Running a pc 24/7 with solar power any ideas

[Tonys1]

Hi

I am planning to mine Bitcoin and Litecoin (PC running 100% 24/7), but have one question can this be powered via Solar Energy

E.g
1)Use a solar panel to charge a battery and use that battery to power my PC/Bitcoin rig
2)directly use a solar panel to power my PC/Bitcoin rig
3)Charge a Gentator and use that to power PC/Bitcoin rig plug a UPS as well

Are my ideas workable if so can you supply with a little more info or a few places to shop

[Sunking]

It is doable but you need to ask yourself why would you do this?

Anything you take off the grid and put on solar battery system will cost you roughly 10 times more than buying the power from the electric company. So if saving money or protecting mother earth is your objective, then it is delusional and absent of fact

[Mike90250]

First, you need to understand that mining Coins, has currently progressed to the point where a large farm or array of miners is needed.
Second, you need to get a power meter (Kill-a-watt) and plug your computer gear power strip into that, start the miners, fire up the router & modems, and let it run a couple days to get a good average reading of the power you consume. From the Grid, that power will generally cost you about 15 cents for each Killowatt Hour. From solar and batteries, it will cost you about $1 for each KWh, and you get to purchase new batteries every 5 years or so.

So, assume the computer gear pulls 800w x 24 hr = 19200 (19 KWh) or about $3 per day

Solar to provide 19KWh, will need to have nearly a 8Kw PV array, a bank of batteries, and associated gear (charge controller, inverter, monitor gear......)

Am I answering the right question for you ?

Wife and I live off grid, with 2 fridges, microwave, lights, TV and everything , and consume about 9Kwh daily. I have a 3Kw PV array, backup generator and 2 sheds full of all the gear.

[russ]

Hi

I am planning to mine Bitcoin and Litecoin (PC running 100% 24/7), but have one question can this be powered via Solar Energy

Too much time or too much money on your hands?

[Tonys1]

Using a asic and raspberry pi, uses about 30 watts

Their must be some way to keep it off my main power supply (grid) and it costing less i mean electricity always goes up but once i make a investment in the equipment is should be cheaper right?
I mean if i brought a solar panel and battery in a all in one deal should be cheaper right?
In this day and age their must be a way to keep my BitCoin/Litecoin rig running 24/7 and it being cheaper then the grid

Any other Renewable energy i could use?

[Mike90250]

Using a asic and raspberry pi, uses about 30 watts

How does that bitrate compare to running a trio of high end video cards for an hour?

Their must be some way to keep it off my main power supply (grid) and it costing less i mean electricity always goes up but once i make a investment in the equipment is should be cheaper right?

For 30 watts ? Nearly pointless Any investment in PV, inverter and battery will ALWAYS cost you way more than the grid power.
Investing in a high effieceny fridge will pay you back more in 6 months than PV would
Maybe if you pulled permits and signed up for agreements, you could, for less than $1K, install a single 200W grid tie panel and inverter . That is generally a fair payback in 5-10 years

I mean if i brought a solar panel and battery in a all in one deal should be cheaper right?

just as good of a deal as buying a car and 10 tanks of gas at the same time. And then buying more gas (batteries) every 4 years

In this day and age their must be a way to keep my BitCoin/Litecoin rig running 24/7 and it being cheaper then the grid

how much are those bitcoins worth - when you have burned enough watts to pay for the rig, use that cash to buy a grid tie panel and inverter
Maybe - you can just use a 12V battery and a 12-5V DC-DC converter, looking at about $600 for the small Morningstar or Rogue MPPT controller, 200W pv and a pair of golf cart batteries

Any other Renewable energy i could use?

Heat from the CPU to run a thermoelectric generator

[Sunking]

Their must be some way to keep it off my main power supply (grid) and it costing less i mean electricity always goes up but once i make a investment in the equipment is should be cheaper right?

Impossible. Battery replacement cost alone will be roughly 5 times higher than what you can buy it for and battery prices go up faster than electric rates.

On such a small scale you would be paying closer to 20 times more than you can buy it for. Renewable energy especially off-grid battery is extremely expensive.

[russ]

extremely expensive.

No problem when he gets rich playing with the funny money.

[pleppik]

In this day and age their must be a way to keep my BitCoin/Litecoin rig running 24/7 and it being cheaper then the grid

Any other Renewable energy i could use?

Grid power is remarkably cheap for what you get: 24/7 power with better than three nines reliability and surge capacity all for less than the cost of the fuel alone to run a small diesel generator. There are some good reasons for being off-grid, but price is not one of them.

If you live on the side of a mountain, you might be able to get micro-hydro, but it's still probably going to be more expensive than grid power. Same for wind. The energy itself is free, but the equipment to capture and store it is expensive.