Set up a smart plug to log your mining rig power use

Set Up a Smart Plug to Log Your Mining Power

A $15 energy-monitoring smart plug turns your phone into a permanent wattage logger, so you can track daily kWh, spot wasted idle hours, and cost mining at your real rate. Full setup walkthrough.

A plug-in meter like a Kill A Watt gives you a snapshot. A smart plug with energy monitoring gives you a continuous record: watts right now, kWh today, kWh this month, all in an app on your phone. For a home Malairte miner who wants to actually manage power, it is one of the cheapest useful upgrades you can buy.

Pick the right plug

Not every smart plug measures energy. You want one that explicitly lists energy monitoring or power metering in its features (popular options come from TP-Link Kasa, Sonoff, and similar brands). Check the plug's amperage rating against your rig - a 400W rig at 120V draws about 3.3A, well within a standard 15A plug, but a big multi-GPU rig on a 120V circuit can approach the limit, so read the spec.

Step-by-step setup

Install the manufacturer's app and create an account.
Plug the smart plug into the wall, then your rig's power cable into the smart plug.
In the app, add a new device and follow the pairing flow (usually a brief Wi-Fi handshake).
Name it something obvious like "Mining Rig" so the history is easy to find.
Open the energy or usage tab and confirm it shows a live wattage reading.

Read the data that matters

Live watts - confirm your load matches expectations; a sudden drop can mean the miner crashed.
Daily kWh - multiply by your effective rate for an exact daily cost.
Idle baseline - leave the miner off for an hour and note the watts; that is your pure idle waste.

Schedule and alerts

Most energy smart plugs can also switch on a schedule. Combine that with a time-of-use plan and you can have the plug cut power outside off-peak hours automatically - though prefer stopping the miner cleanly in software first, then letting the plug enforce the window. Some apps let you set a high-power alert that pings your phone if draw spikes unexpectedly, a handy early warning for a stuck fan or thermal problem.

A word of caution

Smart plugs are rated for the load printed on them and no more. Never daisy-chain a high-draw rig through a cheap plug above its amperage, and never run a smart plug through an extension lead that is itself under-rated. When in doubt, measure the wall draw first with a meter and pick a plug comfortably above that figure.

Published May 6, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Will mining Malairte spike my electricity bill?

For a single home PC, no - the increase is typically a few dollars to a few tens of dollars per month, similar to leaving a gaming session running. Multiple cards or a dedicated rig will draw more, but Malairte mining is fundamentally household-scale, not industrial-scale.

How much electricity does a typical home mining rig actually use?

A single CPU-only desktop mining flat out usually pulls 90-180 watts from the wall. Add one GPU and you are looking at 250-450 watts. A dedicated two-GPU rig sits at roughly 600-900 watts. Laptops are much less, often 35-90 watts even at full load. These numbers are an order of magnitude smaller than industrial ASIC operations and roughly comparable to running a desktop game for the same number of hours. The only way to know your exact figure is to measure with a plug-in energy meter; nameplate PSU wattage is the maximum the supply can deliver, not what your computer actually draws.

Is a desktop or a laptop more energy efficient for mining Malairte?

Per watt, modern laptops are usually more efficient than desktops because their mobile CPUs and integrated GPUs are tuned for battery life. A laptop pulling 65W can mine respectably while costing only $5-8/month in electricity at typical home rates. A desktop pulling 350W earns more MLRT but costs five to seven times more to run. If your goal is to mine "for free" alongside normal computer use, a laptop is hard to beat. If you want to maximise hashrate per dollar of hardware, a desktop with a dedicated GPU wins. Laptops also have weaker cooling, so prolonged 24/7 mining can stress the keyboard and battery - many laptop miners run only 8-12 hours per day.

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Start mining Malairte the right way

Malairte (MLRT) is a CPU and GPU mineable coin — no ASICs, no specialized hardware. Download the official wallet and put this guide into practice on the computer you already own.

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Educational resource only — not financial advice.