Let me rewrite this post. My first response was in bad form.
You never use kW/h because kW already includes a time unit. 1kW = 1000 Joules/second. That’s why I say there is no kW/hr.
I hope that makes sense. And I am sorry if my attempt at clarification actually caused more confusion.
Here is a short crash course for cost:
I = current usage in unit Ampere
V = voltage usage in unit Volt
P = I * V. Power usage in unit Watt
If you want to measure your power usage, you can plug in a watt meter between your outlet and your farm power plug. The meter should display a value in unit Watt or “W” in short or “kW” (unit kiloWatt).
The meter could have a usage counter that reads “kWh” (kiloWatt * hour), it is just saying how many kW I have used in hours. In your electric bill, it tells you how many kWh you have used for the month or per day in average and how much is costing you.
So to put a bow on it, for most farmers, at what Chia value will the cost of hydro make it unprofitable? Going with that average cost per watt that is common, can the wattage experts estimate that point where Chia won’t cover cost of farming? I guess plotting complicates the power usage, but maybe it’s possible to establish a line in the sand?
OK, thanks, I think, certainly from all my peers kw/h
is interpreted exactly the same as kwh.
Possibly its incorrect formatting, but still widely accepted by everyone I’ve come across until yourself.
So the \ was never meant to be used for division.
And I agree, they are often used interchangeably. That’s why I wrote that the entire debate was avoidable, since we all understood what was meant. But once the nitpicking had begun, I couldn’t just leave a misunderstanding as the last word.
Thank you for understanding!
Jesus people are you still talking about W and kWh? The guy is a troll nothing more or at least a Karen. I know everyone knows what I meant but can we stop this argument already? I said a lot more in my post… I would prefer to talk about that.
No one knows the truth but honestly… why is the Chia dev team not interested in publicity? Why is everything happening behind the curtain these days, with an open source project? I am seriously concerned.
I see a lot of long time members starting to doubt the project and again I am concerned… Don’t know, I wish I’d know more
Good question.
To estimate this, we have to set the variables for
A: ur farming-cost as shown here: Poll: Power consumption per plot
B: ur power-cost, as discussed somewhere else here
In my case, with 0.9W/TB and 0.39$/kWh,
it would be around 45$/XCH.
That, of course, wouldnt cover hardware and plotting.
It depends what kind of farmer you are, if you
For 1), if your desired target ROI is 2 years. Divide your hardware cost X by 24 months to get Y. Your monthly electric bill cost C. Your monthly XCH profit P. Your monthly net cash flow is P-C-Y. If your net cash flow is okay, continue to farm. If net cash flow is negative, you either quit or re-adjust your target ROI.
For 2), keep farming and check the price after 5-10 years and hope XCH price goes to the moon.
I wouldn’t be able to give you the numbers. My own farm is tiny and running on a computer used for other work.
But basically you’d have to calculate the ongoing energy usage of your farm (in W or kW) and multiply it by the number of hours required to earn 1XCH. Then multiple that by your energy cost (per kWh). That should tell you how much it costs to earn 1XCH.
Farming cost of 1 XCH = Farm Watts * Hours to earn 1 XCH * price per kWh / 1000
And yeah, that doesn’t include plotting.
If we take @Morningcoffee007’s example, since he shared his numbers. He wrote 280W and GBP 45/month. With an average 30.4 days per month (not factoring in leap years) his farm uses 280W * 30.4 days * 24 hours / 1000 = 204.288 kWh per month. So I assume he pays 45/204.288 = GBP 0.22 per kWh. Or USD 0.3036 at the current GBP/USD exchange rate.
According to chiacalculator.com ETW for a 355 TiB farm is 23 days, or 552 hours. Half that (276) to earn 1 XCH. So here we go:
Farming cost of 1 XCH = 280 (W) * 276 (Hours to earn 1 XCH) * 0.3036 (USD per kWh) / 1000 = $23.46
Even at the current low XCH price of $136, you make almost 6X the energy cost to farm XCH.
BUT, that’s just the energy cost. Depreciation of hardware and other costs must be added too.
