Drawing attention with power bill ??

I started with a 1000w HPS, 2 circulation fans, heater (when needed) in the main room, 3 48"shoplight fixtures and 1 fan in veg. room. My monthly bill was $240. I added a 250w MH and the bill was $250. I recently added a 4 bulb 48" fixture, 2 8" inline fans, 6oow HPS digital, humidifier and a fish tank inside to top it all off. My bill $350 !! Im dealing with out dated wiring plus I work in my garage which has its own meter on it. To me this seems like alot for a bill and the spike has me worried?!?! Any one out there happen to have any info. that can calm my parinoia would be a great help!

Prison has 3 square meals a day.



Just messing, I dont know, maybe the cost for the electricity might raise some eyebrows... but thats an odd person whos like "His electric bill is going up. IT MUST BE WEED"

set up some dummy pc's bare cases what not. my grow box and everything in it pulls just about the same amount of power as my pc does.. so i turn off my pc when i have the lights on and so far so good no nasty spikes.

heres what i got. 400watt light mh/hps. two 22 inch single tube cfl's for the top chamber. and a 132watt pc power supply wired up to run with out a pc, but thats to run all the pc fans i use to cool and circulate air.

CRYSTAL ICEMAN said:

I started with a 1000w HPS, 2 circulation fans, heater (when needed) in the main room, 3 48"shoplight fixtures and 1 fan in veg. room. My monthly bill was $240. I added a 250w MH and the bill was $250. I recently added a 4 bulb 48" fixture, 2 8" inline fans, 6oow HPS digital, humidifier and a fish tank inside to top it all off. My bill $350 !! Im dealing with out dated wiring plus I work in my garage which has its own meter on it. To me this seems like alot for a bill and the spike has me worried?!?! Any one out there happen to have any info. that can calm my parinoia would be a great help!

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I will tell you what everyone else says. "just pay your bill"

You can also look for ways to cut back on some of your electrical usage.

I did the same thing. Even after my setup my electric bill went down.

"but thats an odd person whos like "His electric bill is going up. IT MUST BE WEED""

It really wouldn't be that odd, it would probably be more something like this "Hey this guys usage spikes by 2000w at exactly 12hr intervals everyday" That would be alot more obvious. Although your not looking at enough of a red flag for them to go alert anyone too it, maybe if you were running a couple 1000w's in there and your bill was in the $500-1000 range it'd be another story. But reguardless there not going to come busting down your door because of your electric bill, but it could however get some people taking a closer look at you which is something you probably don't want.

electrical companies DO NOT moniter usage hourly....they just dont.

A. Too say that ALL electric companies do not monitor hourly would be kind of ignorant, theres alot of electric companies in the country and in the world that operate completely differently, there are places in the country where electricity usage is cheaper and more expensive at certain peak and off hours of the day. They can't do that without some sort of monitoring of when you are using your electricity.

B. It doesn't take a guy constantly monitoring a computer screen, just someone to notice hey theres a 2000w spike at exactly 7pm to this guys house every night and shuts off 12 hours later. You leave a pattern, they see a pattern.

i wouldn't worry, my parents bill is about 275$ and they obviously are legit. Like stated above pay the bill and say you got lots of computers or electric baseboard or that you do a lot of drying clothes.

Well you shouldn't be having to explain away anything in the 1st place hehe at that point you'd already be on their radar. But your right this isn't a worry for most non-commercial ops so I wouldn't be too concerned about it really.

Nice! thats kinda what I was hoping to hear. I was thinking of switching the 1000w to another 600w digital and I electric heat that I dont use so that plus curbing power in other spots should help.

My bill is only $135us monthly with a 600w HPS set-up in my grow cab. I also pay for appliance insurance which is about $25 per month deducted from that amount . Natural gas water heater, furnace and dryer. My gas bill is $62us all year long.

lol 350 is nothing!

Power companies arent likely to monitor usage, but if you are already arousing suspicion, the spike everyday could be the final nail in the coffin to allow the police to gain a search warrant.

