Smart meters a concern??
- Thread starter Cubes15128
- Start date
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
Ok. I've thought about it. I have multiple timers at my house.
55 gallon fish tank with lights, pumps and heater on timer. Multiple shelfs with led lightning with timers for house plants.
My swimming pool pump is on a timer.
All of which is legal. I just don't thing running lights on a timer will draw attention itself.
55 gallon fish tank with lights, pumps and heater on timer. Multiple shelfs with led lightning with timers for house plants.
My swimming pool pump is on a timer.
All of which is legal. I just don't thing running lights on a timer will draw attention itself.
jonsnow399
Well-Known Member
none of which run a 12 hr regular schedule with thousands of watts.
SPLFreak808
Well-Known Member
Im familiar with ITRON CLXXX meters, in hawaii we use the OTA models by flaxnet. They are built with the ability to add various different modules, some of these modules use what we call "energy disaggregation status".
modules st/sl/dr2 & dr3 all have the load demand feature built in, it can detect the length and pattern of inrush current & idle current along with time of use,power outage,service disconnect,tamper alarm ect...
Im pretty sure the information is to help track down transistor/conductor damage & crack down on theft, if you were to setup an inductance coil under a power line and stole power then it wouldn't take long at all for them to find the leak, much easier to pin point it on a computer screen over a day instead of sending 20 dudes out daily for a month.
You could be growing peppers maybe tomatoes or some shit lol, thats a heavy gamble for your door to come down over a conclusion.
modules st/sl/dr2 & dr3 all have the load demand feature built in, it can detect the length and pattern of inrush current & idle current along with time of use,power outage,service disconnect,tamper alarm ect...
Im pretty sure the information is to help track down transistor/conductor damage & crack down on theft, if you were to setup an inductance coil under a power line and stole power then it wouldn't take long at all for them to find the leak, much easier to pin point it on a computer screen over a day instead of sending 20 dudes out daily for a month.
You could be growing peppers maybe tomatoes or some shit lol, thats a heavy gamble for your door to come down over a conclusion.
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
All of it does. All of it is on 12/12. Maybe not thousands of watts but it adds up. I have a lot of plants with led over them.
You ever see the setups for corral growing? Thousands of watts.
Nobody is getting busted because of a meter. Its not illegal to run thousands of watts on a timer.
Show me one article where a smart meter got someone busted. That and that alone. No one can. It doesn't happen like that.
Talking or showing your grow, stealing power? Improper ballast setup and rf interference through cable lines. Things of that nature get you busted.
Cx2H
Well-Known Member
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
A faraday cage over the ballast works. Also make sure all cable in your home is quad shield rg-6.
You can walk through your house around grow equipment with an AM radio to check for rf from ballast.
A faraday cage can be made with simple hardware mesh.
jonsnow399
Well-Known Member
You mean to say no one has gotten busted YET, that you know of, because of a smart meter.
chemphlegm
Well-Known Member
"Using smart grid for surveillance to catch indoor pot farmers is not new. We found references to this going back to 2005 see: "NeverGetBusted" document "fishing for pot" and the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog reported on "Texas warrantless surveillance program" in which Austin Energy provides police with "customer usage information" to find grow houses"
"In central Ohio, law enforcement officials file as many as 60 subpoenas each month for energy use records of people suspected in indoor marijuana growing operations. It seems that most of the residences with indoor pot growing operations are in quiet neighborhoods without much traffic."
"
KXAN has picked up on Austin Energy/Austin Police warrant less surveillance program. It’s good to see the mainstream press involved. I hope they keep pressing until they get answers.
Next time an Austin Cop questions you, ask for a lawyer. That is what Austin PD did when asked about their Austin Energy customer data mining program. Here is the quote from KXAN
An APD representative agreed to talk to KXAN Austin News about using energy
usage information, but just before the interview, the agency got a call from its
attorneys, advising to refrain from commenting on the issue.
Disgraceful, yet sadly typical. Government always chooses the path of least disclosure. Austin PD is not different. Even more disturbing is the quote from Austin Energy.
