Diesel Generator
A diesel generator powers mining where there is no grid or none is offered. A liter of fuel turns into about 3 kWh, and that arithmetic decides everything.
When a generator makes sense
The math is simple: divide the price of a liter by 3 and you get your power rate. It almost always comes out more expensive than a household outlet, so mining off diesel instead of the grid is a way to pay more for electricity, not less.
The sense appears where fuel is nearly free or there is no grid at all: flare gas at oil fields, surplus from your own generation, remote sites. There the generator does not compete with the grid, because there is no grid.
Mining is a convenient load for a generator: flat, around the clock, no starting surges. But the generator has to be rated for continuous duty, with about twenty percent of power headroom: none can hammer at its nameplate limit for days on end.
Power quality is a separate question. A cheap generator gives wandering voltage and frequency, and ASIC power supplies do not like that. A stabilizer, or at least a generator with a decent speed governor, saves more money than it costs.
The short version
| Output per liter | about 3 kWh |
| Your rate | price of a liter divided by 3 |
| When it pays | fuel is nearly free or there is no grid |
| Power headroom | about twenty percent above the load |
| What to check | voltage and frequency stability |
What to sort out before launch
Count the full rate: fuel, oil, service by engine hours, delivery. Diesel burns money in more than liters.
Take a generator rated for continuous duty, not peak. Nameplate power splits into ratings, and for mining you read the prime or continuous line.
Separate the start-up: switch ASICs on after the generator reaches speed, and through breakers, not the whole rack at once.
Plan fuel stock and service: generator downtime is downtime for the whole site, there is no backup grid here.
An example of the arithmetic
Fuel at 1.50 per liter gives a rate of about 0.50 per kWh, three times more expensive than the household grid: mining does not live on that. Flare gas that would otherwise burn off in a stack gives a rate near zero, and the same rack of ASICs turns throwaway fuel into money.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
Numbers
Questions and answers
Is mining off diesel at home worth it
No, the rate from a liter is almost always more expensive than the outlet. At home a generator is backup for outages, not a source for mining.
How much power headroom is needed
About twenty percent above the ASICs' total draw, and read the continuous duty rating on the nameplate, not the peak number.
What makes bad generator power dangerous
Sags and spikes that restart and kill power supplies. A voltage stabilizer is cheaper than repairing a rack.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .