Published in · 5 min read · Dec 14, 2019
If you had a 3MW facility could you host 1,000 Bitmain Antminer T17+’s, and how much PH/second would that give you in hashing power?
Surprisingly, its not always the easiest to formulate in your head. So we put together a guide to help you through the process.
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Wattage (W)
A watt is a unit of power.
Power is a measure of the rate at which energy flows. Watts are a similar measurement to kilometers-per-hour as they indicate how fast electrons are travelling. One watt is equivalent to electricity flowing at a rate of one joule per second in the metric system.
Sometimes total watts are also referenced as Consumption or Reference Power on Wall on platforms that are selling ASICs.
KiloWatt-Hour (kWh)
kWh is a measure of energy (Involves Power &Time).
Energy is defined as the capacity to do work, such as hashing (mining). If you run a 3,000-watt Antminer T17+ for one hour, you’ve used 3,000 watt-hours, or 3.0 kWh. In other words, 3.0 kWh is the amount of energy you need to run a T17+ for an hour.
Usually the ASICs specs come with a +/- 10% and seem to get overclocked their reported energy consumption pretty easily. So if a T17+ says it consumes 3.0 it will likely go considerably higher. For simplicity lets assume no overclocking.
Almost every time you hear a miner talking about their cost they are referencing the electricity cost for a kWh. So if they say “I have 4 cent power” what they mean is they pay the electricity company (or hosting facility) 4 cents USD per kWh.
On a per month basis that would be:
($0.04 USD per kWh) x (24 hours/day) x (30.42 day/month )
= ~$30 of cost per month per kWh
So to get the price of hosting a T17+ for a month just multiply its kWh (3.0) by that total ($30) to get $90 USD/Month
MegaWatt (MW)
The term megawatt is usually used by a farm or colocation operator to describe how large their mining operations are.
A 1 MegaWatt farm, running at 100% capacity generates 1,000,000 watts of power per hour (or 1,000 kW/h). So the plant produces 365 x 24 x 1 MegaWatt hours of total power a year.
However a 100% load factor is not feasible for an operation as the breakers and wires can’t usually take a continuous load. Around 80% capacity factor is more realistic.
So a 1MW farm can power up to 800kWh. If each S17+ is 3kWh then the farm can host 267 machines.
Hashing Power
A hash is the output of a hash function. Hash rate is the speed at which a computer is completing an operation in the cryptocurrency’s code. Hashrate is measured in hashes per second. A higher hashrate increases a miner’s opportunity of finding the next block and receiving the block reward.
If you join a PPS pool, your payout (i.e. Revenue) is dependant on your hashrate.
A terahash (TH) is equal to one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) hashes per second.
Miner Efficiency
Now is when things get a bit thicker so put on your math hat.
The efficiency of an ASIC is one of the most important specs when considering a purchase. It is essentially how many shares (revenue) can the machine produce per unit of energy (cost). So this should give you a rough sense of profitability differences when comparing ASICs
The T17+ has a reference power efficiency on wall of 44.0 J/TH (at @25°C). And if you remember our watt calculation from above 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second.
So to get to kWh per TH, the calculation for a T17+ is:
[44 Joules / (60 seconds x 60 minutes)] / (1000 Watts/kW)
= 0.000012222 kWh / TH.
So at an electricity price of $0.04 kWH (referenced above) a miner would be paying $0.0000004889 a TH.
And as a proof, if you multiply that cost by the stated TH/s of the ASIC (73) and by seconds in a month (60 x 60 x 24 x 30.42) and by the kWh of the machine (3.0) you should get back to the monthly hosting cost.
$0.0000004889 a TH x (73TH/s) x (60 x 60 x 24 x 30.42) / (3.0kWh) = $30
Conclusion
So a 1MW farm can power 267 machines, each machine produce 73TH/s which will contribute a total of ~20PH.
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Hash Rate Calculations:
- 1 kilo hash per second is one thousand (1,000) hashes per second
- 1 mega hash per second is one million (1,000,000) hashes per second.
- 1 giga hash per second is one billion (1,000,000,000) hashes per second.
- 1 tera hash per second is one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) hashes per second.
- 1 peta hash per second is one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) hashes per second.
- 1 exa hash per second is one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) hashes per second.
Power Calculations:
- 1 kilowatt is one thousand (1,000) watts
- 1 megawatt is one million (1,000,000) watts
- 1 gigawatt is one billion (1,000,000,000) watts
As a cryptocurrency mining expert with comprehensive knowledge in ASIC mining, power consumption, and hashing operations, I can confidently elaborate on the concepts mentioned in the provided article by Luxor Tech.
The article delves into crucial aspects of cryptocurrency mining, particularly focusing on the relationship between mining facilities' power capacity, the number of mining machines, and the resulting hashing power. It discusses key terminologies such as Wattage (W), Kilowatt-Hour (kWh), MegaWatt (MW), Hashing Power, and Miner Efficiency. Allow me to break down each concept:
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Wattage (W): A unit of power that measures the rate of energy flow. It's crucial in determining the energy consumption of mining hardware, such as Bitmain Antminer T17+ machines.
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Kilowatt-Hour (kWh): A unit of energy that involves both power and time. It's used to calculate the total energy consumption over a period, often per month, which is essential in assessing the cost of running mining equipment.
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MegaWatt (MW): Represents the power capacity of a mining farm. It signifies the amount of power available to run mining machines. A 1MW farm can power a specific number of machines, factoring in their energy consumption.
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Hashing Power: Hash rate refers to the speed at which a mining machine can perform operations in a cryptocurrency's code, measured in hashes per second (TH/s, GH/s, MH/s). It directly impacts a miner's chance of finding the next block and receiving rewards.
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Miner Efficiency: This spec determines how efficiently an ASIC miner can generate revenue per unit of energy consumed. It's crucial for assessing profitability when comparing different mining machines.
The article goes further to explain calculations related to power efficiency in mining. For instance, it breaks down the T17+ ASIC's efficiency in terms of energy consumption per terahash (TH) and relates it to electricity costs, aiding in determining the monthly hosting cost for running such a machine.
Additionally, it clarifies that a 1MW farm can host a certain number of machines, each contributing a specific hashing power, which collectively determines the overall hashing rate (PH/second) achievable by the farm.
Finally, it provides a guide to hash rate calculations, outlining the magnitude of hashes per second (kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa) and power measurements (kilo, mega, giga).
This comprehensive breakdown demonstrates a deep understanding of the intricacies of cryptocurrency mining, power consumption, and hashing operations, as elucidated in the Luxor Tech article.
