Electricity concerns..

420producer

420producer

Well-Known Member
Bubblegum31 said:
I never exhust outside, also my grow room temps dont exceed 23/24 c

I didnt isolate the room becouse
Any normal house haven this temps inside.

Flir Chopper is continuesly above my house.

Touch wood nothing till now..
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if you have to vent use it going out where your dryer vent is hooked up and if you have sub-flooring , then down below the house
 
GroErr

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Besides off-setting the times with multiple rooms, why not consider solar but not for the grow op as that's not a practical solution. It is a viable option for the house, if you're using solar for the majority of the power you need for the house (off-grid) then the usage in the grow op won't look unusual. Expensive and questionable return on solar imo but for off-setting your power usage concerns, think about it as a cost of doing business in an illegal state.
 
jayjay777

jayjay777

Well-Known Member
420producer said:
50 bucks a light is not bad.. 1000w?
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Yeah it's about $50 month per 1000 watt light INCLUDING AC. I run 8-12 kW in basement at 10¢ per kwh, that's including delivery... I run 11/13. Only go off when I trim.

Now let's stop this nonsense. I don't see any need to do any of the above. No stories or gens or panels. The avg house in us uses 1500 kwh month easily. If your all electric it's way more. And it sounds like your location is discreet and that maybe your best option. A electric dryer, stove, water heater and furnace will generate a bill that's thousands of kwh for someone who doesn't grow. Let alone someone who likes a jacuzzi or does pottery. Haha

WORRY ABOUT MANAGING THE SMELL IN FULL FLOWER. THATS THE ONLY REAL ISSUE.

get an AC, mini split or window and seal room very tight. That's all, you can run 4-6 kW with absolutely no issues ever! That's like having an electric hot water heater.

Just pay your bill on time, your there best customer! N tip your mailman! Better yet, put mailbox at end of driveway. Don't worry. I use 4000-5000 kwh month no issues.

What's your rate? (With delivery)

Do you have access to natural gas?
 
W

whitey78

Well-Known Member
Im planning out my new op in non-legal suburbia, however medically legal and I have a card blah blah blah.....its still not legit to grow but I have been for many years luckily and also knock on wood, no problems as of yet... I've mad all my mistakes, I know how to do duh do, but its high pressure in the beginning obviously, this is the first I've even posted about it honestly... But my only choice of locale is a place where the houses are close together so smell, heat and noise are all at the top of my list of things that cant exist....Also, a bunch of houses on the same street being almost identical but main difference is all have a different type of addition.... Privacy is a worry but I've done things out in the open and at this point I know every neighbor by first name, they know mine, my dogs etc... I always seem to be working on something, I keep the yard nice, I dont have ragers or do any dumb shit that would make people take notice other than saying hello but not getting too friendly, friendly enough to talk about my sick aunt but never enough to say come over for coffee on either side so I'm doing good atm with all this.... However, neighbors are nosy by nature, I dont give 2/10ths of a fuck what any of them are doing but I'm the new guy in the "hood" and its definitely suburbia-ish and nerve racking on me while I'm trying get things in, to make it all work in my head as its all I think about and plan it to the T before I throw stud/nail/screw 1....I havent even began building my rooms yet but I've been in the space for over a month, upgraded to a 200amp service because I had to if I wanted to add an extra T8 but im ready to rock with that, inspector came; said beautiful job.... heres your paperwork, have a nice day....

Now this caused something I knew was gonna happen however much I didnt want it too, but its a fact of life when you upgrade your service today, the utility company comes and slaps a brand spankin, newest technology smart meter on and thats that... However, I''ve been growing with 4+1K's with everything else that goes with that for several years with a smart meter and have had no issues... However, the new house is laid out perfect for a nice array of solar pointing perfectly east with no shade and its windy.... 12-14+mph so dont count out new wind yet, those of you who wanna go green and have the bank.... look into the new style of wind turbines made for homes if you live in an area where the wind is constant and around the above posted speeds...theres national wind maps to find this stuff out, but I'm almost sold seeing a wind solar combo can do alot, but Im getting ahead of myself.... My op needs to get built and start running before I run out of money... So its been a little over 2 months and my old op is only housing my gear and my mothers that I tend to several times a week but it needs to get wrapped up asap as well...

When I purchased this new home, there was something I didnt like about it and is also another item I will get to fixing... the heating system... It is what it is, but I mentioned an addition above and because the people that owned the house prior to me werent as intelligent in the department of the best way to do things as it seems like everyone they hired screwed them on every project they did but was a big reason I jumped on this place.... sorry Ill make my point.... But the moe-rons put electric baseboard heat in the addition and when the utility worker was sitting out in his truck watching my power consumption, I turned the baseboard heat which I can only guess is in the 3-5000watt range up to the max, as well as Ive been using all 100watt incandescent lights in all my lamps totaling up over 2000 watts all on and let the other idiotic item of the house, the electric water heater get up and running so he already labeled my meter with a higher than average rate seeing they only have 2 so I think I did good so far...

I was super concerned if I was going to be able to run enough lights to make this op more than a futile attempt but as someone else posted.... you need to harvest x.... you need x amount of lights to harvest x.... its the cost of doing business so after reading this thread I just made that right with myself... I'll take being judged by 12 of my peers in this climate any day especially when my "customers" start filing in to testify on my behalf with their liver cancers and MS and every other possible thing you could think of... But I digress... It can go just as bad as it can go good, so I must remain on point and not slip up in any way......