Find ways to switch it up a bit.. If u are cluey with electrical stuff try getn a solar panel, they range anywhere from 40Watts upwards.. Combined with a small generator and a decent battery u can run smaller items such as CFLs or fans off them.
Even more indepth is to use a system that swithces from AC to DC when the supply drops to a designated level.
This means that you can use up all the solar panel power, and switch over, or use the generator 4 a few hrs then switch over.. This will give u a smaller bill & irregular timings.

Yeah Ninja does make a good point, even though the electric companies may not constantly monitor your usage, if there should be any cause for suspicion as little as some nosey old lady across the street getting in your business probably the 1st thing their going to look into is your power usage, if they find a pattern of huge spikes in usage at the same times everyday then that can give them what they need to move on you, but again you shouldn't be concerned unless your running a pretty good sized OP with multiple 1000w lights

I've done larger grows than what you're talking about and with 3 other roomates living in the house, and it never got above $275 a month, and that was when Gray Davis was still in office and the energy companies were screwing us all over. Had a 2 1000W HPS on rails, Co2, a 10,000BTU air conditioner, 400W MH, and a few 4' flourescents, plus all the circulation fans, timers, and atmospheric controllers/water pumps too. We had a GAS stove and NEVER did laundry at the house- problem solved. The amount of energy an electric dryer eats up is ridiculous. If I were you, that's the first thing I'd get rid of no matter how inconvenient it might be. *two cents*

Just started hanging clothes out again to help plus I do small auto repair from home so this could be a good cover up. I keep a low profile and dont have alot of visitors and neighbors are ok. I didnt think it was much of a problem and I dont think I will let it happen again! Thanks to everyone for putting my mind at ease, now I can get back to enjoying my daily HIGH!!!!

We have an electric water heater. Have noticed a big savings on the electric bill by washing clothes in cold water.

bigwheel said:

We have an electric water heater. Have noticed a big savings on the electric bill by washing clothes in cold water.

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rofl!! cold water

1. Electric companies do not monitor your usage..its automated 2. Voltage spikes? U should never be worried about a spike unless your running over 2k really..your nice vacuum cleaner..u ever look at its wattage use? Mine is 1200..your toaster oven..your air conditioner? I have a small room "energy efficient" AC that runs 600 watts and guess what, like most new AC's it comes with a timer function. The larger AC runs 1200-1500 watts, u put that on for half a day in summer and you dont get paranoid bout the electric company thinking your growin bud right? LOL...be safe, switch all incandescents to cfl's in your home and relax. We have all worried about this same problem when we start out, but a little common sense helps ease our paranoid selves..good luck bro

jbreeze said:

1. Electric companies do not monitor your usage..its automated 2. Voltage spikes? U should never be worried about a spike unless your running over 2k really..your nice vacuum cleaner..u ever look at its wattage use? Mine is 1200..your toaster oven..your air conditioner? I have a small room "energy efficient" AC that runs 600 watts and guess what, like most new AC's it comes with a timer function. The larger AC runs 1200-1500 watts, u put that on for half a day in summer and you dont get paranoid bout the electric company thinking your growin bud right? LOL...be safe, switch all incandescents to cfl's in your home and relax. We have all worried about this same problem when we start out, but a little common sense helps ease our paranoid selves..good luck bro

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I mostly agree w breeze here, most electric companies to not even have the capability to monitor your usage at specific times, if you are to live in an area where there are peak rates and non peak you may have some cause for concern, but with less than 3k I would think you should be fine there... If you have a veg and a flower room you can offset these somewhat and many help a little...
2. I think he is referring to power usage spikes ie watts not volts although this is insignificant...
I agree that when we start out we do all have our paranoia, I'm no different, I'm fairly new to the grow scene and I just changed usernames on riu b/c I got a proxy server so now my ip shows i'm from china or germany... Paranoid?? I prefer "cautious" but I want to do a journal and add pics so I thought I would take every precaution possible, and we should all do the same... Whether it be changing home lighting to cfl's (helps a lot by the way), turning the tv computer etc off when we are not using it... My number one rule is to be cautious in everyway that I can, but remember cautious not paranoid...
Hopefully I'll have my new journal up in the next couple days, appreciate any thought or comments once i do... GL with your grow sir...