<p>If you can hold your hand on the Bitcoin Miner for an extended period of time without burning it, I doubt the cube is consuming 270 Watts. What does your mining software indicate the temperature is?  My two cubes run at temperatures between upper 30s and low 50s Celsius. (These cubes do make nice winter hand warmers for cold typing hands:-)</p>

<p>Once you rule out the cube is not sucking the power, the question then becomes what about the associated power brick or the integrity of the meter. Again, imagine the heat a sixty Watt indecent light bulb puts out.  If your brick can't be held for an extended period of time without burning your hand, you got a bad brick that mightbe a fire hazard.  Otherwise, you got a bad meter or your house may need capacitive power factor (PF) correction where you plug your cube into an outlet.  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-23T14:56:03.077Z
The temperature (according to the software) is between 37 and 44 degree Celsius. It is "hand" warm.
So I'm really wondering about the power consumption. The power brick is a Chinese one and it also gets warm.
powtac
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-25T02:03:01.560Z
The cubes shouldn't consume more power than a typical Dell laptop PC. The temperature of the power bricks should feel about the same as a laptop brick that drawls a comparable amount of power.
skaht
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-22T16:47:40.717Z
2013-12-22T16:47:40.717Z
skaht
<p>A <a href="https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/5-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html" rel="nofollow">5 GH/s Bitcoin Miner</a> is running at around 270 Watt. I tested it with an Wattmeter. Is that a reasonable amount of Watt? In the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#cite_ref-jap_4-0" rel="nofollow">comparison list on Bitcoin.it</a> it says that those devices are running at 30 Watts! What is wrong with this miner?</p>

<butterfly-labs><asic><energy-consumption>
A Butterflylabs 5 GH/s Bitcoin Miner running at 270 Watts?
powtac
# A Butterflylabs 5 GH/s Bitcoin Miner running at 270 Watts?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-22)

A [5 GH/s Bitcoin Miner](https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/5-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html) is running at around 270 Watt. I tested it with an Wattmeter. Is that a reasonable amount of Watt? In the [comparison list on Bitcoin.it](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#cite_ref-jap_4-0) it says that those devices are running at 30 Watts! What is wrong with this miner?

**Tags:** butterfly-labs, asic, energy-consumption


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-12-22. Score: 3

If you can hold your hand on the Bitcoin Miner for an extended period of time without burning it, I doubt the cube is consuming 270 Watts. What does your mining software indicate the temperature is? My two cubes run at temperatures between upper 30s and low 50s Celsius. (These cubes do make nice winter hand warmers for cold typing hands:-)

Once you rule out the cube is not sucking the power, the question then becomes what about the associated power brick or the integrity of the meter. Again, imagine the heat a sixty Watt indecent light bulb puts out. If your brick can't be held for an extended period of time without burning your hand, you got a bad brick that mightbe a fire hazard. Otherwise, you got a bad meter or your house may need capacitive power factor (PF) correction where you plug your cube into an outlet.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The temperature (according to the software) is between 37 and 44 degree Celsius. It is "hand" warm. So I'm really wondering about the power consumption. The power brick is a Chinese one and it also gets warm.  
> **username_1**: The cubes shouldn't consume more power than a typical Dell laptop PC. The temperature of the power bricks should feel about the same as a laptop brick that drawls a comparable amount of power.  

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