“State law allows us to share information with other governmental entities, and
APD is, of course, a city department,” said Ed Clark of Austin Energy. ” And so,
really and truly, we wouldn’t have a basis on which to deny information to them,
and on the other hand, we are interested in assisting them.”
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2228642/microsoft-subnet/are-smart-meters-real-time-surveillance-spies-.html
"I can now confirm that Austin Police have access to Austin Energy customer usage information. The City of Austin, in response to my open records request, turned over an agreement titled “Utility Database Confidentiality Agreement.” This agreement gives Austin PD the right to search Austin Energy customer information without a warrant.
https://www.dallascriminaldefenselawyerblog.com/2007/11/confirmed-austin-energy-provid.html
FTW !
before 2008 I raised tilapia year round indoors. My electric bill for that portion was 3x my marijuana growing costs for years with no questions. I was running over 1k bills monthly in the winter and 800 in summer months. they dont give a phuck...until an angry girlfriend calls them, they take a peak, look at consumption, then wham. loose lips sink ships
"In central Ohio, law enforcement officials file as many as 60 subpoenas each month for energy use records of people suspected in indoor marijuana growing operations. It seems that most of the residences with indoor pot growing operations are in quiet neighborhoods without much traffic."
"
KXAN has picked up on Austin Energy/Austin Police warrant less surveillance program. It’s good to see the mainstream press involved. I hope they keep pressing until they get answers.
Next time an Austin Cop questions you, ask for a lawyer. That is what Austin PD did when asked about their Austin Energy customer data mining program. Here is the quote from KXAN
An APD representative agreed to talk to KXAN Austin News about using energy
usage information, but just before the interview, the agency got a call from its
attorneys, advising to refrain from commenting on the issue.
Disgraceful, yet sadly typical. Government always chooses the path of least disclosure. Austin PD is not different. Even more disturbing is the quote from Austin Energy.
“State law allows us to share information with other governmental entities, and
APD is, of course, a city department,” said Ed Clark of Austin Energy. ” And so,
really and truly, we wouldn’t have a basis on which to deny information to them,
and on the other hand, we are interested in assisting them.”
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2228642/microsoft-subnet/are-smart-meters-real-time-surveillance-spies-.html
"I can now confirm that Austin Police have access to Austin Energy customer usage information. The City of Austin, in response to my open records request, turned over an agreement titled “Utility Database Confidentiality Agreement.” This agreement gives Austin PD the right to search Austin Energy customer information without a warrant.
https://www.dallascriminaldefenselawyerblog.com/2007/11/confirmed-austin-energy-provid.html
FTW !
before 2008 I raised tilapia year round indoors. My electric bill for that portion was 3x my marijuana growing costs for years with no questions. I was running over 1k bills monthly in the winter and 800 in summer months. they dont give a phuck...until an angry girlfriend calls them, they take a peak, look at consumption, then wham. loose lips sink ships
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
Yea. That's seems like a scare tactic to get people to buy those don't get busted dvds and the like.
In some aces they may share that info. The info by itself is not illegal or grounds for a search.
If I got busted because of the electric bill alone I would fight it in court and get the case thrown out.
Running a lot of electric is not illegal nor grounds for a search warrant.
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Even the article that was posted about Austin said as much.
Its for tracking down theft of power. That gets people busted faster than anything else.
I don't run a lot of lights. If I were to it wouldn't be a problem.
Some don't have the ability to do this but if growing that much pot I'm sure they could come up with it.
I would build a garage. I would start a welding business. Commercial account.
Also if I were to do it in a house it would be one that I had a new account with the electric company. If your electric bill is a couple hundred bucks a month for 5 years then all of a sudden jumps to a couple thousand or something then that might throw red flags.
At the end of the day the electric company sells a product. Pay your bill and they don't care.
We moved into an old farm house one time because the owner lived a couple hours away. We lived rent free in exchange for living there and watching the farm. Its hard on a house to just sit.
Anyways, it wasn't that bad in the fall and spring. Even the summer wasn't that bad. That first winter the electric bill quadrupled. It had electric heat. I finally went and bought a wood burner with a blower that hooks to the house ducting it was so bad.
