electric bills and busts

[anderson]

Good day sirs (ladies?). I am planning on looking for a house in a non-medical state, in the country. Marijuana growing is not in the headlines often in my part of the country. Therefore, I think the level of suspicion is pretty low.


Let me be blunt: These article scared the shit out of me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/high-electric-bill-leads-_n_539521.html



Both seem to imply that the electric companies reached out to law enforcement unsolicited. Scary stuff.

With this in mind, whats your wattage limit on a 1K square foot home? I want to go as big as humanly possible without drawing the ire of law enforcement. Honestly I'm scared to go over 1K watts as of now, and thats with no TV, energy saver bulbs and the heat turned off.

Am I being overly paranoid? If you think yes, please explain why.

Thank you, and happy growing.

 

[SSHZ]

Yes, you are being paranoid. THey were using a HUGE amount of electricity, way, WAY beyond what a normal household would use. On a 1000 sq. ft house, 1000-1200 watts additional watts would not be noticed at all. Remember, people are using more electricity lately anyway because of LCD/plasma tv's, video games, computers, etc., etc. I use an extra 3600 watts in a 3000 sq. ft home and have never had a problem over many years.

 

[mrdizzle]

that article is fucked up anyways, I read that a long time about, they are saying these guys were using 2,5000-1000wer per hour. TOTAL horse shit, did you notice they were illegals as well? cops set that shit up themselves

 

[Smokey503ski]

In a 1000 sq. foot house you can run 3-4k lights and use your house hold stuff normally. Most people that get busted is by telling someone about the grow, the smell, and using extreme amount of electricity.
Like some of the OP said, most stuff nowday's use ALOT of juice, for example my computer uses around 750 watts and that runs all the time. My heaters are baseboard and I do not even want to know how much those are sucking juice, my TV is 600 watts by itself. Plus my stereo receiver puts out also. There are about 15 light fixtures in my house which probably have 60-100 watt bulbs in them.
What I am saying is there are so many things running that by adding a few lights is not noticable. If you do run 3-4k in lights, you might want to think about getting the cheap flouros in all your fixtures, Do not use your heater, Use the heat from your air cooled hoods to heat your house. It works!!!
For veg you can use Flouro's of any kind. And use 2k in lights in the flower room and get some poundage that way.
By using the heat from your Hoods is one way to not use your heaters in your house. You can get real crafty with that setup and put a electronic damper with a thermostat on it so you can set the temp in your house by the hoods. I did that at my last place and loved it. You just need to figure something out for the summer.
Hope this helps some.

 

[spiderman]

led's lookin more and more attractive all the time!

 

[SSHZ]

No, they are not. Not if you want to end up with any weight. Been there, tried that and it was lousy. And I bought 4 high quality fixtures.

 

[sky high]

Smokey gave ya the word up.

Keep yer mouth shut.

Filter/do anything you must to kill the (lovely) smell.

And I will add.... PAY YOUR BILL ON TIME AND DON'T STEAL ELECTRICITY!

be safe. all

s h

 

[squarepusher]

1k sq foot house maybe 4-6k if your normal elec usage is low

 

[naturehd]

also with these smart meters its a good idea to have 2 bloom areas and 1 veg area. have the 12/12 opposite of each other so it doesnt show any flux in usage. give ya an idea on costs, i prefer 400 watt hids for blooming and they cost me according to the math at 8 cents a kwt around 20 bucks a month each. super cheap an heat has never been an issue.

 

[420Gator]

id do an 8k flip/flop

 

[motherlode]

man if your that paranoid about it maybe you shouldnt grow at all - not trying to be a dick at all - just saying that shit aint worth losing sleep over and life is way to short to stress out

 

[Colebz]

man if your that paranoid about it maybe you shouldnt grow at all - not trying to be a dick at all - just saying that shit aint worth losing sleep over and life is way to short to stress out

Straight up!!

 

[naturehd]

if you are in a mmj non-friendly state you do have to think about these things unless you slowly increase your wattage, or have it all going when you first move in as to not attracted the meter man's attention. so i reckon i respectfully disagree with the statement above. do the math and know what you can pay as far as the light bill and go from there. piss poor planning prevents proper preperation imo. of course as usual take my advise with a grain of salt.

