# Solo miners, are you making a loss when you factor in electricity usage? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231 "2021-11-11T22:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr\_Epeen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/mr_epeen/32/373308_2.png) [@Mr\_Epeen](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Mr_Epeen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 9:42am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/21 "2021-11-12T09:42:37Z")
> [@Zoiie](#): > > If we bottle it perhaps we could make bank. Wave a sponge in the air at FanFest and you’ll fill all the bottles you can carry. Unless the venue is already collecting and burning it to heat the place in some misguided environmental action. Mr Epeen 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 9:56am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/22 "2021-11-12T09:56:55Z")
Sponges are for the tears not methane capture. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Offensive](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/dr_offensive/32/401971_2.png) [@Dr\_Offensive](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Dr_Offensive)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 10:26am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/23 "2021-11-12T10:26:37Z")
> [@Lugues\_Slive](#): > > I have insanely cheap power and fiber to my house. I pay $0.05/ kwhr. So $15 for a plex would pay for 300 kwhrs, assuming 500w load (don’t actually have a meter on my PC) that’s 600hrs a month. Think I am better off mining. Dude, are you interfering with your electricity meter? Where are you getting power for 5 cents per KwHr ? At 5 Cents they must be watering down the electrons with , er , muons or something. Im on 4x that cost, but then I get 240 Volt 50Hz, you get a PROPER electric shock if you stick your finger in the socket at that voltage. ---
**Author:** ![Cilla\_Cybin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/cilla_cybin/32/292206_2.png) [@Cilla\_Cybin](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Cilla_Cybin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:26am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/24 "2021-11-12T11:26:16Z")
> [@Dr\_Offensive](#): > > I mean mining is hardly fun is it. I do sometimes think…heck, why am I spending a week getting 250m ISK worth of Veldspar, when for around £4… I could just buy PLEX and convert it to 250m ISK. The trouble with just buying PLEX is, it just doesn’t really ‘feel’ like you have earned it. Yes, mining is boring, but there is a sense that that boredom, and escaping gankers on the way, has earned the ISK. Plus I just enjoy getting my Procurer to as high EHP as possible and sitting there in the asteroid belts with a ’ gank this !’ attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Wah\_Huren](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/wah_huren/32/394699_2.png) [@Wah\_Huren](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Wah_Huren)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:31am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/25 "2021-11-12T11:31:49Z")
Here’s a view of the last fleet… ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/original/4X/8/9/6/8966917b6875578a4b5d24f507d1cd4b3fad02b6.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Cilla\_Cybin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/cilla_cybin/32/292206_2.png) [@Cilla\_Cybin](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Cilla_Cybin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/26 "2021-11-12T11:39:08Z")
> [@Lugues\_Slive](#): > > I have insanely cheap power and fiber to my house. I pay $0.05/ kwhr. So $15 for a plex would pay for 300 kwhrs, assuming 500w load (don’t actually have a meter on my PC) that’s 600hrs a month. I could probably manage such a low rate…but the hamster would have to run exceptionally fast on its treadmill. ---
**Author:** ![Etch\_Masuka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/etch_masuka/32/468743_2.png) [@Etch\_Masuka](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Etch_Masuka)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:43am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/27 "2021-11-12T11:43:44Z")
If you want to make isk, if that matters to you don’t mine. It’s about the least profitable activity you can do in game. But there is more to eve than isk. Mining is like a virtual stress ball. After a rough day at work the repetitive action of moving drones from rock to rock to rock to rock can be extremely soothing. ---
**Author:** ![Gretek\_Moergyn](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/gretek_moergyn/32/379137_2.png) [@Gretek\_Moergyn](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Gretek_Moergyn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/28 "2021-11-12T11:56:20Z")
To each his own. I spend almost 100% of my Eve time mining. Because, to me, it’s fun. It relaxes me after a difficult day or week of RL. It’s an escape. ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/29 "2021-11-12T12:01:04Z")
1m for this corpse. ---
**Author:** ![Cilla\_Cybin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/cilla_cybin/32/292206_2.png) [@Cilla\_Cybin](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Cilla_Cybin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/30 "2021-11-12T12:11:10Z")
> [@Etch\_Masuka](#): > > If you want to make isk, if that matters to you don’t mine. It’s about the least profitable activity you can do in game. > > But there is more to eve than isk. Mining is like a virtual stress ball. After a rough day at work the repetitive action of moving drones from rock to rock to rock to rock can be extremely soothing. Indeed…I’m not doing mining just to make ISK. It’s more that with 70K EHP its nice to fly around and stick my finger up at solo gankers. Yes, it can all be relaxing too…but only because I don’t have to immediately flee if one or two Catalyst show up. If they decide to lower EHP on barges ( as I have heard some predict )…and thus make them more gankable…I may just decide that buying PLEX is a better way of getting ISK. Then I’ll probably just buy up Catalysts and go round ganking barges 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Etch\_Masuka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/etch_masuka/32/468743_2.png) [@Etch\_Masuka](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Etch_Masuka)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/31 "2021-11-12T12:17:40Z")
