To grow or not to grow (using my home)?

[FileError404]

Must be a different PG&E than the one I use... I ran 3K lights, pumps, fans, 12000btu AC and my regular stuff, including lots of cooking and at 18/6 I paid $500. At 12/12 $350.

 

[Fred]

If you steal power you are making us all look bad. It's a much bigger deal because now your a thief on a federal level. Not just a growing. This would not help your case.

fred

 

[Seamaiden]

Fred, nothing the OP has said should give anyone the idea that he plans on stealing power. He's just trying to figure out the where.

Must be a different PG&E than the one I use... I ran 3K lights, pumps, fans, 12000btu AC and my regular stuff, including lots of cooking and at 18/6 I paid $500. At 12/12 $350.

Is that including regular household usage, or is this just a grow house? And do you have a SmartMeter yet?

I ask because all I run is a single 600 for flowering and I don't even run that all the time. I also use an electric blanket to keep the roots as warm as I can (because it's cold down there!), a fan for circulation and some cheap-ass window fans for ventilation and that alone adds close to $100 to our monthly bill. Our monthly bill is already in the $300+ range. The bills went UP after the SmartMeter was installed.

 

[The Joker]

My bill doubled with the smart meter.

T7rin: You are thinking of this backwards.

First: PG & E doesn't give a shit about your electrical usage as long as you pay on time.

Two: Your job as a grower is to set up yourself so that the grow is hard to find or access, it has no sound and no smell. You tell no one and you show no one. If you have kids in the home, forget it. They will find it.

I over thought my grow and worked myself up into paranoia twice and ripped my grow over nothing.

When I built my grow ( in an old canning cupboard 4'x7' x 6' high) I insulated it to make it sound proof, including the door. Set up a carbon filter exhausting to the outside with a duct muffler to minimise noise. Wrapped the exhaust fan in foam and added a speed controller to control fan noise. The door has a layer of soundproofing on the inside to minimize the noise coming out. Weatherstripping is around the door to eliminate light leaks and there is a lock to keep a curious mind out.

The cabs I've built are hollow walled and insulated with soundproofing insulation to minimize noise. Carbon filter for the exhaust, fan is outside the cab hidden in a loft in a sound proof box. Speed controller is hooked up to minimize fan noise on that as well.

Put the grow in a place no one goes. Make sure it doesn't smell. Tell no one, show no one. Grow in such a way that you don't have to get rid of dirt every month. Don't throw anything related to growing in your garbage ( light boxes, empty nute containers, anything. ) I go to the dump on a regular basis and throw the grow garbage in bags with nothing containing my name or address and throw it on the pile.

After a while , you will have a routine, and you will realise your neighbors are not psychic. Be a great neighbor. Be the guy with the beautiful front yard. Do not smoke outside ( my wife does and it makes me crazy). Buy a tumbling composter and compost your leaves and stems and kitchen scraps ( you're yard will love you for it). Leaves will be gone in a week or two if you turn every day. I have an orange tree, I'll lay down a layer of leaves and stems, a layer of newspaper and a layer of chicken manure. Instant worm food and your plants will love it. People will stand on it and not know what is beneath their feet.

The hardest part will be curing the bud. I'm still working on that. It reeks pretty hard for 10 days.

You have to design your set up to be stealthy. Someone should be able to lean up against the grow room door or cab and not hear anything or smell anything.

Sight, smell, sound. Get rid of those and you are golden.

 

[Dubwobble]

Get your doctors permit.

If you are married have your wife get her doctors permit.

Stay within your legal limits.

Don't ever have anything extra in the house (like mushrooms, E, or any pharmies that you don't have a script for).

Don't ever have an unregistered gun.

Don't steal electricity.

You will be perfectly fine.

Even if your neighbors are cops, you are legally entitled to grow and have your medicine in your own home.

Period.

I have 2 friends that were "raided", one in Co Co county, the other in San Mateo. Both were medical, one house was over the legal limits. The cops took the plants that were over the limit but left 12 plants and gave him a notice to appear for "marijuana cultivation". When he went to court it was proven he was medical and although he was over the limit (he had 36 plants and some clones), it was all deemed for personal use and the judge dropped it all.

Never lost their houses or any mention of it.

Just stay legal. It is our right as voting, tax paying California citizens.

 

[noone88]

I browsed through the thread and I didn't find a part where he said whether he was growing for medical needs. I saw a reference for "profit".

