Has anyone ever heard of being busted for power consumption?

Greetings fellow criminals,
I have been building grow rooms in my basement for over ten years now, starting with 250w, and now, I'm running 3300watts,12/12 in 2 rooms plus chillers, plus AC in summer, plus another 400w for seedling/clone area at 18/6. I received a form letter from my power company stating that I was #1 in power consumption in my neighborhood, averaging 217% above norm, and could they help in power conservation. I heard once about the power company calling the cops for power usage, and that was a factory sized operation. So, has anyone ever heard of a power company reporting to the police that this house uses a shit load of energy? My house cannot be detected otherwise. There is no heat, no odor, no nothing but some Serious. I just bumped one room from 1500w to 1800w, and I don't know if it's the new strain (Headband), but I am getting nervous as to power consumption. I live in CT, and I average between $350 to $450 depending on cycle, per month (normal power consumption $145). I have been building up usage slowly, really only getting heavy in the last year (got laid off, said fuck it, grow all the time), so that isn't a give away in my opinion.
So, please tell me that nobody has ever heard of anyone being ratted on by their power company. I never have. Peace out

I'll take the troll bait. You might consider using some common sense going forward.

Most electricity companies aren't exactly in a rush to cause problems for a customer who uses twice as much electricity as their neighbor and pays their bill on time. They make more money by ignoring it.

TEll em you have 2 tanning beds (make sure you paint a tan on yourself 1st). If youre black....perfect

I don't personally know anyone but before I started a small personal grow I read and read and read for days about such topics. I read news stories and stayed away from hearsay. I found that in the UK it is more of a problem that in the States but in the US law enforcement seemed/seems to use power usage as supplementary evidence for search warrants and case evidence.

For example, one story from Florida (where in many counties cops stake out hydro shops often) an officer "observed a man walking to his car with hydroponic equipment commonly used for marijuana cultivation", they took his license plate number down and checked his trash can finding "leafy plant debris that appeared to be cannabis material" so they got his record from the power company and it showed "energy consumption patterns consistent with marijuana cultivation".

That was what they used to get a warrant and indeed they arrested him. The quotations are not the actual text but to the best of recollection is very similar.

IMO 217% above norm is way out of line and makes you stick out like a sore thumb. To me that's just asking for it. Some say that as long as you pay your bill nobody cares, some say there is a cash incentive program/reward for power company's that report suspicious usage and yours definitely is suspicious. If any of that is true who knows, I guess you have to work for your particular power company and be in a position to know the actual policy. Whatever the case, they found it necessary to contact you and to me that is just playing with fire or to use a better term, felonies. Good luck in whatever you do but I would tone it down immediately myself.

FrostyPelican said:

IMO 217% above norm is way out of line and makes you stick out like a sore thumb. To me that's just asking for it. Some say that as long as you pay your bill nobody cares, some say there is a cash incentive program/reward for power company's that report suspicious usage and yours definitely is suspicious. If any of that is true who knows, I guess you have to work for your particular power company and be in a position to know the actual policy. Whatever the case, they found it necessary to contact you and to me that is just playing with fire or to use a better term, felonies. Good luck in whatever you do but I would tone it down immediately myself.

Click to expand...

Agreed. No point in even risking this. I would lower the consumption. something I plan on doing is returning the hot air to my home to eliminate heating needs. something to look into mate

Jimdamick said:

Greetings fellow criminals,
I have been building grow rooms in my basement for over ten years now, starting with 250w, and now, I'm running 3300watts,12/12 in 2 rooms plus chillers, plus AC in summer, plus another 400w for seedling/clone area at 18/6. I received a form letter from my power company stating that I was #1 in power consumption in my neighborhood, averaging 217% above norm, and could they help in power conservation. I heard once about the power company calling the cops for power usage, and that was a factory sized operation. So, has anyone ever heard of a power company reporting to the police that this house uses a shit load of energy? My house cannot be detected otherwise. There is no heat, no odor, no nothing but some Serious. I just bumped one room from 1500w to 1800w, and I don't know if it's the new strain (Headband), but I am getting nervous as to power consumption. I live in CT, and I average between $350 to $450 depending on cycle, per month (normal power consumption $145). I have been building up usage slowly, really only getting heavy in the last year (got laid off, said fuck it, grow all the time), so that isn't a give away in my opinion.
So, please tell me that nobody has ever heard of anyone being ratted on by their power company. I never have. Peace out

Click to expand...

Don't you know that new lights have a chip that talks to the smart meters. Some even have cameras.
You buy a new light and your filming the evidence yourself.

whitebb2727 said:

Don't you know that new lights have a chip that talks to the smart meters. Some even have cameras.
You buy a new light and your filming the evidence yourself.

Click to expand...

you're kidding right?? I don't have a smart meter but that's a spooky thought

N00b_Farmer said:

you're kidding right?? I don't have a smart meter but that's a spooky thought

Click to expand...

Hey you wanted the patriot act and homeland security, wait or did we? Hmmmmmmm.
I'm hungry. I'm going to go nuke a burrito.

I overheard the meter maid have a conversation with his supervisor over the phone about the suspicious amount of electricity use in my apartment. It went something like this:

Meter maid: I'm getting some weird readings from this apartment. It's reading pretty high.

Supervisor: ....

Meter maid: Yea, but this apartment is way higher than the others.

Supervisor: ....

Meter maid: Aright fine, but I'm just saying this is weird.

END

It was like they were arguing and from what I can gather the supervisor simply didn't care and told the meter maid to ignore it. Just my lucky experience, fyi. I find it very hard to believe any electricity company would go out their way to get rid of a customer that increases their profits and replace them with a customer they'll make half as much money from. Electricity companies are greedy and that works to our advantage.

whitebb2727 said:

Don't you know that new lights have a chip that talks to the smart meters. Some even have cameras.
You buy a new light and your filming the evidence yourself.

Click to expand...

LOL nope. Smart meters and a quick program to scan usage patterns at the power company could definitely find 12/12 users though. I bet if law enforcement had broader powers random timers that are close to but not exactly incremental in 15-30-60 mins would be on the market and popular with growers and all of the 12/12 users would be getting knock and talks.

FrostyPelican said:

LOL nope. Smart meters and a quick program to scan usage patterns at the power company could definitely find 12/12 users though. I bet if law enforcement had broader powers random timers that are close to but not exactly incremental in 15-30-60 mins would be on the market and popular with growers and all of the 12/12 users would be getting knock and talks.

Click to expand...

It was kinda bait. Thanks for ruining it.