electricity usage....is this safe?

hey guys. its been a while since i have grown. few months ago i made a thread that i had to tear everything down for security reasons. well im in a new apartment and have a few months to get a grow done. time is of the essense ha! but i have plenty of time to get a good grow done, thats not the issue. however here are the issues im struggling with.

1) electricity usage: my first apartment electricity usage was ok i guess. pretty stable, no big flucuations, except when i started the grow. but then i of course continued at that rate basically the whole time with some fluctuations but not huge. the problem is though now, the second apartment (the one that needed to have a grow torn down) had a flucuating electricity usage. first it was low cause i hadnt started my grow. then it jumped to rougly $80 for the first month of the grow, $65 for the second month and then dropped to $6-10 for the next few months until i moved out (was also $6-10 for the first month). now im in my third apartment, the weather is HOT and i have a feeling if i start a new grow with the 1k i will be dealing with a huge jump in electricity at this apartment. do electricity companies notice this? or is that usually only if you dont pay? i mean there is no way to put the electricity in a different name without having a social security number to match. so i have to of course put it in my name...

2) well i thought i had 2 questions but i guess not oh well!

any info would be greatly appreciated, especially anyone that knows the in's and out's of the electrical company.

edit! now i remember my second question. for my veg period would it be safe to run my 1k watter and 2-3 65W CFLs with this scheduale: 1k/CFL on for 12 hours, then for the remainding 6 hours of the 18/6 light schedule have the 1k off and just use the CFLs to keep the plants in a vegatative period?

not sure if that makes sense. i realize it would slow the veg down but im not worried about that. i can sacrifice veg time to help flatten out electrical usage history as long as it wouldnt cause excess stress on my plants.

any ideas?

thanks guys!!!

I think your OK man....that is not that big of a fluctuation. Besides, since it's summer time right now, the electricity company will think you just have the A/C running or lots of fans (if its hot where you are anyway).

When you start jumping like HUNDREDS of dollars , then you need to worry about it. IMO, anyway.

Don't worry about it at all. Those fluctuations are way too small to draw attention. Start worrying when you have a $600 electric bill for your apt.

With the hydro company around here your only a number that gets shuffled through their computer system. If you don't pay on time your flagged and no longer just a number. Your info then gets sent to the accounts employee who then issues you the late notice. If you pay on time you stay just a number in the system and no one sees your bill. This holds true with the exception of a threshhold clause. If your bill is over $1000.00 a month you get sent to a commercial account and this also flags your account. So basically if you pay your bill on time and don't exceed $1000.00 a month, your fine and don't have to worry.

There is also the rumor that the hydro companies are working with LEO. This is not true. It is a rumor started by LEO and the media to scare potential growers into keeping grows personal, or detering them all together. The hydro company is a business like all others. They want to make a profit and are not going to turn in good paying customers to LEO - that would be counter productive. Also, here in Cananda the privacy laws are crazy and they couldn't devulge our account info to anyone without a proper warrant.

This info was given to me by a family member who works at the hydro company here in town. She works in upper managment so the info is true and not just here-say. I don't know if all hydro companies have the same rules, but this is true for the Hamilton, Burlington, Toronto areas. Hope this helps. Don't not grow just because of police propaganda.

TGT

dick stallion: thanks man. i appreciate it. but yea, its getting really hot so a/c usage will be up normally anyways.

meduser: thank you too man. yea my highest bill ever was like 230 bucks in the dead of summer so considering my light took approximatly 80 bucks soo, running the ac full blast raised it up hardcore so im assuming even if they did see that, they would see it as normal. my ac ran up the bill by over 150 bucks and that was a central a/c unit. my ac now is just a window type unit. that claims 6.1 amps of draw, so im assuming its a lot less than a central unit which would prbably be double that no?

TGT: once, again, thanks i appreciate all the info. common sense tells me the same thing. they are a buisness but the propaganda does work. especially for us U.S. guys. however, common sense sometimes isnt enough so i greatly appreciate the answer from someone "in the know". i was just worried that over the last 2 years they have information about my usage and could see some sort of a pattern.

Thanks guys!

meduser180056 said:

Don't worry about it at all. Those fluctuations are way too small to draw attention. Start worrying when you have a $600 electric bill for your apt.

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i did that one before.. 3400w hid+1100w a/c in a 1 bedroom apt....65 day billing cycle too, think it was more like 850...
they thanked me for making my payment on time!

central air almost always rides the 240V and or takes alot of amps. 20amps /1-2ton for the compressor and fan was my last recolection.... the breaker panel usualy has the lergest circuits for the A) A/C B) washer/dryer and if your lucky and have an electric overn that take alot too. (i have 80amps of 240 for my oven (yikes!))

DIGITALHIPPY said:

i did that one before.. 3400w hid+1100w a/c in a 1 bedroom apt....65 day billing cycle too, think it was more like 850...
they thanked me for making my payment on time!

central air almost always rides the 240V and or takes alot of amps. 20amps /1-2ton for the compressor and fan was my last recolection.... the breaker panel usualy has the lergest circuits for the A) A/C B) washer/dryer and if your lucky and have an electric overn that take alot too. (i have 80amps of 240 for my oven (yikes!))

