Any risks to doing a small grow ( 1 or 2 plants, but most likely 1) with a grow space consuming 350 watts max? Will the power company call the po po, lol Whats usually the monthly cost of having a 350 watt grow on the power bill?
350w is nothing. Many computers use more energy. The power company won't blink! I run a 400w hps and inline fan. It costs me about $20 a month. Look at the cost of a kilowatt on your bill.
You'll be okay, thats not noticable to the electric company unless you consume up to 5kw a month which ur way far away from!
There is always risk when growing MJ. Not from the power company reporting electric usage on 350w, but plenty of other risks.
^^^^ What Toasty said. In most cases, telling people about your grow (ie. anyone at all), and odour are the most common (but not only) ways in which people get busted......in this case, an extra 300W of power draw is not going to get you pinched, but there are many other things that can......make sure to cover your bases and play safe.
Maybe if it's close to an exterior wall... but they're looking for entire houses that light up like christmas trees, a single small glow on a thermal could be several things. I'm not a cop, nor do I have a thermal imager, just from what I've read.. -ml
350W won't appear on any thermal imager. Those are commonly used from a distance which means it would be no different than having a few lights on in your house.
thermal imaging cannot see through walls. why does everyone assume they are some magical machine that xrays your house. unless you are running a 6500w grow room on an exterior wall of your house and the tempurature is clearly 20 degrees higher than the rest of the house, then yeah, they will notice.
Google thermal imaging...you can image a 1 degree Celcius change in an area as dense as 1cm2 in single plane...yes, you can 'see' heat leak, thermal radiation, pipes, outlets, hiden chimmney's and yes...grows! However, they don't use this heavily in policing for grows in most dept's due to 'cost of operations' for grows. Crack houses are easier to find, and much easier to prosecute.