Growers: Wattage Question

[irishdude5186]

Hey growers, I am new to this site and I am so glad to find some fellow countrymen who enjoy sinsemilla herb. I have been a little paronoid about my current draw recently and I am curious as to what wattage fellow tomato growers are using here in Ireland. I run an agri farm alongside my tomato producition. Thanks for anyone taking the time to reply. Stay safe.

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

I run 3600w of light (6 x 600w) and I'm upgrading to 4800w (8 x 600w) for my next grow. You should be fine as long as you pay your bills on time, if your running high wattage then run it on the flip, half of the grow lamps come on as the other half go out, this way your not having a big draw all at once which could be a red flag.

Peace
HGO

 

[irishdude5186]

I run 3600w of light (6 x 600w) and I'm upgrading to 4800w (8 x 600w) for my next grow. You should be fine as long as you pay your bills on time, if your running high wattage then run it on the flip, half of the grow lamps come on as the other half go out, this way your not having a big draw all at once which could be a red flag.

Peace
HGO

Hey buddy. So you're running 3600w+. I am only running half that with my two vertical setups. Are you residential or do you have any sort of cover? From my lurking, I believe you are from the North. I am tempted to flipflop alright but I thought excessive night time current draw may seem unusual for someone in the agri business. I am excessively cautious I know. I am exploring the option of expanding and I want to know what others are drawing and what cover if at all they are using for there energy usage. Thanks for responding

 

[Ironeek]

Welcome to ICMAG Irishdude.

if my maths are right (they are most likely not) that should t represent a problem at all. A washing machine would eat up similar.

What setup and strains you got going?

 

[keithj4]

does anyone know how many kw's is ok on a residential esb supply? i was told between 5-8kw, dont know if this is true?

 

[Ironeek]

does anyone know how many kw's is ok

What do you mean by 'OK'?

a 5 - 8 k draw would be fine in terms of the load but its still allot of power and care should be taken

 

[keithj4]

I was told that if use a certian amount of wattage continuosly then they will contact you to put you on a commercial line, when they come to your house to connect over to commercial they have a little snoop around, this was info from a person I know who studied electricity as part of engineering and came from esb. 5-9kw isnt a masive amount for a family home (add up all your devices before your grow and it will prob already be a good few kilowatts. Im not sure of the exact number of KW's though, before it is seen as commercial usage.

 

[Ironeek]

Im not sure but I will find out. Off the top of my head any thing more then 3 or 4 kw could set off red flags.


Iv heard people come up with great 'excuses' but posting them on a public forum would be foolish though.

when they come to your house to connect over to commercial they have a little snoop around,.

Snoop around!?! Not without the gardai and a fucking warrant they cant!

 

[VonBudí]

I thought excessive night time current draw may seem unusual for someone in the agri business.

infra red lights,leccy fence,incubators, charging tools and batterys, night rate is cheaper anyway

I know who studied electricity as part of engineering and came from esb. 5-9kw isnt a masive amount for a family home (add up all your devices before your grow and it will prob already be a good few kilowatts.

friend got a smart meter and lecky monitor while back, i make a habbit to check it every time im over. 5 bedroom house, 3 kids, wide screen tv , few smaller tvs , laptops, speaker system blaring,game consoles, every light in the house on and few appliances in the kitchen on. NEVER ever goes over 600, 3 to 5 normal. throw on the kettle washing machine etc and now your hitting 2000, 3 is the highest i think iv ever seen.

Granted its only one case but imo irish homes and eu appliances seem to be fairly efficient , compared to usa folk who say 1000w per bedroom.

Vent properly, pay your bill on time and when the leccy maid comes like ironeek said, have that excuse loaded and ready to go with a nice example to back you up to lock out the suspicion straight away.

State of the country though doubt companys would turn over high use €€ sound customers

 

[keithj4]

If it gets to the stage where they are contacting you though you dont have a choice about going on a commercial line, they will insist because of your usage. No officially they cant "snoop", but they need access to switch over to commercial, and they will snoop if they get the chance or ask you whats using all the power, the limit is way over 2-3kw though, because there are 1000w pcs these days,air conditioners,heaters etc, lots of high wattage eqipment available to consumers, so they allow for that in the limit, i was told about 8-10kw per household. You also need to take in to account the amps you are drawing aswell, if you try and run too many devices from the same plug that shows up as a large draw on the supply and they can contact you over that aswell, it has to be pretty bad for that to happen though, so im told. If you live on a farm your sorted for supply i wish i had one.

 

[irishdude5186]

....

 

[VonBudí]

so am I making too much of a mountain out of this?

Just to point out that i dont grow indoors so take my 2c with a pinch of salt
imo if i was growing and being reasonable with lighting ,excuse/behaviour and venting would be my concern.

Interesting article in the inde today p27

• BORD Gais is now employing 90 debt collectors to chase customers in arrears
  
• 83,500 electricity and gas customers were currently in arrears of over €100 for more than two months
  
  
• Around 37,000 more owe lesser amounts on a more short-term basis, bringing the total number who are behind with their bills to 120,000,
  
• 5,063 electricity customers and 1,892 gas customers were disconnected

 

[Mr.Gr33n]

when i have my electric cooker oven on, 2 rings, the washing machine, fridge, tv, pc, im pulling well over 7kw/h,

so i doubt 3/4kw/h is a ''red flag''

 

[Jhhnn]

With an actual agribusiness cover, you can take a pro-active approach with your provider. Call 'em on the phone, explain that you may want to expand, act like you want to save on your bill if you do, whether or not you'll need a service upgrade, what your options might be, so forth & so on. You won't be the first or the last person to ask such questions, and you'll have a better idea of what to expect in the future.

 

[Krutibrko]

I run 3600w of light (6 x 600w) and I'm upgrading to 4800w (8 x 600w) for my next grow. You should be fine as long as you pay your bills on time, if your running high wattage then run it on the flip, half of the grow lamps come on as the other half go out, this way your not having a big draw all at once which could be a red flag.

Peace
HGO

8 x 600w Hmm