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After the first 20 minutes, the temperature of the water appears to increase at a steady rate of 0.0006 degrees Celsius per second. This increase in temperature means that there is an increase in thermal energy, which can be calculated as follows:
Here m is the amount of material (in this case, water), and C is specific heat capacity—the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of a substance by 1 degree Celsius. For water, C and 4.186 joules per gram per degree Celsius. So, with 1,000 ml of water and my temperature change, I find that the water requires energy of 2.51 joules every second (or 2.51 Watts).
Oh, look at that. Even with this measurement method, this is very close to the power going to the Raspberry Pi. The difference is due to imperfect insulation. So you can see that cryptocurrency energy is just thermal energy. Honestly, I’m surprised it worked so well.
Show Me The Money!
While it’s possible to run a crypto mine as a way to heat your house, that’s probably not why people do it. What is its value? Well, let’s read it quickly. I ran my Raspberry Pi mine for 12 hours. How much money did it make? Wait for it… 0.00000006 XMR. Converting this to US dollars, it is 0.0012 cents (not dollars). Yes, this can be a slow way to get rich. After driving it for 12,000 hours, I still couldn’t buy gum. Maybe don’t use gum.
And that’s not even counting the cost. I mean, mining isn’t free—you have to pay for electricity. The average cost of electricity in US is 16.94 cents per kilowatt-hour. If I run my mine at 3 watts for 12 hours, that’s 24 watt-hours, or 0.024 KWh. Using the electricity bill, this would cost 0.41 cents. Let me do some quick math here. Yes, 0.41 cents is more than I made. I’m no economist, but this seems like a bad business model.
Of course, no one but a scientist can create crypto on a Raspberry Pi. There are high-end mining machines (thousands of dollars) that allow you to generate coins quickly and effortlessly. Another thing to consider is the future value of cryptocurrency. Even if the price is more than the reward today, it may be worth more someday. Finally, a crypto mine can be located in a place with cheap electricity. It is also possible to run a mine on solar.
However, don’t forget that for every joule of energy you put into the mine, you will generate 1 joule of heat energy. You need to get rid of that heat, or it can cause problems for your computers. But cooling systems use a lot of energy, and this can make it difficult to make a profitable investment.
But it should work, because there are many mines in the US. In 2024, it was said that 2.3 percent of energy went into cryptocurrency. It’s small, and I’m not sure it’s the best way to spend our energy – especially since crypto is a synthetic product.
