Hashrate Heating Calculator

The Hashrate Heating Calculator helps you determine whether Bitcoin mining is a cost-effective way to heat your home. By comparing the net cost of running a mining heater against traditional fuel sources, you can make an informed decision about whether hashrate heating makes sense for your situation.

Open the Calculator

Quick Start

1. Select your location - Choose your country and state/province to auto-load regional electricity and fuel prices
2. Enter your electricity rate - Use the direct input or bill calculator
3. Choose a fuel to compare against - Select what you currently use for heating
4. Select a miner - Pick from presets or enter custom specs
5. Review your results - See COPe, subsidy %, and savings vs. your current fuel

The calculator uses live Bitcoin network data and updates results in real-time as you adjust inputs.

Understanding the Inputs

Bitcoin Network Data

The calculator fetches live data from public APIs:

The Three-Knob Override System

For “what-if” scenario analysis, you can override live data using three independent controls:

Knob 1 - Price Group:

• Edit BTC Price and hashprice auto-calculates, OR
• Edit Hashprice and BTC price auto-calculates
• These two values are inversely implied—changing one recalculates the other

Knob 2 - Network Group:

• Fee % anchors this group
• Edit Network Hashrate and hashvalue recalculates (Fee % held constant), OR
• Edit Hashvalue and network hashrate recalculates (Fee % held constant)

Knob 3 - Fee Percentage:

• Slider from 0-99%
• Models transaction fee environments
• When adjusted, hashvalue recalculates (network hashrate held constant)
• Higher Fee % = more miner revenue per block

How Fee % Affects Calculations:

The block reward miners compete for consists of two parts:

1. Block subsidy (currently 3.125 BTC)
2. Transaction fees (variable based on network demand)

Fee % represents transaction fees as a percentage of total block reward:

Total Block Reward = Block Subsidy / (1 - Fee %)

For example, at 20% fee environment:

Total Block Reward = 3.125 / (1 - 0.20) = 3.906 BTC

This means miners earn ~25% more than the base subsidy alone.

Example Scenarios:

• “What if BTC hits $150,000?” → Adjust BTC Price (Knob 1)
• “What happens when hashrate doubles?” → Adjust Network Hashrate (Knob 2)
• “What if transaction fees spike during an ordinals frenzy?” → Increase Fee % (Knob 3)

Click “Reset to live data” to clear all overrides.

Location Selection

Selecting a region automatically populates default electricity and fuel rates based on regional averages. You can override these with your actual rates.

Unit differences by country:

Electricity Rate

Your electricity rate is the single most important input for hashrate heating economics.

Direct entry: Enter your rate in $/kWh (or C$/kWh for Canada)

Bill calculator: If you don’t know your rate, enter:

• Total bill amount ($)
• kWh consumed

The calculator divides bill by kWh to determine your all-in rate (including delivery, taxes, and fees).

Tip: Use your winter bill for the most accurate heating season rate. Time-of-use customers should use their off-peak rate if running miners during off-peak hours.

Fuel Comparison

Select the fuel you want to compare hashrate heating against:

Inputs:

• Fuel rate - Cost per unit (auto-populated from region, can override)
• Efficiency - AFUE percentage for combustion fuels, or COP for heat pumps

Bill calculator: Similar to electricity, enter total fuel cost and units consumed to calculate your actual rate.

Miner Selection

Choose from 8 preset miners or enter custom specifications:

Custom input: Enter any power (W) and hashrate (TH/s) combination. The calculator auto-switches to “Custom” if you modify a preset’s values.

Note: All Bitcoin miners are 100% efficient as heaters—every watt of electricity becomes heat. The J/TH efficiency only affects mining revenue, not thermal output.

Understanding the Calculations

Core Formulas

Hashvalue (sats/TH/day)

The number of satoshis a single terahash of mining power earns per day:

Hashvalue = (Blocks per Day × Total Block Reward × sats per BTC) / Network Hashrate

Where Total Block Reward accounts for transaction fees:

Total Block Reward = Block Subsidy / (1 - Fee %)
                   = 3.125 / (1 - Fee %)

At 0% fees (subsidy only):

Hashvalue = (144 × 3.125 × 100,000,000) / Network Hashrate (TH/s)
         = 45,000,000,000 / Network Hashrate (TH/s)

Example at 800 EH/s with 0% fees:

Hashvalue = 45,000,000,000 / 800,000,000 = 56.25 sats/TH/day

Example at 800 EH/s with 20% fees:

