BCrocker
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I am located in BC (interior) and so far have not seen anyone around here getting them installed.
Will update when they come by.
I haven't changed anything I've been doing. I had a power bill that was almost 500$ last month. I just pay my bill ontime
mal
I'm in Colorado, and they already installed my smart meter early last summer when my AC and hot tub and such were all rockin' the juice. Nobody asked any questions, and no one has had my place under surveillance. Then again, I do have this lil thing called a red card- which basically means that they don't have the right to assume I'm doing anything more than it says I can- and I can use a lot of power to grow 12 plants if I want! I mean, trees, bro! So much for probable cause- and if they don't have that, then they're dead in the water.
The only thing I have going for me is the e-bill for my garden is pulled off of a commercial meter (also a smart meter) but I've been growing with the same equipment for months before the meter was put in, thats not to say they cant see the 12 and 18 hour time frames, thats what worries me more than anything.
I had no idea I had a smart meter until I read this thread 2 days ago, I was intending to run 3 1k lights for my current grow but I have since reneged and decided to keep only 1 1k going for now and switch to 6's or LED's before adding another light which sucks seeing I purchased 2 brand new 1k ballasts, XXXL hoods and a plethora of extra HPS and MH bulbs (Anyone looking for a deal on 2 sun systems 1k switchable mag ballasts? $275 +ship, boxes never opened). Also I am thinking about switching over to the lantern method where in veg you run lights on for 12 hours, go lights off for 5.5 and then on for 1 hour and off for the remainder. Its little more in depth than that but basically my girls can stay in veg with 12.5-13 hours of light a day but I'm not to keen on just throwing them into that after being on a 20/4 sch since germination.
I have one of those meters that tells you how much your appliances pull when they are running, I'm going to go around to all my gear and add it all up and see what the actual damage a day is, this is on top of the commercial ice machines, washers and dryers, giant restaurant exhaust fans, and an obscene amount of outdoor lights that are running constantly, hopefully my little mini op can stay hidden in the midst of it all. I am almost certain the meter that my op is on is a commercial meter (I live in a kind of industrial area), however that doesnt help with the 12/18/20 hour power consumption cycles my room has been on though.
Truthfully, after having a smart meter for the past year or so (un knowing), I'm more scared of the cable company/google and my internet postings. Since I started growing I've always kept grow journals....those stopped at the beginning of this current grow, if I have questions to ask I try to post as few pics as possible as well as deleted any kind of photobucket pics. Not that it matters as they could easily track us down via IP but less exposure is better I'm learning, hopefully not the hard way.
Over the next couple days I plan on doing what I mentioned about that meter and seeing what I use, I'll post my usage when I get all the info together.
In the US they cant get a warrant based only on your power bill. All that proves is you have lights on. Lights dont equal weed plants. Now they can use that along with monitoring traffic at your house, run a dog around your house, sift through your trash ect.
Other countries not sure about. The power bill alone wont get you busted. Shit growing up my parents ran up about 250 more than I do a month and that was 15+ years ago. Cops didnt come knocking looking for their weed plants.
Also, it's not like the power company is giving everyone's information to law enforcement if they hit a certain ammount of KWH's. From my understand is, if LE asks, the power company complies. Or if it is huge power in a residential area...
At the end of the day, the power company is a profit orientated business.
I was over 90kwh's per day for 5 months and I don't even have any lights! AC + computers.
all your balllest should be hooked to a large usp backup to prevent spikes
That's not going to help anything.
Spikes aren't an issue.. Overall usage is.
I agree. The power company is not going to have one assigned asshole to watch your power usage during the day and see the tiny spike in power when it flips or something... Even computers fluxuate depending on load.
So for you lads who already had the smart meter installed, have you changed what you're doing at all?
They have started installing them in my state and have planned to have the rest completed over the next two years.
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