 

[motherlode]

if you are in a mmj non-friendly state you do have to think about these things unless you slowly increase your wattage, or have it all going when you first move in as to not attracted the meter man's attention. so i reckon i respectfully disagree with the statement above. do the math and know what you can pay as far as the light bill and go from there. piss poor planning prevents proper preperation imo. of course as usual take my advise with a grain of salt.

not sure which post you disagree with - best course to not attract the meter mans attention is to not be running your grow with the meter doing a linda blair when he shows up

problem is a lot of communities have gone to or are going to smart meters

and again I stand by what I said - living paranoid is no way to live

if you cant do the time dont do the crime

 

[anderson]

if you are in a mmj non-friendly state you do have to think about these things unless you slowly increase your wattage, or have it all going when you first move in as to not attracted the meter man's attention. so i reckon i respectfully disagree with the statement above. do the math and know what you can pay as far as the light bill and go from there. piss poor planning prevents proper preperation imo. of course as usual take my advise with a grain of salt.

Luckily I don't have to deal with smart meters in my state. But yeah, the rest of it I agree. It would be a pretty easy algorithm required to sort out high-wattage use in the neighborhood and go from there. And there is a plethora of evidence that electric companies work with law enforcement- even feeding them tips unsolicited. So it's a tough guesstimate to see what a proper threshold is. 2400 watts+ timers and shit is where I want to be, but I think that would definitely send up some flags. I'm struggling here.

not sure which post you disagree with - best course to not attract the meter mans attention is to not be running your grow with the meter doing a linda blair when he shows up

problem is a lot of communities have gone to or are going to smart meters

and again I stand by what I said - living paranoid is no way to live

if you cant do the time dont do the crime

I respect your view but I think it's nonsensical. You're essentially ignoring the root concern here, and advocating crossing your fingers, and reiterating the importance of accepting a possibility of jail time.

Paranoia is thinking the cops are hovering above with a helicopter when the TRAUMA team is going to a scene. Worrying about electric rate spikes- something that has been documented as the cause for literally countless arrests- is just rational planning 101.


Do you have any evidence or evidence-based opinions on why it is A-ok to run significantly more watts than 99% of the people in your area, in spite of a plethora of arrests caused by this discrepancy?

It's not about paranoia, it's about recognizing the seriousness of what I'm potentially doing.

 

[anderson]

[YOUTUBE]JHDceAJlRG4&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]


Barry covers it. Electric companies snitch, and get paid for it.

 

[motherlode]

how am I advocating crossing your fingers?

I said if your that paranoid (your word -NOT mine) then you shouldnt grow or at very least go over the 1k that you are comfortable with - period

couple of 1ks is no worse then running an ac or electric heater

should you be careful about your power use and pay your bill on time - fuck yes

I been at this since 84 - Im legal now and but wasnt always the case

there are other factors though that I think are more important - smell being at the top of that list and who knows about your grow

 

[Bobby Smith]

Bro (OP), paranoia comes and goes.........I've got oodles and oodles of money into my grow, but almost ripped it down the other night because I saw a cop driving by my house shining his spotlight on my bushes...........hopefully (and I think it was the case) I was just being paranoid, but that freaked me out pretty good for a couple of days.

Anyhow, if you can't handle being paranoid every once in a while (I don't sell, have a sealed room setup with three filters, two ozone generators, and no one on earth besides me knows that I grow, just to give you an idea of my personal security setup), then this isn't for you.

A little healthy paranoia is good, IMO - keeps you on your toes.

Regarding your electricity usage, think of all the people running large aquariums, hot tubs, pools, multiple large computers, etc., etc..............2400 watts in flower is as high as I'm willing to go (and might bump down to a 4K flip-flop in my avatar), but I'm sure I could go up to 3 or 4K without raising too many eyebrows.

The neighbor behind me has his flood lights shining 24/7 and a large pool with a hot tub..........my $400 bill is probably what he pays weekly.

 

[Buddy Flowers]

run your shit at 240v, double up on the carbon scrubber exhaust, and keep your mouth shut and you're fine.

 

[SSHZ]

Running at 240 or 120 makes no difference in the final bill. I thought my bill was extremely high until I found out a neighbor lawyer up the street (with more kids and a pool) pays 25% more than me and DOESN'T grow. Cutting back in areas you can like turning more lights off, changing to more efficient bulbs, lower the heat on the hot water heater, keep the house a little cooler or hotter (depending on season), air dry your clothes instead of using the dryer- there are hundred of ways- will help offset a higher bill quite a bit.