I had the power company come out to my house to see if I can power four 3350 watts miners at my house. Power company said the transformer is full loaded and can’t take any additional load. However, I can pay $11,500 and have new transformer installed. This will allow me to run four 3350 watts miners or more. Also because I’m a business I have to pay for the upgrade transformer. Has anyone else experience this with mining in the USA? I’m debating if I should do it. Any suggestions?
It could be more profitable to have your machines hosted and avoid those extra costs, reach out to @AdamMoyers he has some new open spots available with great power prices along with set up
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I’ll check them out.
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I remember seeing a guy on twitter that had this done and the power company quoted him something similar, but then once it was all said and done, there were other charges because of unexpected issues that had to be overcome by the installer and it ended up being like an extra $5000.
my recommendation would be to seek a place, like an old restaurant or laundry mat to lease. Should have 3phase and plenty of capacity. but having them hosted somewhere is probably the quickest and easiest.
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The power company did say the junction box next to my house may also need to be upgraded.
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junction/breaker boxes are rated in amps so if you have four miners at 3350W on 220VAC then that alone is 60A (3350*4)/220. So I can see them wanting to pull a sub panel for that with a main to 4 20A breakers, 1 for each miner.
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Power company said to install 400 amp box in my shed with a meter. That will cost me 2k or more.
hmm, interesting. so they want pull a separate service? It sounds like you have a business, so if that’s the case that would make sense to keep the bill separate from your residential, and that would give you plenty of room to expand.
400A is normally the max for single phase, from what I know.
Correct, it’s a business. That’s why I have to pay for the upgrades. If anyone that uses the transformer they will have to pay me credit. I need to mine for 5 years to get my money back electric company.
indeed, tough decision for sure.
If you think in bitcoin terms, the longer you wait the less bitcoin you’ll earn. If you can eat the overhead and operational costs, I’d go for it. otherwise I’d rather just use the money to buy bitcoin.
depending on where you shed is and it’s proximity to your house, it’s worth looking to using the waste heat, whether to heat the house or your water…
ps. I think vosk biffed on this one considering he had his house built and could have had radiant heat installed in the floor…
I think that’s the play for small/residential miners.
I will be mining KDA. I like BTC but I will need to make profit as soon as I mine. I can mine interest free for 18 month and only pay 1% monthly loan payment for 18 month to BTC halving then sale all the coins & pay everything off.
I wonder if I’m over leverage by taking out loan. We are in bear market and I feel like blood will be in street soon and now is time to make money.
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Considering B/E in 5 years, and being limited to 4 miners seems like a waste of resources in this market. Might be better off using that money to buy a few more miners and finding a small business rental to run your miners out of (ie. Ex-laundromat probably has a nice set of breaker boxes.).
At least, you could expense your rental expenses and electricity usage right away versus taking depreciation over a period of time. I think of things in terms of what’s going to generate the most coin. Upgrading a transformer just to use the 4 miners you already have seems like throwing good money after bad, ESPECIALLY, considering the price drops of some of the high Th/s ASICS I’ve seen advertised on the internet. When BTC turns around, you won’t be able to touch those ASICS at even double their current prices. Worse comes to worse, sit on them…then, unload them into rising BTC.
Just my 2 cents.
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I found some to house my miners for $ 220 per month and that with electricity. So I totally agree with you. I’m not going to mine in my backyard shed 
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This information is opinion not advise : -
The first thing I would ask is have you ever blown the main breaker?
My next question is do you have the miners to connect?
The reason I am asking these questions is because you have a service that is rated at an ampacity.
It is your right to use the entire amount that they have hooked you up for.
So keep connecting miners until your main breaker blows,
Then when that happens reduce the miners by one and think about an upgrade.
If that transformer can’t handle the load that you are taking, that’s a utility problem.
Imagine that you have a 200 amp service, and your loads total 120 amps, and you have no problem with the utility.
Then you choose to add a large hot tub, size 60 amps.
Your main breaker does not blow because you are not exceeding the 200 amps that the utility is bound to supply, but the fuse on the transformer blows, that’s a utility problem not a customer problem.