For medical needs, there are so many good dispensaries with great quality meds in CA that it's not worth it usually to try and grow your own. And there are plenty of the same places with 40 dollars caps for an 1/8. $40 an 1/8 for OG??!?! I would have laughed if you told me that was possible 5 years ago

Now, if you want to grow for "profit", or as I like to say, contributing back to your collective, then you have to factor in that the game in CA is nothing like anywhere else in the US (or even the world).

1) In CA, you're lucky that you can go straight from clone. Even though the clone business is shady as hell and prone to their own set of problems, it saves time in the process. No dealing with the maintenance of mothers and the art of cloning. Growing a full mother takes 2 months. Cloning is 14-21 days. By skipping mothers and cloning, you save 3 months.

2) Vegging and flowering is pretty simple if you KISS. Focus on atmosphere and make sure your temps, humidity, and air flow (or sealed room CO2) are dialed in. Our plants are strong and most growers know that if you have a healthy 3 foot plant before you go 12/12, nothing short of a chainsaw will kill it. With that said, pay more attention to your plants during veg; flowering is a bit more maintenance free and tons of ways to automate it.

3) Drying and curing. This is an art form and this is where your 30-day-veg-plus-60-day-flower of work can turn into zero. Buying a caliber III helps a lot, but you have to know when it's too wet, and when it's time to cure. Add on 1 month for drying and curing.

4) 4 months later, now it's time to sell. If you don't smoke or don't know your strains, it'll be like you trying to sell a car at a used car lot with no kelly blue book or internet pricing guide. You will be at their mercy. I can sit there and pick apart any growers product (Oh look, there's powdery mildew, oh look, the trim job is bad, oh look, you didn't cure it long enough). If you know someone that can retail it out for you, expect to lose 10-15% in gross because he's middling it for you, most likely on consignment.

I hate lengthy posts, but xanax does this to me. I see dudes coming in all the time at hydro shops thinking they can grow under lights and make huge bucks. I also see straight up legit guys trying to partner up with "growers". Would you open up a restaurant if you don't know how to cook? The days of moving P's of OG kush at 5-6k are long long long gone (like it was a fairy tale!). Take any industry, whether it's clothing, wine, cars. Medical cannabis is an INDUSTRY.

You think I can sew some leather bags and go to Nordstroms and see if they'll buy my stuff?

 

[t7rln]

noone88,

Very helpful information. Thank you.


T7rln

I browsed through the thread and I didn't find a part where he said whether he was growing for medical needs. I saw a reference for "profit".

For medical needs, there are so many good dispensaries with great quality meds in CA that it's not worth it usually to try and grow your own. And there are plenty of the same places with 40 dollars caps for an 1/8. $40 an 1/8 for OG??!?! I would have laughed if you told me that was possible 5 years ago

Now, if you want to grow for "profit", or as I like to say, contributing back to your collective, then you have to factor in that the game in CA is nothing like anywhere else in the US (or even the world).

1) In CA, you're lucky that you can go straight from clone. Even though the clone business is shady as hell and prone to their own set of problems, it saves time in the process. No dealing with the maintenance of mothers and the art of cloning. Growing a full mother takes 2 months. Cloning is 14-21 days. By skipping mothers and cloning, you save 3 months.

2) Vegging and flowering is pretty simple if you KISS. Focus on atmosphere and make sure your temps, humidity, and air flow (or sealed room CO2) are dialed in. Our plants are strong and most growers know that if you have a healthy 3 foot plant before you go 12/12, nothing short of a chainsaw will kill it. With that said, pay more attention to your plants during veg; flowering is a bit more maintenance free and tons of ways to automate it.

3) Drying and curing. This is an art form and this is where your 30-day-veg-plus-60-day-flower of work can turn into zero. Buying a caliber III helps a lot, but you have to know when it's too wet, and when it's time to cure. Add on 1 month for drying and curing.

4) 4 months later, now it's time to sell. If you don't smoke or don't know your strains, it'll be like you trying to sell a car at a used car lot with no kelly blue book or internet pricing guide. You will be at their mercy. I can sit there and pick apart any growers product (Oh look, there's powdery mildew, oh look, the trim job is bad, oh look, you didn't cure it long enough). If you know someone that can retail it out for you, expect to lose 10-15% in gross because he's middling it for you, most likely on consignment.

I hate lengthy posts, but xanax does this to me. I see dudes coming in all the time at hydro shops thinking they can grow under lights and make huge bucks. I also see straight up legit guys trying to partner up with "growers". Would you open up a restaurant if you don't know how to cook? The days of moving P's of OG kush at 5-6k are long long long gone (like it was a fairy tale!). Take any industry, whether it's clothing, wine, cars. Medical cannabis is an INDUSTRY.

You think I can sew some leather bags and go to Nordstroms and see if they'll buy my stuff?

