Power consumption
Also called: watts, kWh, power draw, wattage
A miner's power consumption is its power in watts; multiplied by its running time, it gives the energy you are billed for in kWh.
A machine's power consumption is read in watts (W): it is the power it draws continuously from the grid. Your electricity supplier, on the other hand, bills you for energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh), meaning power sustained over a period of time. A 1,000 W device running for one hour uses 1 kWh.
A miner runs day and night, and that changes everything. A 3,000 W machine uses 72 kWh per day, or 2,160 kWh over a thirty-day month. Electricity is therefore a miner's main expense, far ahead of maintenance. And almost all of that energy comes back out as heat, which has to be removed or, better still, reused.
On a product page, power consumption is given at the wall, with a tolerance of a few percent. Check the accepted voltage, often 200 to 240 V for large ASICs, the current drawn and the plug type. A 3,000 W machine on 230 V draws about 13 A: it needs a dedicated, properly protected circuit, and sometimes a three-phase installation if you run several of them. Have your installation checked by an electrician.
Our profitability calculators factor in power consumption and your price per kWh, and our hosting service spares you from managing the machines' power supply yourself.