This is how it works for how our utility and as an electrical contractor, I have frequently held the utility accountable. I have gotten transformer upgrades for free, based upon the fact that they have to supply enough power for the full capacity of the service.
It does not matter whether you are connecting miners, or hot tubs.
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This is not advisable from Wired. Yes in theory you can run a circuit right up to the power limits of the breaker, and if the breaker is sized right for the wires you should be ok. But… if it is not sized correctly or if the wire pulls are overfilled or anything isn’t exactly right and tight, the load will produce high levels of heat in the wiring which can cause a fire or short circuit. Also, if the power line transformer blows you could create a situation where you will be to blame and local restrictions against mining could be put into play, or the surge could fry your equipment and your neighbors. You may not pay for the transformer but you could contribute to a general negative impact against crypto mining, which is already getting a bad stigma. Although most likely your main will trip first. This is easy to calculate, you can measure your current max draw with the A/C and fridge running and the dryer and everything you could possibly have on at one time. Then take the difference in amps between that and your main breaker size, multiply by the voltage (120V) and you’ll have how many watts are available to load up to. However it is generally advisable to keep your full load under 80% of the breakers rated capacity. If you do fully load your home you should probably run through everything with a heat gun to find any risky hot spots.
Something else to consider, if you’re looking at expanding anyway you may want to look at buildings that are zoned for industrial use. industrial electric tends to be priced at the best rates compared to residential or even commercial.
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If you pay more than .5c kwh then mining I’m general is a waste of money time and energy
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Wired is correct, also negotiate with utility for rate and no pay upgrade because you will be a higher use customer paying higher bill, its advantage to them. Also check records or local paper about all the incentives they give businesses to move to city and to expand. Tell them you may not be big millions dollar deal so you do not want millions in incentives only a proportional amount like just thousands. I had my local utility hit me the same way, I gave them that example, they upgraded transformer for free with stipulation my electric usage would be $850 per month or I would have to reimburse them. My usage is over $1100 per month so they are happy, I am happy. Remember everything in this world is negotiable.
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A local paper? What’s that? Are you talking about those things wrapped in a rubber band the paperboy used to deliver? 'Cause, I haven’t seen one if those in…decades!!
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Defi is correct on some of my previous comments,
I should have said for legal purposes “no electrical work can be performed without an electrical permit” and, “assuming the cable sizing for the service is done to the electrical code, and your additional work is done under an electrical permit to the code and the work is done by a qualified professional”
Then if all work is done to the electrical code, you can run the power for which the service has been designed for.
Always check with local utility and local rules for mining. If they have a crypto mining policy it should be documented and you can always ask for a copy.
In my experience the utility will always want you to upgrade their system for them, frequently this is outside of the utility commissions rulings, again you can ask for a copy of what is the utilities responsibility (expected system growth) and what is outside of that.
An electrical code load calc will get you the continuous equivalent ampacity. Your electrical professional will be able to advise.
Load calculations are not done as DeFi.Equipment has stated. Defi, please read load calculations part of the electrical code as there are allowances for loads of cyclic nature, derating, min allowance for square footage etc etc.
And yes, running anything over 80% continuously is not advisable.
The transformer is owned by the utility and is their responsibility in almost all situations, not the consumers. The point being that you will blow your main before the transformers fuse pops unless someone at the utility has messed up and not sized the transformer correctly.
However there are set purchase agreements that you may be in being commercial or industrial, so check with your utility what the maximum total demand that is allowable under your current service setup. It should be the same as the main breaker size, but there may be restrictions that I am not aware of. I would ask the utility “What is the maximum allowable demand on my existing service” it should be in line with your service size and if it isn’t you can ask why.
A 200 amp 240/120v split phase (single phase) service should be able to draw 48kW peak and 38.4kW continuous.
Generally, you pay for a 200 amp service you get the right to use a 200 amp service. On our bills it is under fixed monthly charges for a 200 amp connection.
Generally you do not need to advise the utility on adding load to your service nor what kind of load, again think of adding a hot-tub, or plugging in 8 fan heaters, or changing gas heat to an electric furnace (20kW) up to the size of your service. I don’t think anyone would ask the utility but rather ask an electrical contractor.