How Much Electricity Does Crypto Mining Use?

Crypto miners around the world are competing to validate Bitcoin transactions and enter them into public ledger. However, to accomplish this, Bitcoin miners must use more and more energy-hungry computers to compete with others "coin-hunters." The more computers they have to compete with, the better their odds. Because of this, well-funded miners are now building massive warehouses packed with powerful computers, all of which are racing to mine the next coin, and using tremendous amounts of energy in the process.

In today's crypto landscape, you need highly specialized machines, a huge amount of capital, a large space and enough cooling power to keep the constantly running crypto mining hardware from overheating. This is why mining now happens in giant data centers owned by companies or groups of investors.

Why Does Mining Crypto Use So Much Energy?

Graphics cards used in crypto mining rigs are working around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. According to CNET, a rig with three GPUs can consume 1,000 watts of power or more when it's running, That is about the same as a medium-size window AC unit. Not so bad, right?  However, a crypto mining warehouse can have hundreds or even thousands of rigs in one location, all consuming precious electricity.

One Bitcoin mining center in Kazakhstan is said to be running 50,000 mining rigs. That is a 180-megawatt facility alone.

Not only do rigs take up power, they also generate heat, requiring miners to equip advanced cooling systems which drive electricity costs even higher.

How Much Electricity Does Bitcoin Mining Use? 

According to the Digiconomist's Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, it is estimated that one Bitcoin transaction takes up to 2,277 kWh of electricity to complete. In other words, mining one coin is the equivalent of approximately consuming 78 days of power for the average US household. 

How Much Does Mining Crypto Cost?

If you take 2,277 kWh and multiply that by the average cost per kWh in the US, which is around 13 cents / kWh, the average Bitcoin mining transaction would cost more than $296 in energy bills. This is an estimate.

With so many variables, it is hard to calculate exactly how much energy bitcoin mining consumes, however, New York Times recently shared some interesting stats:

Bitcoin mining consumes around 204 terawatt-hours of electricity annually:

• Comparable to the power use of Thailand.
• 0.5% of all electricity consumption worldwide.
• Same amount of electricity consumed in the state of Washington each year.
• More than a third of electricity used for residential cooling in the US annually.
• Seven times the electricity used by all of Google's global operations.

If you are looking to save money on your data center electricity bill contact Ananta for your free energy analysis.