K dudes... I've heard and seen so many growers worried about their power consumption when they start a new grow, and I have a very simple, and effective solution to this problem that pretty much ALL of you can work into your operations. Here it is, ready for it? Buy an older - but not too old - computer... Say a P4 or better... P3 if you are good with Linux. The older you buy, the cheaper they will be for you to get more than one, but the key is to run as many computer power supply watts as you have lighting watts. If you have 400W of lights, get one computer with a 450-500 watt power supply, since they don't draw their full wattage all the time. If you have 1000W of lights, pick up 2 computers with 650 watt power supplies. The price per KWH isn't going to kill you by having that power draw 24/7, and you'll make it up on the back end when you sell off your crop. Server computers work even better for this solution, because they generally have redundant power supplies, meaning if you have a 2U server, it will have 2x350W power supplies that both get plugged in and turned on when you start up the machine. That's a max pull of 700 watts from one computer, and the other benefit is you get a LOT of extra drive space to store your porn collection, learn more about computers, or just expand on your LAN party setup. However you do it, when your lights turn off, your computers turn on, and when the computers turn off, the lights turn on. Fluctuations in the power grid are common enough, that no one at the electric company will even notice one set of power using objects turning off and another set of objects turning on. If you are worried about the initial rise in power consumption when you first start your grow, then buy the computers first and run them 24/7 for a month or two. This accomplishes three things. - It will first test to see if your landlord will give a shit about your added power usage, and if he does check, you can just show him your constantly running file/movie/porn/game server, and hell, he might want to join you for a movie - or want you to burn him a few copies (bonus, you have something to hold over his head then... lol) - and he is none the wiser about your plans to grow bushes in your apartment or house. - It will give you a month or two of higher electrical bills, especially useful if you don't have everything included, so you know how much extra you're going to pay for having those machines and lights running constantly. - Pay for a subscription to a news service, and download movies, games, and porn to your heart's content... Stay away from child porn, and don't keep copies of burned movies floating around the place in case you DO happen to get raided. All you need is MPAA Piracy charges added to your growing charges... lol. Make sure you encrypt your drives, and put long ass NON-DICTIONARY passwords on your hidden drives so you can just say "I don't know what you're talking about officer..." Finally, you will have a constant rise in power consumption, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the rest of your time growing the good stuff. Happy Blading.
I've read and read and read all kinds of different ideas and some of them are actually very good. Some could very well mask the power consumption and create a situation where the power companies would be oblivious to whats really going on. But some are in fact actually very bad ideas... I started this search a couple weeks ago after reading a post on here about using solar panels and wind mills to power your home but i'll be damned if i'm going to spend that much money to grow some weed, and i'm sure i speak for 99% of everyone out there, but... I have recently come across a rather brilliant concept and I have it in the making. I plan on posting later when its built and running to let everyone know actually how well this works, and if its worth the time and effort. But I have searched numerous sites and forums and have found it to be worth a shot... what it is is actually a magnetic power generator made with shit that i bought at home depot. Cost me like $150 to buy everything i needed and another $50 for the manual for the generator. It takes a lot of explaining so i'll just post the link to the place i bought the manual from... Magniwork - The Energy of Tomorrow, In Your Home Today! it claims to provide up to 20kilowatt hours per day... which is more than i'm using in my grow room. Not bad ideas with the computers and everything but I would rather have something with that couple hundred bucks that gives me electricity to use rather than using even more electricity when using more is the problem in the first place. Good mask tho bro
Dude... good shit... I'm gonna build one of those just to get my computers off the grid so my "landlords" (mom & dad) stop bitching at me about how much more they spend because my computers are on all the time. As much as I enjoy living in the same house, I so wish I hadn't decided to continue living with them... lol