Avalon Q Guide
Every device below 12 terahash is, honestly, a lottery ticket with a fan. The Avalon Q is something else: ninety terahash — a third of an industrial S21 — engineered to live inside a home, with selectable power modes from whisper to full send, household plugs, and enough heat output to genuinely warm the room it wins blocks from. It's the first machine where 'home miner' stops meaning 'toy'. Here's who it's for, what it costs to run, and what ninety terahash can honestly win.
The Avalon Q is Canaan’s flagship home miner: roughly 90 TH/s from 160 current-generation chips in a tower designed for living spaces — three selectable power modes from ~800 to ~1,674 watts, 45~65 dB depending on setting, standard household power, app control, full pool freedom, and over 5,700 BTU/h of usable heat at full send. It exists to answer a question the desk-miner category can’t: what if a home machine had enough hashrate for the odds to get genuinely interesting? At ninety terahash, they do — on every rung of the SHA-256 ladder.
Key takeaways
- A third of an industrial miner, domesticated: ~90 TH/s — fifteen NerdQAxe++ units in one tower — at noise, power, and control designs meant for homes, from the manufacturer that built Bitcoin’s first ASICs.
- The modes are the product. Economy (~800 W) for summer and quiet hours, full performance (~1,674 W) for winter — when its 5,700+ BTU/h makes it a space heater that hashes, the strongest real-world case in hashrate heating.
- Ninety terahash changes the odds conversation: ~1-in-202 per year on Bitcoin, an expected BCH block every ~9 months, and expected wins measured in hours to days at the bottom of the ladder.
- The trade-off is price per terahash: you pay a real premium over used industrial hardware for the right to live with the machine. Whether that premium is worth it depends entirely on where it will sit.
- Full pool freedom — any stratum endpoint, any SHA-256 chain, your keys. At this hashrate, that freedom is worth more than on any smaller home device.
Why the Avalon Q exists
The home-mining market grew from the bottom: Bitaxes proved the concept, NerdQAxes and Nano-class devices made it real, the OCTAxe pushed open hardware to twelve terahash. But a gap remained between the biggest desk miner and the smallest industrial machine — a gap where the odds get interesting but the hardware (loud, 240 V, warehouse-grade) can’t enter a home. Canaan built the Q to occupy exactly that gap: current-generation silicon at scale, wrapped in domestic engineering. The result reads like a category of one — reviewers reach for “the machine for people who are serious but not industrial”, and the spec sheet backs the framing: household plugs across 110~240 V, app-based mode switching, and an acoustic range whose quiet end shares a room with you and whose loud end still undercuts every warehouse machine by a wide margin.
The spec sheet, honestly read
| Spec | Avalon Q | Honest context |
|---|---|---|
| Hashrate | ~90 TH/s (full mode) | 15× a NerdQAxe++; ~⅓ of an industrial S21-class |
| Power modes | ~800 / ~1,300 / ~1,674 W | Hashrate scales with mode — you choose the season’s operating point |
| Noise | ~45~65 dB by mode | Quiet-PC to noticeable-fan; industrial ASICs run 75+ dB |
| Heat output | 5,700+ BTU/h at full send | A genuine large-room heater — the winter economics hinge on this |
| Power input | Standard household, 110~240 V | No electrician required — mind the circuit’s continuous rating at full mode |
| Control | App + selectable modes, full pool freedom | Any stratum endpoint, any SHA-256 chain |
| Running cost | ~$70~220/month by mode (typical US rates) | In winter, much of this is heating you’d buy anyway |
The row that decides the purchase is the running cost — and it must be read seasonally. Run flat-out in July and the Q is an expensive hobby with a cooling problem. Run flat-out in January replacing resistive heat, and most of that electricity was already in your heating budget: the hashrate rides along nearly free, which is the entire thesis of mining-as-heating executed at the most serious scale a home device offers. The modes exist precisely so one machine can be both stories.
The question that matters: what can 90 TH/s actually win?
This is where the Q separates from everything smaller (live difficulties, July 2026):
| Chain | Expected time to a block @ 90 TH/s |
|---|---|
| BTC | ~202 years (1-in-202 per year) |
| BCH | ~279 days |
| BC2 | ~10 days |
| XEC | ~4 days |
| BCH2 | ~20 hours |
Read what changed. On Bitcoin, 1-in-202 per year is no longer a symbolic ticket — it’s the odds class where patient owners genuinely plan around the possibility. On BCH, the expected time drops inside a single year: an Avalon Q is statistically likely to find a Bitcoin Cash block — 3.125 BCH, instantly liquid — within its warranty period, with all the variance caveats of the Poisson math. And at the ladder’s bottom, the machine expects roughly a block per day: at that cadence, solo mining stops being a lottery and becomes a rhythm. Which rung fits your goals is the real purchase decision, mapped with live numbers in the ladder comparison — and changed, as always, with one URL.
