Crypto Mining 101: How to Calculate Power Costs Watts (W), kiloWatts (kW)

This is something that I thought that others might find useful. Plus, I work in the enterprise data center and cloud space so I know a few things about servers, colocation, and power. I will start with a short explanation of power in terms of Watts (W), kiloWatts (kW), and MegaWatts (MW). I will also get into taking Watts and converting them into kiloWatts (kW) and kiloWatt hours (kWh). This is all very important for calculating power costs for your mining rigs. Feel free to skip ahead of the next couple of paragraphs to get to power as it relates to mining crypto currencies.

This is simple. A kiloWatt (kW) is comprised of one thousand Watts. According to Dictionary.com, "a Greek combining form meaning “thousand,” introduced from French in the nomenclature of the metric system ( kiloliter); on this model, used in the formation of compound words in other scientific measurements ( kilowatt)." So, kiloWatt is equal to 1,000 Watts.

Simple Conversion Formula:

Watts = kiloWatts x 1,000
kiloWatts = Watts / 1,000

For example, 1,000 Watts = 1 kiloWatt and 1 kiloWatt = 1,000 Watts.

For the majority of bitcoin and other crypto currency miners you will never deal with MegaWatts (MW). MegaWatts are typically dedicated to large industrial and commercial building such as data center facilities that host virtual infrastructure (cloud) or physical infrastructure such as (colocation/ dedicated servers). However, there are some miners that are utilizing MegaWatts (MW).

What is a MegaWatt (MW) exactly? How much power is in a MW?

Simple Conversion Formula:

kiloWatts = MegaWatts x 1,000
MegaWatts = kiloWatts / 1,000

For example, 1 kiloWatt = 1,000 MegaWatts and 1 MegaWatt = 1,000 kiloWatts.

Now that we've covered the basics on converting power, we need to look at it from a pricing perspective. How do utility companies charge for power. They charge in kiloWatt hours (kWh). Data centers and other hosting providers also charge their customers in kWh. There are also several different tiers of kWh rates depending on whether you are residential, commercial, or industrial. You can find average kWh rates in the US per state by visiting https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/. This is helpful if you want to find cheap power. It's states like Wyoming, Utah, and Washington State that have some of the lowest kWh rates in the nation.

Next, we need to covert Watts into kiloWatts. Why? Most electronics (computers, appliances, lights) draw Watts from the wall outlet. Now we need to figure out just how many Watts or kiloWatts per hour, day, and month they will use. To do this, we need to convert Watts (W) into kiloWatts (kW) and into kiloWatt hours (kWh).

Simple Conversion Formula:

For this example, lets use 200 Watts. What is it in kiloWatt hour (kWh)?

kiloWatt (kW) = Watts / 1,000
kiloWatt (kW) = 200 / 1,000
kiloWatt (kW) = 0.2

Now that we have kW, it's time to convert that into kiloWatt hour (kWh). To do this, you will take the kW and multiply by 24 hours.

Simple Conversion Formula

kWh = kW x hours

In our example above, we converted W to kW and the answer was 0.2 kW.

0.2 kiloWatt (kW) x 24 hours = 4.8 kiloWatt hours (kWh)

Calculating Power Costs

To do this, we need to calculate kWh by the number of days in a month. That will get the total power consumption for your monthly bill. We assume that the electronics such as a mining rig would be drawing the same power over a 24 hour period. This does not take into consideration fluctuations in Watts or having electronics on for certain hours of the day.

With that being said, we would simply multiple the kWh and number of days in the month (30 days).

Simple Conversion Formula

kiloWatt hours (kWh) x days = monthly kWh consumption

Take 4.8 kiloWatt hours (kWh) x 30 days = 144 kiloWatt hours (kWh) over a month. Next, simply multiply by the average cost per kWh for your utility bill. 144 kiloWatt hours (kWh) x .09 cents per kWh = $12.96 per month in power costs for your mining rig.

How Much Power (Watts) Does Your Mining Rig Consume?

You can typically find this information from the manufacture or by a third party website. Here's a great resource that has a lot of the GPU cards, their performance, and power usage. http://mininghwcomparison.com/list/index.php?brand=nvidia