 

[ent]

Thanks for the advice. Can you elaborate as to how power tap leads to discovery of a grow?

You will get caught because they have a meter over a group of houses, maybe just your street, or a group of 16x homes or something. When the meter for each house is summed up, it would need to be at or near the reading on the meter for the group of houses. When it doesn't match up, they investigate further and look for irregularities. They own the meter at your house, so they can come on your property to inspect it.

Like somebody else said, PG&E is a capitalist company. Pay your bill and they will be happy. They aren't going to spend resources (time and money) to go out of their way to cooperate with law enforcement and snitch on their more profitable customers. Nor are they going to put themselves at legal risk by cooperating with law enforcement.

Also don't worry about the costs of electricity. It is something like 5% of your net at the end of a harvest. So the more your electricity is, the more you'll harvest, the more you'll make. Look at the cost of electricity in the terms of a percentage on your return. And you can, because as far as lighting and environment control goes, the amount of energy you add to your room directly affects your end yield. In this way, you *want* to pay more in electricity. Just means you end up with more product in the end. :)

Fred, nothing the OP has said should give anyone the idea that he plans on stealing power. He's just trying to figure out the where.

I saw this:

I learned that power bypass is a first degree misdemeanor, and restitution is the only common recourse. I am considering it, but still not sure about it morally speaking, from the inside.

 

[OGReggieBUSH777]

thats some real info noone

 

[t7rln]

Awesome information so far. Thank you very very much. From all of the input here, and research that I have done, I have made some definite decisions from my choices available.

1. I will grow within my own property (legally of course). I have four decades of experience which says, "marijuana is illegal." and I am getting my head around the fact that this beautiful resource is considered legal to grow (not by all, but by enough). It has taken me a while to get my head around that.

2. I will not "tap" power. Although tempted, and here in CA I am sure it will be a huge part of overhead (tiered charging system sucks), it was FIleError404 and Ent who made the most sense when they said the following...

Don't even consider it. People get busted that way. You want to do something legal with illegal means? Much easier for them to consider the grow illegal, too...Just pay your bill.

Best of Luck!

and

Also don't worry about the costs of electricity. It is something like 5% of your net at the end of a harvest. So the more your electricity is, the more you'll harvest, the more you'll make. Look at the cost of electricity in the terms of a percentage on your return. And you can, because as far as lighting and environment control goes, the amount of energy you add to your room directly affects your end yield. In this way, you *want* to pay more in electricity. Just means you end up with more product in the end.

I have a smart Meter, yes, and my current bill is around $100 for electric.

3. I am starting my build-out tonight.


Thanks for all of the generous info. even if I didn't mention your post...it helped me come to my decisions.


Great Growing, and better smoking...

t7rln

 

[t7rln]

Wrong section - sorry

 

[t7rln]

Anyone have a formula to figure out which size carbon filter I will need for the size room I will grow in?

Thanks

T7

 

[FileError404]

From the Can website:

s there a calculation for sizing a room?

Yes there is and it’s really quite simple, all you need to do is take your cubic feet of the room (Length x Width x Height) and divide that number by the number of minutes you would like to exchange the air in the room (Only 1 – 3 Minutes is recommended) and that will give you the recommended minimum CFM that you need for that room, then you take that Min CFM number and match it to one of our filters and as long as that Minimum recommended CFM is higher then the exhaust minimum on the filter you will have adequate airflow and proper filtration for that room.

 

[t7rln]

Thank you sir!

t7rln

 

[noone88]

You can never "over" filter your room. But you can definitely under-filter your room which leads to suspicious smells.

Fans are going to be the loudest part of your grow equipment.

I use a 12" fan + carbon filter in the grow room with a smaller fan + carbon filter outside the door. I move the smaller fan/filter to my harvest area when it's time to cut down.

 

[420Gator]

hey OP i was really worried about electic bill too, i have 2 rooms with 4 1ks in each 30k btu of AC and i live there. bills only around 700. easily worth the payment. BTW a 10 inch vortex and 50 lb filter in each room seems to control the odor good enuff to walk right by the room with the door closed and no smell. Just make sure you flower at night, i tried during the day and can tell you its a bitch on the AC

 

[keebzy]

Sorry abiut asking this on your thread t7rln, but what do yal think a 400 watt hps and carbon filter, 12 32watt T8's, and 5 house fans is gonna add on to my bill...? Again I apologize for using your thread just had to ask...

 

[420Gator]

depends on how long youre running that hps, but id say around a bill, probably less

 

[keebzy]

12/12

 

[420Gator]

in all actuality probably half of what i originally said