Why buy this one: the honest case
Buy the Avalon Q if the machine will live where you live and you want odds that matter. It’s the only device that combines meaningful hashrate, domestic acoustics, household power, seasonal mode flexibility, genuine heating value, manufacturer support from Bitcoin’s oldest ASIC house, and the pool freedom to hunt on any chain. For the operator profile between “hobbyist with a shelf” and “warehouse tenant” — the home miner who wants a BCH block to be probable, not poetic — nothing else currently occupies the slot.
Choose differently if: you have a detached garage and noise tolerance (used industrial S21-class hardware buys ~2.5× the hashrate per dollar — see our old-Antminer lottery guide for the philosophy); your budget stops sooner (the Mini 3 at ~37.5 TH/s is the honest compromise, and the OCTAxe the open-source ceiling); or this is a first machine (start smaller — the ladder isn’t going anywhere). And whoever buys it: run the seasonal math before the purchase math. The Q rewards owners who plan its year, not just its watts.
Ninety terahash deserves a real hunt
Point your Avalon Q at SoloFury and pick its season: Bitcoin’s 1-in-202 yearly ticket, a probable BCH block within the year, or the daily rhythm of the ladder’s bottom — non-custodial coinbase payouts, 1% fee, TLS endpoints in every region, per-worker best-share tracking. The heat warms your room. The shares chase a block. One URL decides which one.
Your exact odds at 90 TH/s →Point it at a chain →Frequently Asked Questions
What makes the Avalon Q different from an industrial ASIC?
It's engineered for living spaces, not warehouses: roughly 45–65 dB depending on mode (an industrial S21 runs 75+ dB), standard 110–240 V household power instead of dedicated 240 V circuits, a tower form factor, app-based control with selectable power modes, and full pool freedom. You trade some raw efficiency versus a datacenter machine for the ability to actually live with it.
What are the Avalon Q's power modes and how much electricity does it use?
Three tunable modes trade hashrate against noise and draw — from an economy mode around 800 W through standard (~1,300 W) to a full-performance mode near 1,674 W for the complete 90 TH/s. At typical US rates that's roughly $70–220 per month depending on mode; in high-price European markets substantially more. In winter, remember much of that becomes heating you'd otherwise buy.
Can the Avalon Q really heat a room?
Yes — at full power it emits over 5,700 BTU/h, comparable to a serious space heater, enough for a large room. This is the device's second identity: run at full mode in winter and the electricity does double duty as heat plus hashrate, which transforms the economics for anyone replacing resistive heating. In summer, drop to economy mode or expect to manage the heat.
Is the Avalon Q loud?
Mode-dependent: around 45 dB in its quietest setting — quiet-PC territory, fine for living areas — rising toward 65 dB at full performance, which is noticeable-fan-noise level better suited to a hallway, large room, or basement than a bedroom. The ability to choose is the point: winter nights at full send, summer workdays whispering.
Can I solo mine with the Avalon Q, on any pool?
Yes — full stratum pool freedom, any SHA-256 chain, your wallet address as the worker. At 90 TH/s that freedom matters more than on any smaller home device, because the odds start becoming genuinely interesting: about 1-in-202 per year on Bitcoin, and expected blocks in hours-to-days on smaller chains.
What can 90 TH/s actually win solo mining?
At current difficulties: a ~1-in-202 yearly ticket on Bitcoin — a real lottery position; an expected BCH block roughly every 9 months; and on the smaller SHA-256 chains, expected blocks every ~10 days (BC2), ~4 days (XEC), and roughly every 20 hours on the smallest chain. Ninety terahash is where solo mining stops being purely symbolic on every rung of the ladder.
Avalon Q or a used Antminer S21 for the same money?
A used S21-class machine gives ~2.5× the hashrate per dollar — and 75+ dB of noise, a dedicated 240 V circuit, industrial cooling needs, and no warranty. The Q costs more per terahash precisely because it's domesticated: quiet modes, household power, app control, manufacturer support. If you have a garage and tolerance, used industrial wins on math; if the machine lives where you live, the Q wins on everything else.
Avalon Q or Avalon Mini 3 — which Canaan home miner?
The Mini 3 (~37.5 TH/s, ~1,100 W, ~$1,129) is the middle child: baseboard-heater format, serious heat, half the Q's odds. The Q (~90 TH/s) costs more but delivers 2.4× the hashrate at better efficiency and more flexible modes. If the budget reaches, the Q is the stronger machine; the Mini 3 is the compromise when it doesn't, or when its heater form factor fits your room better.