How much energy would you have to use to alert authorities?

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semiproamateur

Member
my friend recently set up a 1000 watt hps system with a carbon filter and a couple fans, no veg room or anything else. is there anyway this amount of energy use is enough of a spike to cause alert in a 3 bedroom home? he used to have a hot tub, but that doesnt work anymore. you would think the hot tub would take a decent amount of energy to run, so hes basically trading one for the other. does anyone think this recent adding of usage is enough to cause concern?
 
univativegrower

univativegrower

Member
semiproamateur said:
my friend recently set up a 1000 watt hps system with a carbon filter and a couple fans, no veg room or anything else. is there anyway this amount of energy use is enough of a spike to cause alert in a 3 bedroom home? he used to have a hot tub, but that doesnt work anymore. you would think the hot tub would take a decent amount of energy to run, so hes basically trading one for the other. does anyone think this recent adding of usage is enough to cause concern?
Click to expand...
probably not
 
FuZZyBUDz

FuZZyBUDz

Well-Known Member
people draw alot more power than 1000 watts from other shit they do, i cant really think right now, sweet tooth has me high as hell. but i know there r alot worse out there. UR OK in my opinion.
 
SCARHOLE

SCARHOLE

Well-Known Member
In big citys they use FLIR an smart electric meters, but not here in the country. Location has some advantages im just sayn........

Heres what i have heard (never been busted )

The cops usualy get a tip, them they look at power usage to see spikes usualy at night, then they use the FLIR to Look for your hot air vents, an go ask neghbors if they smell or seen anything.
Then they got way more than enough to get a warrent an bust U.

But it usualy starts with a snitch not he power company smart meters.
 
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privateaero

Active Member
yeah, they need to get some sort of warrants to do a lot of that stuff but can freely rifle through your trash. Don't throw anything away at home, small stuff I put in with my returnable bottles and throw away at the grocery, bigger stuff (grow light boxes, old carbon filters etc) I stash in the attic and will throw away when it is legal (just happened here !!!!). Organic matter should be made into butter and the rest can be put down the garbage disposal. Snitches, Smell, Trash are the main things, don't sweat electric use and heat signiture can be covered up using a variety of methods
 
beardo

beardo

Well-Known Member
they came to my house to ask if my power was ok..i have thread about it. im using 1 1000
 
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kootabuds

Well-Known Member
The number 1 rule - tell no one. Lose lips sink ships, and this is the reason 95% of indoor growers get busted.

The number 2 rule - pay your electricity bill on time. And expect it to be high. When I switched my 3 x 600w HPS lights on, my bill increased by about 50%.

You don't want the power company ringing you asking you a) why you haven't paid your bill and therefore b) why it has increased so much. You don't want to draw attention too it. If you pay it ontime, nothing more will be said.

So, I've had 1800w (plus a few hundred watts for fans) going regularly and I've never come to the attention of anyone.

Plus, like others have said, the power company would never alert the authorities to the high usage (at least in my country). That would be a breach of privacy. The police would need to suspect you first (see Rule 1 above), and would need to serve court orders on the power company to give the police your usage.

So relax. And tell no one.
 
dragonboizee

dragonboizee

Member
kootabuds said:
the number 1 rule - tell no one. Lose lips sink ships, and this is the reason 95% of indoor growers get busted.

The number 2 rule - pay your electricity bill on time. And expect it to be high. When i switched my 3 x 600w hps lights on, my bill increased by about 50%.

You don't want the power company ringing you asking you a) why you haven't paid your bill and therefore b) why it has increased so much. You don't want to draw attention too it. If you pay it ontime, nothing more will be said.

So, i've had 1800w (plus a few hundred watts for fans) going regularly and i've never come to the attention of anyone.

Plus, like others have said, the power company would never alert the authorities to the high usage (at least in my country). That would be a breach of privacy. The police would need to suspect you first (see rule 1 above), and would need to serve court orders on the power company to give the police your usage.

So relax. And tell no one.
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nuff said!!!
 
gcvt420

gcvt420

Well-Known Member
Make a preemptive call to the power company and ask them how much your bill would go up if you were to step up from a small freshwater fish tank to a very large saltwater reef tank with multiple MH lights. That call ends up being documented in your account notes...you have a large reef tank ;)

Start growing in the winter when power usage increases across the board.

Bottom line is, pay your bill on time...every time. The power company could care less if you're growing or running a reef tank. They just want their $$$ on time every month.
 
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tony vercetti

Member
If I used, say, 8kw for lights and 2 more for the rest of the stuff and my bill jumped from 500kwh per month to 5000kwh surely everyone at any electrical company would get suspicious. As for power company having no legal right to alert authorities, that's what anonymous tip off lines are for. All you need is some god fearing bastion of righteousness working there to send your operation to hell.
One way around that I know is installing LPG generator and buying those 47kg propane bottles for electricity generation, bet then LPG generated electricity costs 4x more than one from the mains.
 
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tony vercetti

Member
we could set up fake business could justify high electricity usage. There were talks about large aquariums and pottery, anyone else got good ideas?
 
Herbzman

Herbzman

Well-Known Member
hmm interesting thread.. Somewhere, I read that when going over a certain wattage of light, it is possible that the circuit might break on the switcher box as it allocated a certain amount of electricity to each room / part of a house and will detect when there is extreme use of electricity in one area...

anybody got any thoughts on this? overcrowding a circuit.. and a max wattage use reccomended per household or room? thanks.
 
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