Short answer on SDG&E power: not for the money. At today's numbers an 18 TH/s home miner like the Bitfortun BS-4 earns about $0.65 a day in expected bitcoin and burns about $3.38 a day of electricity at SDG&E's TOU-DR1 average (47.0¢ per kWh, summer prices). That's about $20 in, $103 out, every month.
To break even it needs power under 9.0¢ per kWh. SDG&E's cheapest hour, super off-peak on the EV plan, is 13.1¢. So it loses money even if you schedule it for the cheap hours only.
Bitcoin at $83,330; network 1,044 EH/s; about 3.143 BTC per block (the 3.125 subsidy plus 0.018 in fees), from mempool.space at 4:24AM Oct 21. Rebuilt daily. SDG&E prices are its non-CCA totals; on November 1 they switch to winter (50.5¢ average). This is the electricity math, not investment advice.
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Solo mining is a lottery ticket
The Bitfortun BS-4 is sold as a solo miner: instead of sharing small steady payouts with a pool, it goes for a whole block. A block pays about 3.143 BTC (about $261,896) today. At 18 TH/s against a 1,044 EH/s network, the chance is about 1 in 1,103 a year. Your expected value is the same as pool mining (the $0.65 a day above); solo just pays it as one rare jackpot instead of pennies.
Running it on several solo pools at once, as the review shows, splits the same hashrate across them: it doesn't raise the odds.
When would the answer flip?
The break-even moves with the bitcoin price: double the price and it doubles. We check it every morning and say so here the day it flips.
- Cheap hours only (EV-TOU-5 super off-peak, 13.1¢): bitcoin would need to reach about $120,856 (today $83,330).
- Running 24/7 on TOU-DR1 (47.0¢ average): about $433,149.
- More miners on the network push both numbers up: every 10% the network grows (today 1,044 EH/s) needs about 10% more price.
- The next halving cuts the 3.125 BTC block subsidy to 1.5625 at block 1,050,000, about 77,535 blocks away: around April 2028 at ten minutes a block. After it, the same miner earns about half, unless the price rises to match.
The two home miners people ask about
| Miner | Price | Hashrate | Power | Expected a month | Power a month (TOU-DR1) | Solo odds a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitfortun BS-4 | $599.99 (in stock) | 18 TH/s | ~300 W | $19.77 | $102.77 | 1 in 1,103 |
| Bitaxe Gamma 602 | $79.00 (sold out) | 1.8 TH/s | ~32 W | $1.98 | $10.96 | 1 in 11,033 |
Price, hashrate and power at the wall from the seller's listings (Helium Deploy), checked October 15, 2026. A YouTube review measured the BS-4 near 326 W, a little above the listing.
Bitcoin miner vs space heater
Every watt a miner draws ends up as heat in the room, the same as an electric heater. The difference: the miner pays back about 9.0¢ of every kWh in expected bitcoin, so on a 47.0¢ kWh it is a heater that costs about 81% less to run than a plain electric one, at 300 watts. It only helps on nights you would run electric heat anyway, and it runs at about 50 dB (the seller's number), so not in a bedroom.
If you run one anyway
- Skip 4 to 9pm. On TOU-DR1 that's 69.1¢ a kWh (summer). A smart plug schedule cuts the worst hours.
- Know your plan. The cheapest SDG&E hours are super off-peak: midnight to 6am and 10am to 2pm on weekdays, midnight to 2pm on weekends. Not sure which plan you're on? Check why your SDG&E bill is so high.
- Solar? A kWh you send to the grid earns its export credit; a kWh the miner uses earns its share of a bitcoin. Put the export credit from your bill into the calculator as your own price to compare.
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Questions people ask
Is home bitcoin mining worth it in San Diego?
Not on SDG&E power at today's numbers. An 18 TH/s miner earns about $0.65 a day in expected bitcoin and uses about $3.38 of electricity at the TOU-DR1 average. It needs power under 9.0 cents per kWh to break even; SDG&E's cheapest hour is 13.1 cents.
What are the odds a solo bitcoin miner finds a block?
For 18 TH/s, about 1 in 1,103 a year at today's network hashrate (1,044 EH/s). A block pays about 3.143 BTC, around $261,896 today.
How much electricity does a home bitcoin miner use?
The Bitfortun BS-4 draws about 300 W at the wall per the seller: 7.2 kWh a day, about 219 kWh a month, or about $103 a month on SDG&E's TOU-DR1 average. The smaller Bitaxe Gamma draws about 32 W.
Is a bitcoin miner a good space heater?
It turns all its power into heat like any electric heater, and pays back about 9.0 cents per kWh in expected bitcoin. On SDG&E's 47.0 cent average that makes it about 81% cheaper to run than a plain electric heater.
Does mining only at night on SDG&E make it profitable?
No. Even the EV plan's super off-peak price (13.1 cents) is above the 9.0 cent break-even at today's bitcoin price and network hashrate.
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