High energy costs are a major problem for crypto coin miners. Recently, it has been further aggravated by the transfer of farm owners to unfavorable tariffs. According to Energopros, the average price of electricity amounted to 6 rubles per 1 kW. But there are simple mathematical calculations and tricks that will help you save money. Experts have found out how much kW a mining farm consumes per day and how to reduce this figure without losing the quality of the equipment’s work.
How much electricity a mining farm consumes
The amount of electricity consumed during mining depends on several factors:
- Equipment. From what “iron” is used for the extraction of digital currency, the consumption of electricity will depend. Especially this rule applies to power supplies. Models with SILVER and GOLD certification allow you to save up to 0.14 kW per day.
- Design. Strange as it may seem, this factor affects the amount of electricity consumed. Proper farm assembly and equipment selection will reduce cooling costs.
- Tariffs. To maximize savings, you need to choose one that is divided by time of day and adjust your work schedule to it.
Calculate how much the crypto farm consumes per day, you can use the formula:
(total power of equipment * operating time) * cost of light
Calculation of electricity consumption
The easiest tool to calculate the benefits of cryptocurrency mining is an online calculator, such as WhatToMine. It is enough to specify in the electronic window your equipment, the algorithms used and the cost per kilowatt. Of course, calculations can also be done manually, but because of the abundance of input data, it will be much more difficult.
When mining on Asics
On average, most asics consume no more than 1.4 kWh during operation. They are quite costly due to the quality and warranty, so the payback period of a system with ASICs can drag on for a year or more. However, it is easy to calculate the power consumption of such equipment.
For example, iBelink DM22G consumes 19.4 kW per day. The average price of 1 kilowatt in the Russian Federation is 3-4 rubles. Based on this figure, you can roughly calculate the future costs. Thus, the cost of continuous operation of one such icic will be 78 rubles per day or 2400 per month. Compared to video cards, this is quite a lot, but you can reduce costs with the help of quality cooling.
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When mining on video cards
The energy consumption of mining using video cards is calculated in the same way as in the case of ASICs. For example, three GTX 3060s on the Ethash algorithm consume 8 kW per day. During this time they mine approximately 0.0017 ETH worth 167 rubles. Conducting simple calculations, you can find out the amount of profit. So, from three GTX 3060 for a day it will amount to 143 rubles.
With the help of an online calculator, you can find out how many kilowatts per month consumes a mining farm. If the calculated result will not suit you, it is worth changing the equipment (all or partially) or choosing a different algorithm of action to work.
Regional electricity tariffs as a way to save money
Reduce electricity consumption in mining can be reduced even without replacing the equipment with more energy-saving equipment. To save money, it is enough to choose the cheapest tariff plan. According to Energovopros, the most expensive electricity is in Moscow, while the most favorable conditions are in Krasnoyarsk.
| Region | Tariff №1 | Tariff No. 2 | Average cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moscow | |||
| Moscow region | |||
| Rostov-on-Don | |||
| St. Petersburg | |||
| Leningrad region | |||
| Samara | |||
| Volgograd | |||
| Omsk | |||
| Perm | |||
| Kazan | |||
| Yekaterinburg | |||
| Nizhny Novgorod | |||
| Novosibirsk | |||
| Chelyabinsk | |||
| Ufa | |||
| Krasnoyarsk |
These are the latest official data. Since the day of their publication, light prices have increased by an average of 5%. The table showed that if too many resources are consumed by video cards for mining, it is worth switching to a more favorable tariff plan or thinking about placing the crypto farm in another region. So, for example, the best from this point of view will be Krasnoyarsk, Ufa or Chelyabinsk.
How to reduce energy consumption
In addition to connecting to more favorable tariffs, there are other ways to reduce energy consumption:
- Upgrading outdated “iron” to a more modern one. You don’t have to do this all at once. To spread the costs over time, you can start with power supplies.
- Using immersion cooling. An alternative to the usual ventilation system for computers will be a dielectric liquid in which video cards are immersed. Yes, this is an expensive investment, but in the long run the equipment will pay off.
Electricity consumption by a mining farm can be high due to an unobvious problem – outdated wiring and equipment. This is due to high losses. In addition, old wiring is banally unsafe and can cause an accident, short circuit.
With the help of utilities
Optimize costs can be optimized with the help of special utilities. As an example, the MSI Afterburner program is perfect for such purposes.
In it, by adjusting the Power Limit parameter, miners overclock the hardware, increasing its performance. In this way, it is easy to find a balance between the amount of energy consumed and the income from cryptocurrency mining.
Overclocking can void the warranty and damage the equipment. Changing the parameters of the technique should be done with caution.
BIOS settings
Raise the hashrate of the equipment and optimize its operation can be done by reflashing the BIOS. It is recommended to do this separately for each video card, and only memory timings should be changed. The algorithm of BIOS reflashing depends on the manufacturer of the hardware, as well as the programs used for configuration:
- Polaris bios editor or ATIFlash for AMD.
- NiBiTor or NVFlash for NVIDIA.
If you do everything correctly, the speed of hashrate calculation can increase by 20-30%. At the same time, power consumption will either increase insignificantly or remain at the same level.
Frequent user questions
⚡ Which crypto coins have the lowest electricity costs?
It all depends on the video cards, the algorithms used, and the exchange rate of digital currencies.
🔌 Can I be penalized for high electricity consumption?
This does not threaten miners if they pay their light bills on time.
⏳ How to minimize crypto farm downtime?
You should install a surge protector and, if possible, an uninterruptible power supply.
❓ Which meter is more profitable: two- or three-tariff?
If you actively use electricity at its peak, a two-tariff meter should be used.
🖥️ How do I spot an inefficient video card?
Connect it with a raiser to the power supply and then connect a wattmeter to the PSU. The meter will display the performance and average power consumption.
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Author: Saifedean Ammous, an expert in cryptocurrency economics.
