In a bear market, miners’ revenues are falling. Many users are unable to earn even enough to pay their bills and are forced to stop mining. Miners with low costs survive – cheap socket, optimized for minimum consumption by the farm. In the article we will tell you how much Asik consumes and how to reduce costs without reducing hashrate. Large miners move mining to colder regions with cheaper electricity. You can also strengthen the farm with modern components – power supply, hard disk, RAM – to save up to 50 kW per month.
How much electricity Asics consume
Electricity consumption depends on the type of miner. Old ASICs had an average power of 1.4-2.2 kW/s (Antminer S9i, Innosilicon A10Pro). Newer models consume 4-5.35 kWh (Antminer S19 Pro+Hyd, ASICminer 8 Nano Pro). Due to their high hash rate, they generate good revenue. Therefore, the payback period of new asics is shorter than their predecessors.
Calculation of consumption
Electricity costs can be calculated using a mining calculator (such as WhatToMine) or on your own. Here’s how to find out how much the Asic consumes:
- Look in the specification to see the technical parameters of the asic (power consumption, mining algorithm).
- Find out the cost of energy according to the tariff.
- Multiply the electricity price by the power.
Consumption for the farm
To calculate the energy costs for a rig or a rack of asics, you need to multiply the consumption of one miner by the number of units. It is also necessary to take into account the consumption of components:
- PC, which manages the mining.
- Power supply unit.
- Cooling system.
Asics manufacturers and their comparison
Mining equipment is connected to the network around the clock. To calculate how much ASICs consume per month, you need to multiply the amount of energy by the tariff. For example, in 2022 in Moscow 1 kW costs 6.17 rubles, in St. Petersburg – 6.01, in Irkutsk – 1.42, in Chelyabinsk – 2.79.
The first asic was released by Butterfly Labs in 2013. In the next few years, many manufacturers sought to enter the market. The leader was Bitmain, which offered the most energy-efficient equipment.
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Modern manufacturers aim to reduce electricity consumption and at the same time increase hash rate. This combination reduces the payback of ASICs. Therefore, companies are investing in technology development. For example, 7 nm chips use 50% less power and occupy insignificant space on the board.
The table contains data on power consumption of popular ASIC models.
ASIC | Algorithm | Hashrate | Consumption (kW) |
---|---|---|---|
Warranty and availability of spare parts
At the beginning of an async’s life cycle, the most common failures are due to factory defects, and at the end, to natural wear and tear. The warranty protects against the first problem. The period depends on the manufacturer and usually does not exceed 3 months (Bitmain).
If the hash rate decreases at the end of the operation period (after a year of use), in some cases it is possible to extend the life of the equipment. Miners with technical skills and a soldering station replace faulty chips on their own. In the absence of proper training, you can contact a service center.
Usually there are no problems with ordering spare parts for popular models. However, in some cases (in case of high demand for mining) components will have to wait 1-3 months.
ASIC power consumption problems in mining
Mining cryptocurrencies is a costly business. Mining bitcoin in 2022 takes the amount of energy that a small country like the Netherlands requires. The power grids of a number of European and CIS countries are not designed for high loads. Therefore, governments have had to ban crypto mining or limit it to a few hours a day.
Author: Saifedean Ammous, an expert in cryptocurrency economics.