Sorry I felt like ranting because I havent been able to talk about this much, Ive been working for 2+ years to get where I am, now I'm here and I wanna say I dont know what to do but sadly I've made all my mistakes, I fucked up everything I could fuck up... now its for real... Now I need to see if the past 7-8 years of fucking up and making all the mistakes newb growers make especially thinking I knew everything a year in and continue growing the niche product I have been able to come up with in the past couple years and make something aside from a criminal of myself....

I heard of a few people installing something in the north of my state, something that works with the principles of alternating current and how it works in a pulsing manner (I guess I'll say)... I did some research and it shows that it works with fan motors causing them to draw less current acting somewhat as a capacitor but ballasts are full of capacitors no? At least mag ballasts anyhow.. But has anyone heard of any kind of apparatus that helps with the E-bills... This is the item I am talking about, however I have yet to read one actual review that says they're worth the coin... Theres enough snake oil in this business which is why I'm asking as it hits the "too good to be true" part of my brain....

http://www.greners.com/i/grosave/grosave-2000.html

Again sorry... I'm still collecting info and getting itchy to start going but I'm just trying to cross my I's and dot my T's if you know what I mean....

Happy and more importantly safe grows to all.... No idea if I'm askin or answering anything but I had a rough day and I hit the bowl a few extra times beyond my limit on purpose as I could use it atm.... But if anyone has something to say about those grosaves or anything about DL growing and safety in passing info that one like myself who is in a kinda lone wolf situation may benefit from seeing we have no resources beyond grow books and the good people on forums....
 
B

Bolof

Member
Skunk Baxter said:
Two things - if you're building in a rural area, people talk. Word gets around. So I'd get out in front of the issue and take control of the narrative right from the beginning. Let the builder know that you're a potter, and that this part of the structure is going to be a ceramics studio. Potters need kilns, and kilns take a lot of heat - either gas or electric. If you decide to offset some of the use with a generator, that would explain the gas usage. Or, you could use that story to explain a larger electric bill.

Even put a sign out by the mailbox, "Sunrise Pottery Studio" or something. Get on mailing lists and have lots of pottery-related junk mail delivered on a regular basis. The mailman will notice, and again, word gets around. Neighbors and service vehicles driving past (and sheriff's deputies) will notice, and pretty soon everybody in the immediate area "knows" you're running a small, hobby-sized pottery studio. Just be sure you know enough about pottery and ceramics to know what you're talking about if the mailman or a neighbor strikes up a conversation.

Second, you need to be mindful of heat issues. If there may already be suspicions about your energy use, it's not a really good idea for that grow space to be significantly hotter than the rest of the house, because a chopper can spot that from literally miles away. You're going to want to insulate it well, or plan on keeping it climate controlled to match the temperature of the rest of the house. Again, the pottery studio cover story is useful here, but it's better not to attract the attention of a helicopter drug team in the first place. As soon as they start checking into it, the first thing they hear may be your cover story, but since they've already gone to the trouble of starting to ask questions they may decide to just poke a little further and ask a few more.

And what provisions have you made for venting the excess heat? You can't just blow it directly out of the building into the open. Infrared cameras on a helicopter will see that like the exhaust from a jet engine. At night, it will look to an FLIR unit as though you're testing a rocket engine. Check out Barry Cooper's "Never Get Raided" video on Youtube; they show footage of what a grow house actually looks like at night. It's pretty eye-opening.

Honestly, the heat disposal question is probably just as important as the electrical question, in terms of security. I'd give that a lot of thought, because the place you're talking about building could fit fairly well within the range of a grow house profile - new building in a remote area, one room (or even a separate structure) with atypical design features and heavy-duty electrical infrastructure, very high energy usage from the start, maybe someone who is a stranger to the area, etc. If that's a separate building, and it's hotter than the house, it's going to arouse a lot of suspicion. Cops can't legally use FLIR to get a warrant, but they do regularly use it to confirm that this is a house they need to have a closer look at, and then they start looking for other data to establish probable cause.

Edit: Oh, and if your area has mandatory smart meters, I would definitely lean really hard toward alternative energy sources like solar, generators, etc. It's more expensive, but what's your freedom and your property worth? Because if you get popped, you lose both.
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Water cooling is the solution. Build a decent size garden pond. That Will solve the heat signature and also save power. Water is efficient to transfer heat.
 
Olive Drab Green

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
J0N3SY_8 said:
Ok, so I'm currently underway on building a new cabin style home that's approximately 1800 sq ft total; 1100 h&c. I'm wanting to build a pier & beam grow facility behind the home. I currently live in a state where it's illegal & don't want to raise any suspicion with the utility companies. I would like my grow to yield at the minimum 5lbs per harvest, use HPS lamps, run a hydro system, & maintain a good temp/humidity level. What's the max amount of power I can get away with & not cause any suspicion? By knowing this it will allow me to know how to scale my facility. Keep in mind I live in a rural area, & there will be no power spike due to starting my bill w/ home & facility from jump street. Also, I will have an option to have city natural gas so running on a generator could be an option, but then we have the same concern on gas bill suspicion too. Please give me some good feedback! Thanks in advance!
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Don't go HPS. Go COB.
 
Olive Drab Green

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
jayjay777 said:
I pay 50-60 $ light total for my rooms. so when I run 8 lights on 11/13 it's $400 or so a month but that includes a.c, fans, scrubbers.

Going into an industrial setting it's going to be 1.5x that. smh
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I pay just under $20 a month for the PPFD of 600w worth of HPS lighting in a 4x2 (but could go up to 4.5x4.5) and don't have to worry about scrubbers or AC, personally.
 
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