The classic home-mining setup runs 24/7: power on, miner running, dashboard open. It is simple, it maximises MLRT earned, and it produces a predictable electricity bill. But it also leaves money on the table for many home miners. A sleep, hibernate, or scheduled-shutdown setup can cut electricity costs sharply with only modest impact on earnings.

Idle is not free

A desktop sitting at the Windows desktop, doing nothing, still draws 60-100W. Over a month that is roughly 60 kWh just to keep the screensaver running. If you only actually mine for 12 of those 24 hours, the other 12 hours of idle draw represent pure waste from an earnings standpoint.

Three common schedules

1. Mine-only mornings

The rig sleeps overnight, wakes at 6am, mines until 8pm, sleeps again. Earnings drop roughly 40% versus 24/7, but electricity drops 60% because the idle hours are eliminated entirely. Net result: lower revenue, much lower cost, often a better ratio.

2. Off-peak only

Combined with a time-of-use electricity plan, this is the strongest pattern. The rig runs 10pm-7am when both kWh rates are lowest and you are not in the room hearing fan noise. A 350W rig at $0.08/kWh off-peak costs about $0.25/day - close to free.

3. Always-on with deep undervolt

The opposite strategy: keep mining 24/7 but undervolt the GPU and run the CPU at a lower power limit. Earnings stay high, idle waste is reduced, and the rig is quieter and cooler.

How to schedule it

On Windows, Task Scheduler can stop the miner process and put the PC to sleep at a fixed time, then wake it again later. macOS has pmset and Energy Saver schedules. Linux has rtcwake and cron. Most pool mining software accepts a config option for active hours.

Pick the schedule that matches your bill

If your electricity is flat-rate and cheap, 24/7 with an undervolt usually wins. If you are on a TOU plan with steep peak pricing, off-peak only nearly always wins. If you live in a hot climate and run AC, daytime sleep through summer afternoons is the obvious move. The right answer depends on your local kWh rate and your tolerance for the rig running unsupervised.