Mining and buying plex arnt the only options lol. Exploration will net you huge amounts of isk even without leaving high sec. Ratting and escalations? ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/32 "2021-11-12T12:18:23Z")
Exploration involves effort and competition. Miners don’t like that 🙂 However, exploration is actually playing the game and actually fun. I would like to see mining become more of an effort to find resources like exploration is along with risk like exploration does in ghost sites and competition between finding the resources between miners as explorers do on scanning them down and hacking the site in a race against the competitor. I have literally had explorers sit for me to fail a hack site, and restart, then they jump in an hack initiate it before I can rehack. ---
**Author:** ![Hans\_Devin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/hans_devin/32/373511_2.png) [@Hans\_Devin](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Hans_Devin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/33 "2021-11-12T12:54:32Z")
Do I break even on: Football? Baseball? Basketball? Movies? Books? Travel? Scotch? Wine? No. Spent +50 working so I don’t have to, or care to. ---
**Author:** ![Cilla\_Cybin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/cilla_cybin/32/292206_2.png) [@Cilla\_Cybin](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Cilla_Cybin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/34 "2021-11-12T13:29:10Z")
> [@Zoiie](#): > > Exploration involves effort and competition. Miners don’t like that This site is SO full of everyone saying what miners do and dont do, or like and dont like. So many urban myths. People who have probably only mined for 5 minutes are experts on miners. You obviously weren’t there yesterday when I ‘competed’ with an Orca for the last scraps of an asteroid belt. You weren’t there when I discovered a whole new asteroid field in a level 0.5 system where the belt next to the 0.4 system ( full of gate campers ) has massive asteroids. Where’s the lack of effort and competition in knowing that a dozen Catalysts could come right though that gate at any moment ? Where’s the lack of ‘effort’ in having to store my ore locally and then come back later to haul it 5 jumps ( one load at a time…15 trips ) to sell for the best price…all the way avoiding gankers and a bunch of Gurista Kestrels on my tail who didn’t like me zapping one of their craft ? Sure…some of the big mining companies are AFK, but for MOST miners its tiresome hearing all the ‘experts’ on their lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/35 "2021-11-12T13:49:14Z")
And yet I keep hearing how relaxing it is and how they can do it whilst doing real world things like work. From the miners themselves. Until one criticises them and then they start to talk fiction about all their big battles. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpdrive](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/jumpdrive/32/285032_2.png) [@Jumpdrive](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Jumpdrive)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/36 "2021-11-12T13:59:44Z")
> [@Etch\_Masuka](#): > > Mining and buying plex arnt the only options lol. > > Exploration will net you huge amounts of isk even without leaving high sec. > > Ratting and escalations? Let’s not exaggerate. For exploration you’ll at least want to filament between Null sec and back, to make decent ISK on explo. Even during special events you’ll want to go at least to low sec (except maybe during xmas). Exploring low and null in a disposable ship is also part of the appeal. If you must stick to high sec and do it just for the ISK, you’d still be better off barge mining there. Belt ratting in high sec is even worse still. Escalations, you’ll have to be willing to follow them into low sec, to make something out of them. There is abyssals and missions and a few incursions for making some ISK in high. ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/37 "2021-11-12T14:01:00Z")
> [@Jumpdrive](#): > > in a disposable ship is also part of the appeal Every ship is “disposable”. HS exploration sites can pay quite a bit if you get the right ones even for HS. If you’re viewing the game as an ISK/hr game, you’re not really playing for fun. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpdrive](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/jumpdrive/32/285032_2.png) [@Jumpdrive](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Jumpdrive)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/38 "2021-11-12T14:01:45Z")
> [@Zoiie](#): > > > [@Jumpdrive](#): > > > > in a disposable ship is also part of the appeal > > Every ship is “disposable”. Relatively speaking yes. ---
**Author:** ![Zoiie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/zoiie/32/292363_2.png) [@Zoiie](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Zoiie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/39 "2021-11-12T14:02:39Z")
Ultimately, even the entire game is “disposable”. ---
**Author:** ![Etch\_Masuka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/etch_masuka/32/468743_2.png) [@Etch\_Masuka](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Etch_Masuka)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 2:10pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231/40 "2021-11-12T14:10:33Z")
> [@Jumpdrive](#): > > Let’s not exaggerate. And let’s not down play what’s possible. Since the introduction of the cmc components which drop from infoshards in high sec data sites exploration in hi is much better. Even l1 data sites drop them and you regularly see 3-8mill in cans when those drop. That’s before mentioning ghost sites which are easy to run in hack a can and get out. That can be anywhere between 3-15mill. It has a bit of risk but relatively low if you know the hacking mini game. And then once you have better scan and hacking skills you can run sleeper caches where you can pull over 100mil in npc sellable loot for 30minutes work. Not to mention the bpo drops that can sell for as much as 500mill. All of which can be done in a lowly expo frigate. High sec exploration can be very very lucrative considering the very low level of risk. Don’t right it off. [Previous page](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/solo-miners-are-you-making-a-loss-when-you-factor-in-electricity-usage/336231.md?page=3)