"Smart" electricity meters can ID your lights

[Canalchemist]

There are Orders going around Canada to remove tens if not hundreds of thousands of smart meters, fires and complaints. I am aware of a lot of people in Canada who read there own meter. And I have read that a lot of people have just refused the installation in some municipalities sighting RF radiation. I have heard of people using Faraday cages on there smart meters but haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted for it, they likely just come and read the meter manually.

 

[Canalchemist]

And on the start up surges being a signature, it wold be impossible to be sure a start up surge is coming from the same appliance accurately all the time. Older appliances will consume different quantities of electricity based on the environmental conditions in the house, A dryer for instance will use more power when it is colder and damper than when it is warmer and dryer in the house.

Power consumption alone is not enough to get a warrant, neither is energy profile, if your worried change your power profile no and again by plugging uvb light into your flowering timer for a week, then remove it plug in a fan for a week, remove that. Plug in a water pump on a cycle timer for a week remove that, then plug in a stereo for a month remove that. The initial power usage will still be there but it will be buried in different wattages that change on a regular basis over a period of time.

We had to put Isolation transformers on Variable frequency drives once because the electricity the Power company provided was so dirty the drive wouldn't function properly. I have a hard time understanding how they could find a signature amongst all that harmonic distortion in the sine wave.

There are a plethora of ways to mask, hide, distort, regulate your sine wave, you just need to read and be creative, and you don't need to spend thousands of dollars.

Just an Idea here, you could have a power bar with timers set in a 8 hour sequence, to start up and shut off a few different things. Neon signs have a ballast, so do CFL's and a lot of outdoor fixtures, there are start capacitors on motors in fridges washing machines and dryers.

To get scared over this at this point and time may be a little premature, I am not going for the fear mongering.

 

[lurrabq]

I use digital ballast, and my lighting controller has an ammeter, I am not seeing these huge spikes of power consumption upon startup that many here are talking about.

You won't see the start-up spikes using the digital ballast. That serves as your isolation transformer between the lamp and your ammeter.

 

[Canalchemist]

I have a 900watt LED fixture that spikes when it starts I will test my ballasts

 

[iCultivate]

As of now has anyone heard of people actually being busted for their power signature?

-icultivate-

 

[MrBelvedere]

As of now has anyone heard of people actually being busted for their power signature?

-icultivate-

Some people who steal the pre meter power for their grows (but still use a paid in full net meter for rest of facility) are being busted for electrical theft because some transformers also have a smartmeter that will detect usage and fwd the data for signature detection. Data analytics companies are being paid to check for signatures like lights, pumps, etc so the power utility people have an educated guess as to why the energy is being stolen. The signatures are used to prioritize inspections in some areas. No fear mongering, just be safe. The data analytics are *mainly* used though so utility companies can know when to buy/sell electricity to other companies on the daily market. They use historical data, weather, etc to more precisely buy/sell power at critical times to prevent rolling blackouts, serve their customers, and generally save/make money.

 

[sixstring]

just heard about a bust by me and the source was an ex cop.they tried to contact the grow house owner several times on a complaint.but they got a search warrant based on the power bill and use habits.i guess 3000.00 a month gets the judge to sign warrants around here lol

 

[DapperDon]

Are you in a legal state Sixstring?

 

[sixstring]

yeah michigan.we have some good counties and some bad ones.some sherriffs like oakland co think of it federally,its fucked up

 

[fishwhistle]

There was a bust near me a few days ago(1300 plant vietnamese grow)and they had been stealing electricity for 7 years with no one noticing,they estimate 400,000 in electricity stolen over the years and they had bypassed right in front of the smartmeter on a gutted 2500sq ft house,only way they got busted was a nosy neighbor.
I also know a guy who runs a hydro shop owned by a group of chinese growers who own homes(alot of them!) everywhere in multiple states just blowing it up,these guys have a construction crew and electrician on staff with brand new contractor body trucks stocked with the latest equipment,everywhere they build they bypass smart meters and they never get busted so im not sold on the fact that a smartmeter alone will get you noticed.Think about it, if it was that easy power companies would be all over that shit right?It actually seems to be a bigger bust stealing electricity in cali than actually growing the plants,lol,but you dont hear alot about it except when they find it incidental to a grow.The fucked up tier system and outrageous prices in cali make it very profitable to bone the power company on large grows.
I dont steal anything from anyone but when i see my bill i feel like im being stolen FROM and that is after i scaled way back and spent alot of money adding green energy,utility companies are the real thieves.

 

[DapperDon]

How did you scale back and what were your priorities grow-wise when you did?

 

[StonedBlue]

I don't think so. There are a lot of varibles in play when it comes to the amount of electricity a home can use, which should make it difficult to target you soley based on your load patterns. Additionally not every grower runs the same set up so each individual garden will have a unique load. Add that to central A/C, a plasma tv or two each one uses about the same power as a 400W light, computers, DVRs, XBox, PS3 etc and since your garden won't always being running while nothing else is, the load on the whole house will vary based on what other appliances you're using when your garden is drawing power.

There are so many reasons to have a higher electric bill than your neighbor that power use alone can't be used to obtain probable cause.

But it is simple to write an app that will scan records and find places that have a large change that happens at same time everyday with a person to weed those down to ones that the cops might be interested in

 

[StonedBlue]

dang you guys were ruthless to doogle. i got a question about my setup and since theres so manyseasoned growers on this thread im hoping ill get a straight answer. next week ill be buying the Mortgage Lifter Grow Tent. My question is about what that type of system will do to my current electrical bill. i pay around 100-160 a month now. I read all the other posts that say no one cares about a big bill but it seems like going from my current bill which has been pretty stable for 3 yrs to a 400% jump (just assuming) that it would cause some curiousity. let me know please.

It depends on the rate you pay for electric. I have it good. I live in a 2000 square foot house and run two small tents. My bill for the whole house is under $100 most months.

 

[Canalchemist]

A large Salt water Aquarium will run Lights on timers Pumps and heaters etc. Hot tub will run Lights timers pumps and heaters, Whatever doesn't come with this technology can be made to simulate it, besides the point anyone could be legally cultivating rare herbs or flowers as a hobby or therapeutic reasons. It is our and the cops perception that something nefarious is happening. I think that if the Authorities can just come to your door and ask you "What's all the power for" the world we live in would be much different. In these cases where the judge signs on a warrant because of power use and habit use or whatever it's called it is likely there is an informant that was never mentioned to protect there identity, and another cop will never know because it is all behind closed doors.

There is a huge common sense factor that can't be ignored. You never hear the whole story about a bust. Stealing is very bad regardless of how much we depend on electricity, sharing a secret is like drilling a hole in a ship's hull that is a float in an ocean of possibilities.