Electric company never said a word.
Lordhooha
Well-Known Member
My reef tanks are where my first LEDs came from they take some juice. How big? I had a 200 gallon it was awesome then all hell broke loose after three years of of no issues.
Ares2389
Active Member
Former power company worker in the US here. Worked on the customer service side. I can tell you a few things from my experience 5+ years. My power company and I'm sure almost all of them don't care what you're using and how much. They just want your money plain and simple.
Stealing from them (vacant houses) that's where shit gets real and they crack down.
Stealing from other customers they don't really get involved in as it's a civil matter unless it's an involved scheme. However, obviously that person can call the police and take you to civil court.
I dealt with issues daily of people having large appliances (eletric water heaters, well pumps, etc) malfunctioning and their usage tripling. We never called them. Why would we? We made more money the more they used. I can add though that flags can get tossed on accounts for suspected broken meters. When electric meters go bad sometimes they can speed up (very rare) usually letters were mailed to the customer saying we think your shit is broken. Let us know. Or they would schedule a meter swap. Regardless of that it never went beyond the letters and customers calling back to confirm yeah I'm good or no come fix it.
Warrants were needed by the police to obtain any customer records such as daily kWh usage.
IMO unless you are running some insane huge warehouse style grow in your house I would not worry.
Stealing from them (vacant houses) that's where shit gets real and they crack down.
Stealing from other customers they don't really get involved in as it's a civil matter unless it's an involved scheme. However, obviously that person can call the police and take you to civil court.
I dealt with issues daily of people having large appliances (eletric water heaters, well pumps, etc) malfunctioning and their usage tripling. We never called them. Why would we? We made more money the more they used. I can add though that flags can get tossed on accounts for suspected broken meters. When electric meters go bad sometimes they can speed up (very rare) usually letters were mailed to the customer saying we think your shit is broken. Let us know. Or they would schedule a meter swap. Regardless of that it never went beyond the letters and customers calling back to confirm yeah I'm good or no come fix it.
Warrants were needed by the police to obtain any customer records such as daily kWh usage.
IMO unless you are running some insane huge warehouse style grow in your house I would not worry.
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jonsnow399
Well-Known Member
I can assure you that my power company does care and will help the cops in any way they can.
Ares2389
Active Member
Going off this, I want to add that some electric companies are owned by the local municipalities and therefore I can absolutely see them assisting the local police if called upon.
The utility I worked for was a private utility. This may be where some of these different cooperation levels come into play with law enforcement. Food for thought.
NugHeuser
Well-Known Member
So how do you know if you have a smart meter? Is it simply just a digital display meter versus the original spinning arrows pointing to numbers? I don't think I have one but yeah I agree with most the people here that in the end, all the electric company wants is there money. Noone wants their job to be harder than it needs to be by nosing into other people's buisness.
I do get paranoid sometimes but this is one that probably won't worry me too much. Im mostly worried about how I ordered everything for my grow(except seeds, already had some) from amazon and had it shipped to my house.
Then there's the argument that it isn't illegal to order a couple lights, odds and ends ect plus with millions of people ordering from amazon everyday, what are the chances of being discovered? Needle in a hay stack. BUT, that is probably what I get paranoid over most
I do get paranoid sometimes but this is one that probably won't worry me too much. Im mostly worried about how I ordered everything for my grow(except seeds, already had some) from amazon and had it shipped to my house.
Then there's the argument that it isn't illegal to order a couple lights, odds and ends ect plus with millions of people ordering from amazon everyday, what are the chances of being discovered? Needle in a hay stack. BUT, that is probably what I get paranoid over most
whitebb2727
Well-Known Member
Citation?
Ares2389
Active Member
The smart meters I saw were all digital display. They did retro fit old dial meters with digital hardware that gathered the meter reading once a month as far as I know due to battery limitations. At some point every meter will be a smart meter and the entire grid will be overhauled to support the smart grid system. It's just very costly to roll out.
NugHeuser
Well-Known Member
Oh okay. Yeah I live in a pretty old house and im pretty sure it's still the old school meter.
Crazy how controlled and monitored everything is becoming nowadays