Feel free to correct me if my numbers or calculations slipped somewhere 
Yeah, those numbers are correct. BUT in April the cost for 1kWh will go up to 0.3 GBP ~ at least a 30% increase the government said. With Chia going down until God know where, with the hardware being used 24/7 there is a chance of hardware failure… Like most people here, I’ve spend a lot of money and right now I am looking at a loss. If I sell now… maybe only 1-2K in GBP. This includes the plotters and other equipment I purchased for Chia farming.
In a few months or less there will be a market crash and right now the crypto world never looked better but Chia is going down because there is no interest to promote the project or at least this is how it looks if we compare Chia with other projects.
They have $50mil in the bank or they had… why can’t we see more updates? Maybe a Chia convention in Vegas or something? I look at other projects, much smaller than Chia and they advertise, they do weekly AMA where they actually talk with the community not to the community like they’re high up in a castle somewhere talking between themselves. Am I asking too much? Maybe
Bram said we talk like we’re entitled and we should stop it. I don’t even know how I should react to that after spending so much money and time in his project only to be talked down like that. Anyway, let’s hope we see some improvements before this bull market is over otherwise it will be very hard to recover… 5+ years. I’m honestly disappointed and somewhat frustrated with Chia. I apologize if the way I feel is bothering anyone.
Have a great night everyone
If you believe the people behind XCH that they will turn this around but can’t afford any more money from electric bill, you could sell your equipment and buy XCH directly and hold. If you doubt these people, you could sell your equipment and invest somewhere else.
I don’t know what to believe. Chia succeeding long term is simply speculation right now. I can see what they’ve done so far and what their plans are. Will they succeed? Not sure anymore… One thing is certain, if the dev stop developing this project for reasons unknown to us, we will all lose money.
Will they abandon the project if there is too much pressure from their investors or if they run out of money? Is it unlikely for this to happen in the next 5 years or 10? Probably, but who knows?
It’s all about risk and reward. If the reward is too small or the risk is too high, it might be the right time to move on. I’m not there yet, I just hope we’ll get some fantastic news before I lose all faith
Shiba-coin has gone up 85000000% over the last 6 months.
Wish, I had invested 1k back then…
Wow, that’s quite a hike in energy price there! I am sure we will soon see hikes where I am too (Florida).
I definitely understand your concern, even though I am in a much easier situation, having only invested little in my farm, and not owning a lot of XCH.
I do see some signs in the XCH trading activity which encourages me (see my earlier posts in this thread).
And I do think Chia Co is deliberately NOT hyping XCH because they want to distance themselves from the hypecoins that dominate much of the crypto space, in order to be taken seriously by some serious players. Of course that is just speculation on my part, although it fits with the technical analysis.
Unfortunately, I think we could easily fall further before going higher. In fact that would be expected if big players are entering the Chia space. As with every trade (and being a farmer IS a trade) everybody has a point where they cannot take more pain. When enough traders finally throw in their towels, we can expect a final big drop before a more sustained rally. That is usually how these things go in any market.
You could strike a balance, cut down your investment amount (including next 5 years electric bill) that has no major impact on your financial life. This might become smaller investment and some loses but since it is risky it’s reward can multiple folds (like 10x) after 5 years. You could potential make big money for a controlled potential loss.
I agree to every single point.
Wanna add, that ive always planned for a 4-5yrs project, without any payout before that.
Right now I want to make the best decisions I can make not for me but especially for my son… I want him to have a better life. We’re in the middle of this great movement of wealth and it will only last so long… 5-10 years maybe. We have this amazing opportunity right now to accumulate wealth… we have to take advantage.
I don’t think I can wait for 5 years to see what happens. To keep ~£6000 worth of equipment locked for 5 years. I have to contemplate… Thank you so much for your input.
5-10yrs? Others would say months 
The largest movements will come after regulations are in place. This will be in 5 years I think or earlier
What Is a Pain Trade?
Pain trade is the tendency of markets to deliver the maximum amount of punishment to as many investors as possible from time to time.
Pain Trade
It is cruel, but very often how markets work: The patient players will beat the impatient ones, because they can sustain more pain – either thanks to their size or because they got a better entry.