"the company may disclose information it determines in good faith to be necessary to investigate, prevent or respond to suspected illegal activities or interference With the operations of our websites or terms of use." Does this basically translate to "if we think youre growing, were gonna narc on you" ? Thats bullshit. Also I get billed for a flat rate kwh rate, I have a dial meter and they told 'me' (an email addy I set up as a front) that they do not have a feature on their website that will allow me to see my usage by the hour as I do not have the meter necessary. So I cant see my usage in real time, but perhaps that info is stored in the meter and taken by the meter reader each month to bring back to headquarters? A few weeks ago my electric usage was limited to a fridge, a 20 inch crt television a few hours a day, and some (cfl)lights a few hours a day. Now its the same only minus the fridge and add a 400watt hps from 6am-11pm daily. Would it be safe to assume that if they COULD bill me based on the time of day, then they WOULD? My provider doeS this to tier 2 customers and says so on their website, but Im a tier 1 customer and am billed a flat rate. I assume that the only reason they wouldnt is because they couldnt (ie the meter). Im pissed at that privacy policy though.
Safe assumption. A meter with a dial can only tally usage, not record specific times. And stay a tier 1 customer as long as possible.
Not only that but as long as you can justify the power consumption. If you have a 19'' tube tv and no working appliances drawing XXX watts high current... well you get the picture. Same on the other hand If you have a ton of stuff (guitar amps, large TV's, small space heaters) the draw from a 3-4 light bulb strip (I dont know the extent you're looking for) isn't going to set anyone off.
Well its not the actual usage that Im concerned about. 200kwh in a month for a 1 bedroom apartment is pretty normal, I know that. But its that I went from averaging 90-100 kwh per month for the last 7 or 8 months, to what I estimate to be about 200kwh for this month. So basically my electric consumption will have doubled more or less, albeit only from 100 to 200. If anyone ever contacts me or knocks on my door Im thinking that ill juwt play it cool and he like.. "yeah my girlfriend just moved in, im not surprised. She does band websites for a living and has to leave the computer on 24\7. i was thinking I might say boyfriend too.. Even though Im not gay, maybe Id get a homophobe and they would just wanna get out of there hahaha. Ill make sure to talk with a lisp and let my hands flail around everywhere. Hahaha
People worry to much about this. People getting busted for high energy use are the ones that use many many times what a average house would use. The average house in the US uses 4-5 KW worth of energy. Thats a fair amount of juice. A power company would get suspicious if say you used 10kw worth of power. Even then if you had the ability to pay on time every month I doubt they would say much. If your just using a 400 HPS, a TV, fridge, and some lights your chump change to them. What do they say about me? I went from a laptop 2 months ago and built a gaming PC. I have a 1.2 kilowatt power supply, 27 inch LCD, 2.1 300 watt speaker system. On top of that I have a 32 inch TV in my bedroom thats always on. In my living room I have a 500 watt 5.1 Reciever, 42inch TV, Xbox 360 running alot. Thats all in a 1 bedroom apartment. Then throw on my 400w HPS. A older Xbox 360 on max load uses almost as much as my HPS hook that up to a LCD and stereo system and your talking about something that uses 4x the power that my HPS uses. They don't say squat because I pay my bill every month.
Agreed. Going from almost no usage to very little usage means nothing. The real concern are digital meters, as they can graph out your usage for each day. What else uses a 12/12 cycle? Of course, once that happens, you can run two smaller flowering boxes on opposite schedules.
You would have to be many thousands of kilowatt hours over what's typical before you draw any attention.
wow, even though i pay my bill, i guess i use quite alot of power. PC on costantly 42 inch LCD stereo fridge oh and the 3800 watts in lighting in my vault. at least they cant see a heat sig, good luck trying to see it from behind 10+ inches of concrete!
Thanks guys I do feel a little better now. It makes sense but its still hard not to think about "what if". Ive got a lot going on in my life professionally and its completely abhorrent that I could lose everything that I've worked so hard for and without tooting my own horn, excelled greatly in, just because I like to smoke the flowers of a plant on my off time that some other people cannot come to appreciate.
A home recording studio uses 30-50,000 KWH per month. You would definitely need to go over 10kwh before you had to worry. I would be comfortable with two 600 in a spare bathroom in a apartment... did it in college.. with a thousand..
I think we all have alot going on in our lives. Your risks are no more risker then the ones on here take. Just think we could be cell mates together one day!!! As for what ifs well you can do that for anything. Tomorrow starts off like any other new day "what if" as you make that cross in a insection the Walmart Mack Truck hits you on your way to work. What if?
I've studied my bill extensively last month, especially since I was in the veg cycle on a 400W setup. I don't think I've paid more than $12 more from the previous months, it was nothing.
The cost increase is not relevant, its the usage increase that is. Im not really thinking about it anymore, Im sure Ill be fine. I trust that everyone else here has plenty going on in their lives, and I realize there are plenty of what-ifs every day. I like the ones that are clear and easily anticipated If you ever meet me in a cell.. I get the top bunk.
To be honest, as long as you dont have like a two floor grow op and just something basic like a mother plant, and forver harvesting clones going you'd be fine. But simply get rid of an old computer monitor, old refridgerator, old tv that etc. that would normally use a lot of electricity to make up for your new found hobby.