Electric Bill

born2killspam said:

Its drastic changes that will trigger notice..

Click to expand...

If you put a jacuzzi in, do the cops show up, because you're using a lot more electricity? No

Well RCMP did show up at my buddy's place due to his electric bill because he cranked his pool heater early in Thunder Bay to prep for his grand-daughter's visit that summer.. His bill tripled the typical for May-June, then the cops showed up July 12th IIRC

I think this all depends were you live. In some states, im sure spikes in electricity will trigger some suspicion. In other states, cops are too busy. In California, feds have much more to worry about then some 400w closet grow. Keep everything in perspective!

But a 400W closet grow won't trigger anything anywhere.. Even a renter who's landlord pays the bill could get away with that if they aren't otherwise wasteful..

you can reduce a chance of being spotted by splitting your big room into two, and run opposite cycles (watch for light leaks). so for 12/12 cycle it will be constant current draw throughout the day. for 18/6 it's not that good, but still gonna look less like a grow-related energy consuption

Also, if you do split room setup for flowering, you can get away with one ballast and two lights. just put a relay on a timer making it switch the ballast from one room to another. just make sure your relay can handle the voltage and current being drawn by the light bulb itself. never tried it in practice - just a theory

Alternating schedules will only help that if you're smart metered.. If not, then the total will be the same at the end of the month..
And I suppose it might make the electric dial spin less suspiciously, but if the police are peeking at that, you're already burned anyways..

everyone says not to seal power but most big grows 50 to 75 1000w lights all steal power you just have to know the right people ......

this is a good read http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3268.html

Ok, heres an idea:
I expect there are two reasons people get busted for energy use:
1. Higher power consumption, as has already been discussed.
2. Regularity of switching. If you have a mechanical timer, the lights will switch on and off at exactly the same time each day
So heres my idea:
It would be fairly simple to make an electrical circuit which switches your lights on and off at random times. I don't mean completely random, but like, switch on at a random time between 7am and 8am and off at a random time between 7pm and 8pm. I might try to design such a circuit myself, and if I'm sucessful, I'll make a thread about it.

Times only matter if you're smart-metered, and plants need expected light periods..