Total Block Reward = 3.125 / 0.80 = 3.906 BTC
Hashvalue = (144 × 3.906 × 100,000,000) / 800,000,000 = 70.31 sats/TH/day

Hashprice ($/TH/day)

The USD value of hashvalue:

Hashprice = Hashvalue × BTC Price / 100,000,000

Example: At 56.25 sats/TH/day and $100,000 BTC:

Hashprice = 56.25 × 100,000 / 100,000,000 = $0.05625/TH/day

Daily Bitcoin Earnings

Your share of the daily block rewards:

Daily BTC = (Your Hashrate / Network Hashrate) × Blocks per Day × Block Reward

          = (Your Hashrate TH/s / Network Hashrate TH/s) × 144 × 3.125

Example: 50 TH/s miner at 800 EH/s network:

Daily BTC = (50 / 800,000,000) × 144 × 3.125
          = 0.0000000625 × 450
          = 0.0000281 BTC (2,810 sats)

Daily Electricity Cost

Daily kWh = (Miner Power in Watts / 1000) × 24 hours

Daily Electricity Cost = Daily kWh × Electricity Rate ($/kWh)

Example: 1,000W miner at $0.12/kWh:

Daily kWh = (1000 / 1000) × 24 = 24 kWh
Daily Cost = 24 × $0.12 = $2.88

Daily Mining Revenue

Daily Revenue = Daily BTC × BTC Price

Example: 0.0000281 BTC at $100,000:

Daily Revenue = 0.0000281 × $100,000 = $2.81

Key Economic Metrics

Revenue Ratio (R) — “Heating Subsidy”

The percentage of electricity cost offset by mining revenue:

R = Daily Mining Revenue / Daily Electricity Cost

Example: $2.81 revenue / $2.88 electricity cost:

R = 2.81 / 2.88 = 0.976 (97.6%)

Interpretation:

• R = 0%: No mining revenue (broken miner or offline)
• R = 50%: Mining covers half your electricity cost
• R = 100%: Mining covers all electricity cost (free heating)
• R > 100%: Mining exceeds electricity cost (you profit while heating)

COPe (Coefficient of Performance - Economic)

A metric analogous to heat pump COP, measuring effective heating efficiency:

COPe = 1 / (1 - R)

Why COPe matters: It lets you directly compare hashrate heating to heat pumps. If your COPe is 3.0 and your heat pump’s COP is 3.0, they cost the same to operate. If COPe > COP, the miner is cheaper.

Effective Cost per kWh

The net cost of heat after mining revenue offset:

Effective $/kWh = (Daily Electricity Cost - Daily Mining Revenue) / Daily kWh

Example: ($2.88 - $2.81) / 24 kWh:

Effective $/kWh = $0.07 / 24 = $0.0029/kWh

This can also be expressed in other units:

Effective $/therm = Effective $/kWh × 29.307 kWh/therm

Effective $/MMBTU = Effective $/kWh × 293.07 kWh/MMBTU

Break-even Electricity Rate

The maximum electricity rate where R = 100% (free heating):

Break-even Rate = Daily Mining Revenue / Daily kWh

                = (Daily BTC × BTC Price) / Daily kWh

If your actual rate is below the break-even rate, you heat for free (or profit).

Fuel Comparison Calculations

Traditional Fuel Cost per kWh

To compare against hashrate heating, we convert fuel costs to $/kWh equivalent:

Fuel $/kWh = (BTU per kWh / BTU per Fuel Unit) × Fuel Price × (1 / Efficiency)

           = (3,412 / Fuel BTU Content) × $/unit × (1 / Efficiency)

Example: Natural gas at $1.50/therm, 92% efficiency:

Fuel $/kWh = (3,412 / 100,000) × $1.50 × (1 / 0.92)
           = 0.03412 × $1.50 × 1.087
           = $0.0556/kWh

Savings Percentage

Savings % = (Fuel $/kWh - Hashrate $/kWh) / Fuel $/kWh × 100

Example: Fuel at $0.0556/kWh, hashrate at $0.0029/kWh:

Savings % = (0.0556 - 0.0029) / 0.0556 × 100 = 94.8%

Understanding the Results

Primary Metrics

Secondary Metrics

Status Indicators

The calculator displays a status based on your results:

Interactive Features

Sensitivity Charts

Each major metric (Savings, COPe, Subsidy) has an expandable chart showing how results change when you vary different inputs.

