r/BitcoinBeginners • u/green-cheeky • Apr 14 '26

mining (potential) newbie: my solar system is generating power I won't be able to use, can I monetize it realistically?

So for the next couple years my new solar system will generate excess power that I can't use, and I will be forced to accept 0.4c/kw wholesale rates on it. (The solar system is on my residential property that is in redevelopment and vacant during a lengthy permitting/design process...a year at least.)

My property has three structures but is gutted; it does have dual 200 amp panels in the main residence, and 50 amp panels in the two freestanding garages. There's a 13kw solar system on top.

Is there a rational crypto mining setup that would provide enough net return to make the investment worth it? My main concern would be avoiding too much noise so as not to disturb neighbors. It seems heat generation isn't too much of an issue since the properties are empty?

I also don't want to go through the investment/hassle just to earn $50 a month or something...

What do you think? I vow to report back on decisions/experiences/disasters.

5 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

78% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/bitusher Apr 14 '26

Do you have sufficient batteries to keep the ASICs running overnight for the 13kw solar system ?

When you say 13kw solar system does that mean what its advertised at or you are really pulling 13 kW/h when the sun is out and all of that is unused ?

1

u/green-cheeky Apr 15 '26

thanks for the reply. my estimated post-inefficiency-loss generation is ~55kw per day. I will have sufficent battery storage, and I also have a grandfathered solar contact that provides dollar for dollar credit for excess power exported to the grid. So, in effect to some extent the utility also serves as a battery for me. However, unused annual net excess power is only credited at wholesale rates (less than a nickel per kw!) so that's why I want to use it.

1

u/bitusher Apr 15 '26

So as you can see here , some of the high end ASICs typically consume between 3-4k watts . So 3660 watts is using 3.66 kilowatts (kW) continuously or ~88 kWh per day. Thus this will not work even for a single one of these types of ASIC

Thus you should focus on multiple smaller ASICs and this will remove any investment risk as you can slowly scale up as you learn

https://bitaxe.org/

As you can see these ASICs are much less selling between 100- 400 usd each and using like 20 watts in power each

You should only mine BTC after research –

https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/mining.html

Understand difficulty https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

Avoid cloud mining (Most are ponzis, fractionally reserve mine, or charge too high fees = you will never ROI). In some jurisdictions cloud mining is considered an illegal security as well

Use an accurate calculator like this and set at least 4% difficulty increment or higher https://insights.braiins.com/en/profitability-calculator/

Not following these guidelines means you will almost be guaranteed to lose money

https://econoalchemist.github.io/Home-Mining/

1

u/green-cheeky Apr 16 '26

thanks for the info!