What businesses use a lot of electricity?

You do realize that most states require yearly or even twice a year inspections right? I would know I used to have to do them for the fire department I worked for. Private welding and plasma cutting shop would be your best bet.

A lot of things require a lot of electricity. But if you have close-by neighbors you would need to provide more than just a passing nod to a cover story. For example, if you choose welding, you need to have a lot of welding equipment and steel around. If you bring in machines of some type, you will need those machines to make noise.

How about something along the lines of auto detailing? Get yourself about half a dozen used electric clothes driers (about $80 each) - for drying towels and stuff. Or pass yourself off as a maid service or window washing or any other type of business that would require you to need to do a lot of laundry. Run at least one of the driers a lot for the nieghbors - maybe one that runs on gas.

Ok, this is almost 7 years later... No one seems to have solved the problem as of yet. It is a recurring problem, but what everybody seems to fail to notice is that any business that uses a lot of electricity would still need the financial records to be kept. That means that several different customers would have to deposit money into your bank, pay with credit cards and so on. This would have to be done in a very smart way, because when we cheat, we all tend to do it with similar patterns, which are easily recognizable by forensic accountants. So it would also have to be a cash intensive/only business. Foot traffic doesn't really matter, since if the power consumption is justified, you'd first have to have irregularities in your books for anybody to physically come and check. You could keep your shop closed 24/7.

HEY, YOU GUYS!!!