Why do miners unplug their equipment?

Because revenue per terahash has fallen below their electricity cost, or because grid prices or demand-response payments make not mining more valuable than mining.

What is the shutdown price for a miner?

The electricity price at which daily revenue equals daily power cost for that specific model. It differs per machine and moves with hashprice and difficulty.

Does turning miners on and off damage them?

Repeated rapid thermal cycling adds stress. Shut down through firmware, allow a fan cool-down, and avoid frequent on-off cycles within short windows.

How should I store idle miners?

Dry, dust-free, humidity-controlled storage with intakes covered, plus a saved record of firmware and configuration so restarts are quick.

Is curtailment always a loss?

No. In markets with demand-response or scarcity pricing, curtailment can pay more than hashing — which is why flexible mining load is valuable to grids.

Setup & Operations · September 4, 2026 · 9 min read

Miners Unplugging Equipment: A Curtailment Playbook

Headlines about miners unplugging equipment usually describe rational behaviour, not distress. When revenue per terahash falls below the cost of the electricity required to produce it, powering down preserves capital. When grid prices spike, selling the power back or curtailing pays better than hashing.

This playbook covers the arithmetic behind shutdown decisions, how to curtail without damaging hardware, and how to be ready to restart within minutes when the economics turn.

The Shutdown Threshold

Compute your machine's daily revenue at current hashprice and your daily electricity cost at your rate. When cost exceeds revenue, every additional hour destroys value. The threshold is per machine, not per site: a mixed fleet will have efficient units clearing comfortably while legacy units bleed.

Write the threshold down as a power price per kilowatt hour for each model. Then curtailment becomes a rule your team can execute without a meeting.

Grid Programmes and Demand Response

In several markets curtailment is a revenue line rather than a loss. Demand-response programmes pay for the ability to drop load within minutes, and during scarcity pricing the payment for not consuming can exceed mining margin by a wide multiple.

This is why flexible load is valuable to grids and why miners with fast, verifiable curtailment win contracts. If your site can shed load reliably, ask your utility or retailer what programmes exist.

Curtailing Without Damaging Hardware

Stop the miner through firmware or the fleet manager rather than pulling breakers where possible, let fans run through the cool-down, and only then remove power. Thermal cycling is the main stress in repeated shutdowns, so avoid rapid on-off cycling within the same hour.

For hydro and immersion, follow the manufacturer's shutdown order for pumps and coolant. Keeping fluid circulating briefly after hashing stops prevents localised hot spots.

Storage and Restart Readiness

Powered-down machines need dry, dust-free storage with the intake covered, and humidity controlled to avoid condensation and corrosion on boards. Record firmware version, pool configuration and tuning profile so a restart is a configuration restore rather than a rebuild.

Before restart, blow out dust, check fan spin by hand, inspect connectors for discolouration, then bring machines up in batches while watching per-board hashrate and temperatures for the first hour.

Turning Downtime Into a Fleet Upgrade

A shutdown window is the cheapest time to sell inefficient units while they still hold value, retune the rest for efficiency, and replace legacy hardware with machines whose break-even sits well below your tariff. Operators who use curtailment periods to upgrade come back with a lower shutdown threshold than they left with.

We buy, trade and supply tested hardware for exactly this cycle. Send your fleet list and power rate and we will show which units are worth keeping and which to rotate out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do miners unplug their equipment?: Because revenue per terahash has fallen below their electricity cost, or because grid prices or demand-response payments make not mining more valuable than mining.
What is the shutdown price for a miner?: The electricity price at which daily revenue equals daily power cost for that specific model. It differs per machine and moves with hashprice and difficulty.
Does turning miners on and off damage them?: Repeated rapid thermal cycling adds stress. Shut down through firmware, allow a fan cool-down, and avoid frequent on-off cycles within short windows.
How should I store idle miners?: Dry, dust-free, humidity-controlled storage with intakes covered, plus a saved record of firmware and configuration so restarts are quick.
Is curtailment always a loss?: No. In markets with demand-response or scarcity pricing, curtailment can pay more than hashing — which is why flexible mining load is valuable to grids.