A profitability calculator I found says this Antminer S9 can get $948/year of income in exchange for $1,371 worth of electricity. That's a loss of $422/year. Obviously it's not profitable to use anymore, unless you are literally stealing electricity like these guys.

Post by throwawayboise » Fri, May 28, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #98

phire wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That website was using a electrical rate of USD 12c per kWh, which is already on the low side. I think most electricity The break-even point is 8c per kWh. But there will be other overheads, so you probably need 6c per kWh to actually make a profit. Such prices most be possible to obtain in a few oil rich countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

You can routinely get ~2 c kWh in Chicago: https://hourlypricing.comed.com/

Post by drewg123 » Fri, May 28, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

RobLach wrote: post #195

drewg123 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like an ideal way to use excess energy in grid-tied solar setups where the energy company is not incentivized to buy excess power. Or for non-grid tied solar when your batteries are full.

As opposed to storing it?