How much power is too much? And how to get around it?

Discussion in 'Grow Room Design/Setup' started by stxxzy, May 14, 2015.

  1. Looking to set up an approximate 3850watt grow in a 4 stage cycle hoping to yield around 2lbs per month.. Not new to growing but do have some questions about the electric bill and straying free of "the bad guys" lol[​IMG]
     
    3850watt setup (1x 250watt for clones; 1x 600watt MH veg room; 1x 1000watt HPS flower room #1, 2x 1000watt HPS flower room #2.
     
    To date I have only worked with 1x 1000watt setup only harvesting roughly every 3 months and my goal is to get on a perpetual cycle to achieve my goal yield. The cost of the electricity won't be a problem as I have already done my calculations on how much it will cost to run the setup.. Only problem I can see is the electric bill being high enough to signal unwanted attention particularly from law enforcement.
     
    The first thing that comes to mind is using solar panels or generators but those options tend to be a little bit pricey (not to mention noisy when it comes to generators)... And of course stealing power is never a smart thing to do.. Is there any other way around this problem? Do you guys think it will even be enough to tip off the electric company? I'm just assuming it will be but I'm curious to hear what everybody has to say.
     
    Anything?[​IMG] [​IMG]

     
  2. Well your not going to be running at 3850 .. More like 4.5k when you consider your fans , ac , and ballasts. And its not the wattage they look for .. Its the repetition of wattage usage forna length of time.. But if you pay your bill and mind your business .. Most companies don't want to lose your business... Your look at 200k in solar panels .. And I'm 100% sure the field you would need to place the in would draw more attention than just paying the electric bill... I would suggest working your way up 1000w at a time and control the rest of the houses energy usage .. I use around 3k right now... And only when up around $65 a month after switching to energy saver on everything.. Either way hope this helps bud ..
     
  3. Go led you wont have those problems.
     
  4. #4 killset, May 14, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 14, 2015
    As long as your bills paid nobody is going to care how much it is. People use more power for all sorts of things other then grows. Our families swimming pool costs more to run then just about any grow op other then the massively big ones, nobody comes knocking on the door over that. I know people with other equipment that hogs even more energy. The power company loves people who use more then the average and pay their bills.
     
  5. I have a google alert for canna is news and recently saw an arrest where the headline said that high electricity use led to the arrest. Reading the article, however, it turns out that an informant tipped off police that he saw plants in the home, which was being rented solely for the purpose of cultivating marijuana. They spent three weeks outside the home doing surveillance and waiting for trash to go through but there was no trash (growers don't put evidence out to the curbside) and that along with the tip gave them reasonable cause to subpoena the electric bills which were enormously higher than other houses in the neighborhood. (Thousands a month instead of 100's).

    I'm not positive but I don't think high electric bills alone would satisfy reasonable cause or it would be easy for police to bust every indoor grow all over the country.


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  6. if it wasn't for the informant, it never would have been looked into. The informant is the only reason the power bill was ever looked at
     
  7. Exactly. Even though it isn't possible to prove that electric companies and police don't work together to search homes with high electric usage, I can't find any reason to believe it happens. Electric usage may be part of the evidence used to convict but it wouldn't be the "snitch", per se.


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  8. #8 AnonymousMarkus, May 14, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 14, 2015
    The won't care, honestly. Unless you all of a suddenly are drawing 50000 watts more per hour, I really doubt they could give two shits. Electricity is only used to collect evidence against someone and justify a raid, and even then, it has to be a large commercial grow to get noticed like that. I'm talking 50-100 plants and like 30-50 HIDs.
     
  9. The power company absolutely does not care how much power you use unless you don't pay for it.  Why would they ever complain about someone using more of their product.  That's like McDonalds getting suspicious because you buy more cheeseburgers.  Also law enforcement won't look at power usage unless you are already fucked.  Then they are just using it as more evidence against you.  Power usage is only something that can be used against you after the fact.
     
  10. If you are in a medical or legal state why worry?
     
  11. Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm definitely not too worried about the electric company tipping off anyone now... Now time to start ordering all of my equipment and get the ball rollin.. Thanks again.
     

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