I would suspect people other than yourself are doing similar things. Ask around with people you know, trust, and do business with and see If anybody know a landlord that will turn a blind eye as long as the rent is on time and nobody complains. You could be almost anywhere as long as you can afford to invest in transparency. Know what I mean. People can't complain about or call in something they don't know exists. Don't know your trade, but buy a big ol Bridgeport mill, or have a room full of private servers that are "on all the time" around here it looks less fishy if you know how much you'll use each month and have a cover story to call the electric company, and work out a fixed rate and they won't look at you twice. As mentioned, stay on top of the fire code stuff, it never hurts to attend the local fire dept. brunch or BBQ fundraiser equivalent, make friends or at least know who to keep an eye out for. Small towns are different than urban areas, and each locality has it's own customs and taboo's. Not that hard to play it smart, just takes time to find the right place, or money to grease your way in.
If you have land, a popular option is to use gov solar subsidies to get cheap panels and do the temp steel building. Then the pigs think they are flying over your self sustainable workshop or whatever, and you can control more of the variables in terms of prying eyes, vandals or land lord and fire Marshall walk throughs; as long as your comfortable with it on your parcel. You know better than any body on the web your options in terms of how much hassles local PD or other factors will be, you still have rights, even if your breaking the "law." Think how you would If you where %100 legit and had high value merchandise and valued your privacy. Storing art and antiques for auction or other professions where a lot of the same concerns would be addressed in terms of necessary equipment, access, and security. Again, I'd rather wait for one right space, than make the first available space right. Easier in the long run. Rant complete.
To expand on these good ideas -
Look at this if you were a police inspector hired just to monitor elec. use (I'm sure it's coming
) and that high on/off draws happening at static times is almost as good as a warrant, especially if it falls outside of business hours.
The 24/7/365 server angle is good as I've "thought" along the same lines but the key is a large battery bank which allows for a rock steady draw but gives you unstaggered 12/12 lighting for the grow.
So is the solar angle as free power is free power and can help you fall back to "normal" usage levels when used as supplemental power.
The issue is startup cost as battery bank/inverter/charge controller/solar panel/windmill setups are not cheap and $25K
might barely cover it when buying new.
High security is good too as it gives you the need of MANY high watt photoelectric security lights whose power usage after inspection can be cut in 1/2 outside and moved inside.
It's only good for about 8 mo. out of the year though as draw has to match sun cycle and also means programmable audrino <sp?> controllers for the inside lights to do so.
If you were going to be more attentive than once a week you could use the stagger principle to emulate heavy daytime/lighter night time draw with smaller compartments varying startup spikes and drops (start 3 chambers @ 7AM, 2 chambers @ 9AM, 1 chamber @ 10AM, etc.)
Even if you are a high draw biz like welding shop/CNC/foundry you still have to emulate the workday or shift change.
The battery bank(s) is the absolute best way to tailor what your usage looks like outside while you're using it as you like inside. Solar/wind make the purchases absolutely legit, it's just very pricey.
But think of it another investment in your retirement. Wouldn't it be nice to never be dependent on the elec co again?
Unfortunately, you'll probably still pay just as much in maintenance over time instead of a monthly bill unless you go w/ long life but a bit more lossy (and expensive) Nickel/Iron batteries instead of deep cycle lead/acid golf cart/forklift batteries.
Search up "grid tied battery backup" for a sample of designs and cost.
EDIT - Actually, it would be an awesome experiment into LED COB lighting fed with pure DC current sustainable power. I think I saw a thread over on that farmer site about something just like that.
