A friend of mine was telling me that police can catch people growing dope by the sudden rise in power usage from growlights, is this true??
Kind of. Lights use a lot of power. So does a space heater. Keep your grow under 2000 watts, and nobody will know.
[quote name='"felix5988"']Is it 2000 Watts with everything? Or does all the little things not add to do much difference?[/quote] That's just a number that works good. It's under the thresh hold for all power companies, as it's easily explained. You can run a 400 and a 1000 in your flower and a 400 in the veg, plus fans for about 2000 watts, or 2kwh. This is minimal. Change every other light in the house to a cfl, stop leaving lights on. Reduce thermostat setting on central air from 72 to 75 in the summer. Small changes like these will help hide your usage in the grow room. I live in Michigan and I'm a medical patient. Our power company sent a list to our local sheriff recently, of the top 200 most suspicious bills in our county. Its a good guess, most of those are growing. In states with no medical law, this will get them a warrant 9 out of 10 times.
This is silly... Power companies don't give a damn what you're using your power for. What they care about is if you are paying your bill. Secondly, in order for the police to pull your power records they need a warrant. If the police have a warrant to pull your power records, they have a lot more evidence against you already that you don't know about and your as good as fucked, with or without usage data. I don't buy for one minute that your power company is just randomly passing out customer records to the police.
[quote name='"Grower409"']This is silly... Power companies don't give a damn what you're using your power for. What they care about is if you are paying your bill. Secondly, in order for the police to pull your power records they need a warrant. If the police have a warrant to pull your power records, they have a lot more evidence against you already that you don't know about and your as good as fucked, with or without usage data. I don't buy for one minute that your power company is just randomly passing out customer records to the police.[/quote] Your right. The power company would Never cooperate with law enforcement. Guess what genius, the power company doesn't need a warrant to hand over your usage records willingly. They do it regularly. I Saw the list at our last meeting with our sheriff. As a medical patient and activist i try to meet with him a couple times a year to talk about positive patient/law enforcement interaction and how we can work together to achieve that. He showed me the list cause he thought it was funny my name was on there.
Some power companies definitely do cooperate with the cops. But they are looking for large-scale grow houses, something that is so far out of the ordinary that the person is just begging to be busted. A personal grow will increase your bill, but so will many, many other legitimate reasons so nobody will be suspicious if you add a few hundred or even a couple thousand watts, depending on the size of your place.
Actually, there is so such thing as consumer protections. And in most cases it would be illegal for the utility company to give those records to anybody without a warrant. If you want to read a LOGICAL explanation, here you go. Will my electric use get me busted? - The Garden's Cure
Perfectly legal in Michigan and Indiana for them to hand it over willingly, and they do. AEP(Michigan/Indiana power) does it twice a year. Some states may protect customers from this kind of action by a utility, most don't, and even encourage it. A lotta people think the government can't throw you in jail without a trial and prevent you from talking to a lawyer. Ask Jose Peddilla about that.
Guess what? It's not illegal to own and operate grow equipment. Go ahead and add 6,000 watts to your grow and let me know when the police show up. I'll be waiting.
Of course it's not illegal. But run a bill that's 10 times bigger than anyone else in the neighborhood and that could be the basis for a search warrant.
I have 6000w lights, 6 ballasits, 4 fans, large carbon filter, intake vortex fan, and ac set at 78 degrees running 24/7. All this is happening in one room in addition to usual power usage.
Sorry Toasty, but I'm going to disagree with you for the first time ever! In itself, no... I don't think it would. With some other evidence to support a warrant, possibly. But based on power usage alone? You said it yourself... There are literally TONS of reasons a private home can have a high utility bill. Do you think the cops take out a warrant on every single person who has a kiln (15,000 watts!) in their home? Besides, this guys talking like this shit is set in stone. "Stay under 2000 watts and you should be fine." He pulled that number out of his ass. It's silly. He's spreading misinformation as fact.
They found about 70 in my area, but they were all large. The last one had over 50 plants, but the only reason they showed up was because of a house fire.
I have over 50 plants. Had all my wiring done by an electrician. He put in a separate box for 3 rooms in my house.
[quote name='"Grower409"'] How in the world would the cops know that you had a "sudden rise in power usage"?[/quote] That's the main method in my town. People called meter readers will report huge fluctuations in energy used. But using a 400 watt light won't do shit. You have to have a bunch of additional high wattage shit. Unless your using a 1000 watt light and a ac unit and your grow is hydro