Voltage Stabilizer
A stabilizer holds its output voltage in a narrow band when the input sags or jumps. An asic does not always need this, it depends on the site.
What a voltage stabilizer is
Asic power supplies are tolerant of voltage on their own: most of them work from about 200 to 240 V, and the exact figures are printed on the housing. While the mains stays inside that band, a stabilizer is not needed and only adds losses of its own.
The trouble starts where voltage leaves the band. A sag down to 180 V on a long line out in the suburbs or a spike after work at the substation end the same way: the power supply goes into protection, the asic reboots, and with bad luck the power supply never comes back on.
A stabilizer and a UPS are different things. A stabilizer corrects voltage, but on a power cut it switches off along with everything else. A UPS holds the load on batteries, and for an asic at 3.5 kW a UPS like that comes out big and expensive.
Rated power gets taken with headroom. A stabilizer picked to match the load exactly lives at its limit and runs hot, so it gets sized at about one and a half times the total power of the asics.
Quick reference table
| What it does | holds the output voltage inside a band |
| Power supply range | usually from about 200 to 240 V |
| When it is needed | when the mains leaves that band |
| What it is not | not a UPS, no substitute for the grid |
| Power headroom | about one and a half times the load |
How to decide whether you need one
Measure first, buy afterwards. A voltage logger left for a week tells you more than any amount of reasoning: if the mains stays within the band of the power supply, there is nothing to spend money on.
Look at the cause of the sags. If voltage drops from your own load, the matter is in the cable cross section or in the service entry, and a stabilizer here treats a symptom.
Count the losses. A stabilizer draws power and runs hot itself, and over round the clock operation those percent show up in the bill.
Leave the wiring in the panel and the sizing by power to an electrician. A mistake here costs a fire rather than hashrate.
An example of the logic
Two asics at 3.5 kW each make 7 kW of load. A stabilizer for them gets taken at about 10 kW so that it does not work at its limit. If the measurements showed voltage from 215 to 235 V, there is no reason to buy one: the power supplies hold that band by themselves.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
- Antminer S21 tool
Numbers
Questions and answers
Do you need a stabilizer in a city apartment
Usually not: the mains there stays within the working band of the power supplies. That gets checked by measurement rather than by ear.
Will a stabilizer replace a UPS
No. On a power cut it switches off along with the asics. These are different jobs.
What do you do about frequent sags caused by your own load
Look at the service entry and the cable cross section. A stabilizer covers the symptom here while the cause sits in the line.
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 .