This seems like a great idea. I wonder how many use cases there will be for it, though. If you're mining at home and have a solar array, I would think you would use the solar power to run your home and your miners. I would expect that you would mine up to and past the edge, paying a minimal utility charge for the slight usage. In other words, you would mine as much as possible considering your system and your family's power needs. You would never have an excess to sell back anyway.
That’s a perfectly valid point, and it certainly fits a possible use case: sizing your ASICs for continuous mining while accepting some reliance on grid power.
However, that isn't the premise of this project. The idea here is aimed more at those who never want to buy grid electricity for mining—whether because the cost doesn't make sense or simply by choice (to avoid constant noise or heat). In that scenario, a "surplus" does indeed exist: it is the difference between household consumption and solar generation at any given moment, a figure that fluctuates throughout the day.
In my own setup, for instance, I have several ASICs of varying power ratings that kick in in stages based on the available surplus (starting with the small ones, and adding the large ones only when there’s a significant surplus). This avoids the need to size the system specifically to run 24/7; instead, the system adapts to solar fluctuations rather than the other way around.
That said, you’re right: if someone has just one small ASIC that is easily powered by their baseline solar output, there will effectively never be any shutdowns. In that case, the automation serves primarily as a safeguard to ensure no grid power is drawn on days with low sunlight.
Happy to answer any questions about the setup — meter wiring, HA automation logic, ASIC compatibility, anything. Also curious if anyone else here is running solar + mining and how you're handling the surplus detection on your end.
This seems like a great idea. I wonder how many use cases there will be for it, though. If you're mining at home and have a solar array, I would think you would use the solar power to run your home and your miners. I would expect that you would mine up to and past the edge, paying a minimal utility charge for the slight usage. In other words, you would mine as much as possible considering your system and your family's power needs. You would never have an excess to sell back anyway.
That’s a perfectly valid point, and it certainly fits a possible use case: sizing your ASICs for continuous mining while accepting some reliance on grid power.
However, that isn't the premise of this project. The idea here is aimed more at those who never want to buy grid electricity for mining—whether because the cost doesn't make sense or simply by choice (to avoid constant noise or heat). In that scenario, a "surplus" does indeed exist: it is the difference between household consumption and solar generation at any given moment, a figure that fluctuates throughout the day.
In my own setup, for instance, I have several ASICs of varying power ratings that kick in in stages based on the available surplus (starting with the small ones, and adding the large ones only when there’s a significant surplus). This avoids the need to size the system specifically to run 24/7; instead, the system adapts to solar fluctuations rather than the other way around.
That said, you’re right: if someone has just one small ASIC that is easily powered by their baseline solar output, there will effectively never be any shutdowns. In that case, the automation serves primarily as a safeguard to ensure no grid power is drawn on days with low sunlight.
Happy to answer any questions about the setup — meter wiring, HA automation logic, ASIC compatibility, anything. Also curious if anyone else here is running solar + mining and how you're handling the surplus detection on your end.