Hello from AUS

Hi all,

I have emerged out into the sunlight from my mine to search for more power to run my power hungry rigs, was researching inverters and stumbled into the 18650 Universe and promptly had a brain fart. Now I am almost as obssesed as when I discovered mining. Looking to build large capacity and varied charging sources from solar to wind to biodiesel powered gennies, and maybe even some wood gas. Also want to charge packs from off peak tariffs. Already have some AGM capacity 135ah x 20 @12V, wish I had seen this idea sooner. Thanks to all for any helpful advice.



Bitcoin Bandit

Welcome! I dont really understand the correlation, but it seems like a lot of the members of this forum are or were into mining before heading into 18650 land. I got into Bitcoin in 2013 as well after reading an article about Cyprus causing the price to rise to a whopping $250 before crashing back down below $100 lol. I was hooked. Anyway, this forum has a wealth of information, do some reading and you will be a pro in no time.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Bitcoin and powerwalls are like biscuits and cheese. I think you will find a heap more miners tapping into this as mining is just basically burning energy to create an unforgeable token of value. The beauty of this is I am no longer dependant on the utility company to market my energy and I value add when I sell my energy on the internet. I cant wait to start building some banks.

While I like to encourage recycling and renewable energy, mining is not really a good use for batteries. That's why you are getting kind of a negative reaction from members of this forum. Batteries are expensive, and even if you were to get them for free, there is still a lot of cost in overhead, BMS, and time. And they dont last forever like solar panels (25 years daily use and still 80% output is practically forever). If you wanted to maximize their life and only use 50% of their capacity daily, you would need close to 300kWh for your needs. That's why miners shun batteries and solar and just move to places where grid costs allow them to remain profitable. I'm all for making money on top of money, but it has to be within reason.

I understand and respect your thoughts on batteries and mining, but I am not intending to completely shift my consumption to batteries. During the day my rigs are already powered straight off the grid tied solar panels I have. (1/3 consumption straight to renewables) I am also working on compressed air storage from recycled LPG tanks, a biodiesel powered generator from waste vegetable oil and wind generators (I live on the edge of a very windy ridge) so the batteries are really going to be a buffer rather than outright storage. I am also looking at charging the batteries on off peak rates to reduce costs. I also plan to buy lithium cells new from China once I am better established. There is no reason why I shouldnt be able to tap renewables efficiently in any location. I am competing against Chinese miners who are buying excess hydro energy at 3cUSD/kwh due to their rainy season. This may sound cynical and I know many dont like Bitcoin because they view it as a waste of energy, but the future of money is a token backed by energy rather than fiat money printed out of thin air. Energy, money and power are going to become inextricably linked and as they do it is going to revolutionize how we produce energy, including dare I say it nuclear. I see Bitcoin both as a way to finance new energy and also to finally give the human race an honest form of money. I also see Bitcoin as a way to open the market for micro energy producers who are forced to sell their energy to their respective grids at far less than what the grid charges for retail consumption. Forget the media disinformation and examine the software code to truly see what Bitcoin means.