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yea i got an electric stove as well. im feeling quite a bit better after reading all this info

my window ac unit says 220V ( i believe this is much like 110v meaning 120v and 220v means 240v correct? im no electrician though) on it and says it pulls 6.1 amps...ohms law says thats 1342w so that seems like QUITE a bit less than a central air unit that i was running before.

a 1k per bedroom is okay

i know that, ive been doing it for 3 grows (well 1 was torn down so not quite 3) my main concern was fluctuation and how big of a fluctuation is a warning sign

yes...

your cool bro, just pay your bill on time.
you might even be on the preferred customers list, like me!

Exactly...pay the bill, they're in the business to make $$ and sell electricity, not lose customers.

Keep the $$ flowin and the juice will stay on w/no hassles...

Now get over 1200-1500 in an apartment they might wonder if there's a line loss and wanna test to save you $$$, but I doubt they'd call LEO...Usually LEO goes to them IMHO.

*edit* My neighbor told me his bill has been around $750/month for his house, and its only 1800sq. ft....My bill tops $400 for regular service w/out grow equipment...$100 or less is chicken scratch.

M3

legalizekindtok said:

a 1k per bedroom is okay

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No it is not.

Residential bedrooms will normally be on ONE 15 amp or ONE 20 amp circuit breaker. Electricians know bedrooms do not typically draw a lot of AMPS as a standard so they daisy chain them together "generally" off of one breaker.

A 1k light pulls around 10 amps (9.5 amps).

Two 1k lamps @ 120 volts are pulling 19 amps (9.5 amp x 2) so your 15 amp breaker just fried.

You are also exceeding the safety limits if it were a 20 amp breaker (80%=16 amps).

It is a bad rule of thumb to think 1k per bedroom is OK. That is a good way to start a fire and just all around bad electrical practice so heads up dude.

like i said, im really worried about fluctuations only, not electrical usage or how much i can get away with. btw, i mean no offense, more info the better, i just dont want people to start taking shots at anyone.

cocktail frank: haha id rather stay off the radar!

mmm420: thanks bro!

thereishope: cool. i didnt know that! thanks for the info!

1k per bedroom is the rule of thumb for security reasons. Meaning if you have a 3 bedroom house 3kwatts of lighting is not suspicious. 4 bedroom 4k etc.

The rule has nothing to do amps. Everyone knows you can't pull 3k off a 15 amp breaker. And yes bedrooms do not typically have a dedicated breaker, but anyone who is running 2kw or more should know this. If they don't they'll find out quick by tripping the breaker

Just setting the record str8

meduser180056 said:

1k per bedroom is the rule of thumb for security reasons. Meaning if you have a 3 bedroom house 3kwatts of lighting is not suspicious. 4 bedroom 4k etc.

The rule has nothing to do amps. Everyone knows you can't pull 3k off a 15 amp breaker. And yes bedrooms do not typically have a dedicated breaker, but anyone who is running 2kw or more should know this. If they don't they'll find out quick by tripping the breaker

Just setting the record str8

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Ahhh .... I get what you (he) means but a 1k rule for "security reasons" equaling bedrooms still does not make sense.

There is no such rule.

Pay the bill and do not steal electricity is the rule. Use as much electricity as you want and can afford just pay the bill and do not steal.

Just explaining what people meant by 1k per bedroom.

I agree the ultimate rule is to pay the bill and not steal electricity.

meduser180056 said:

Just explaining what people meant by 1k per bedroom.

I agree the ultimate rule is to pay the bill and not steal electricity.

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Got it.

My pad is only two bedroom but I pull 6,000 watts easy when it is hot and the lights are running. No cops yet but then I keep my plant limits within Prop 215 SB420 guidelines as well.

The biggest rule is to tell no one about your grow.

George said:

like i said, im really worried about fluctuations only, not electrical usage or how much i can get away with. btw, i mean no offense, more info the better, i just dont want people to start taking shots at anyone.

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If you have an old or even new analog meter, there is no way for them to tell when the power is used and fluctuations can not be logged. They can see your total usage from month to month, but that's about it. If you are worried about the month to month changes, like I stated earlier, pay your bill on time and you will be fine.

By 2010 in canada they plan on changing all meters to digital. These WILL be readable at any time and fluctuations will be recorded. This is being done not for LEO, but to see what time of the day most power is used and to bill for different times of the day/night. We will still be protected by the privacy act and they will need to get a warrant to see your bill. That's not to say they don't have an insider working for them at hydro, but then they would be onto you already to ask for such info. No tip is given by hydro, there is just too amny customers.

Hope this helps.

TGT

TGT said:

No tip is given by hydro, there is just too amny customers.

Hope this helps.

TGT

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This is also a great point. Think about it, EVERYONE you know is a customer, everyone.