Available X-axis variables:

• Electricity rate - See how rate changes affect your economics
• Fuel rate - See sensitivity to fuel price fluctuations
• Miner efficiency - Compare different miner classes (J/TH)
• Hashprice - Model different Bitcoin market conditions

Reading the charts:

• The amber dot marks your current value
• Reference lines show important thresholds (e.g., 100% subsidy, heat pump COP)
• Steeper curves indicate higher sensitivity to that variable

Geographic Heat Map

The interactive map visualizes hashrate heating economics across all US states or Canadian provinces.

Features:

• Color gradient from red (poor economics) to green (excellent economics)
• Three metric views: Savings %, COPe, or Subsidy %
• Click any region to populate the calculator with that region’s rates
• Hover tooltip shows region name, rates, and all three metrics
• “YOU” row compares your custom inputs against regional averages
• Mobile-friendly table view with sortable columns

Using the map:

1. Select which metric to display
2. For Savings %, also select the fuel type for comparison
3. Hover over regions to see details
4. Click a region to model that location

Key Relationships & Sensitivity

What Has the Strongest Influence?

In order of impact:

1. Electricity rate — The most sensitive variable. A $0.05/kWh difference can swing results from profitable to loss.

2. Bitcoin price / Hashprice — Directly scales mining revenue. When BTC price doubles, mining revenue doubles.

3. Miner efficiency (J/TH) — More efficient miners earn more per watt, improving economics. However, less efficient miners output more heat per dollar of hardware.

4. Fuel rate and efficiency — Only affects the comparison to traditional heating, not absolute hashrate heating costs.

5. Network hashrate — Inversely affects earnings. When network hashrate doubles, individual earnings halve. This is the variable most outside your control.

Important Trade-offs

Electricity rate vs. fuel rate: Even with expensive electricity, hashrate heating can win if your alternative fuel is also expensive (e.g., propane in rural areas).

Miner efficiency vs. heat output: More efficient miners (lower J/TH) have better economics but often produce less heat. A 400W space heater won’t warm a large room regardless of its COPe.

BTC price volatility: Results are highly sensitive to BTC price. A 50% price drop roughly halves your subsidy percentage. Consider modeling worst-case scenarios.

Network hashrate growth: Hashrate tends to increase over time, reducing per-TH earnings. This is partially offset by BTC price appreciation and block reward expectations.

Use Cases & Examples

Example 1: Am I Better Off With Hashrate Heating?

Scenario: You currently heat with propane at $2.80/gallon with a 90% efficient furnace. Your electricity rate is $0.14/kWh.

Steps:

1. Select your state (or enter rates manually)
2. Set electricity rate to $0.14/kWh
3. Select “Propane” as fuel type, enter $2.80/gallon, 90% efficiency
4. Choose a miner (e.g., Avalon Mini 3)

Interpreting results:

• If Savings shows +45%, hashrate heating costs 45% less than propane
• If COPe shows 3.2, your miner is as efficient as a 3.2 COP heat pump
• If Subsidy shows 78%, mining covers 78% of your electricity cost

Example 2: What BTC Price Do I Need for Free Heating?

Scenario: You want to find the minimum BTC price for 100% subsidy (free heating).

Steps:

1. Enter your actual electricity rate
2. Select your miner
3. In the Bitcoin Data section, manually adjust the BTC Price override
4. Watch the Subsidy % metric
5. Find the price where Subsidy reaches ~100%

Alternative method:

• Note your Break-even Rate result
• If your actual rate is below this, you already have free heating
• If above, the ratio tells you how much BTC needs to rise

Example 3: Which Region Is Best for Hashrate Heating?

Scenario: You’re flexible on location and want to find the best state for hashrate heating.

Steps:

1. Set your preferred fuel type for comparison
2. Expand the Geographic Heat Map
3. Select “Savings %” as the metric
4. Look for the darkest green regions
5. Click promising states to see full details

Best regions typically have:

• Low electricity rates (< $0.10/kWh)
• High alternative fuel costs (expensive propane/oil)
• Cold winters (more heating demand)

Technical Notes

Data Sources

Fallback Values

If APIs are unavailable, the calculator uses these defaults:

Currency Conversion

For Canadian users:

• BTC price is converted at 1 USD = 1.40 CAD
• All results display in CAD
• Fuel units use metric (litres, GJ)

Glossary