What's new
  • ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

Electricity Usage and "Cops"

G

Guest

I know, I know, we've talked it a hundred jillion times before - pay your bill and nobody gets hurt. Shit, I've said that myself quite a few times, but...

On tv lately has been the 20th anniversary episode of Cops. Some douchebag sheriff confiscates a crop and corvette - then has the audacity to leave a voicemail telling the farmer he hadn't been robbed, just visited by the 5-0.

This didn't surprise me as much as the aforementioned "douchebag sheriff" stating that they busted it based on the utility company informing authorities that the house was using more power than average? Now this wasn't a 70kw op. They showed maybe 20 full grown plants. Maybe 2-3 parabolic reflectros holding thousands. NOTHING DRASTIC.

The only thing I could think to ask was WTF?

Unless there is overpowering smell, someone tells, or you are just plain stupid - how the f___ can the electric company just make a broad assumption like that and tattle?

Ideas?
 
G

Guest

Quite a few lights can be pretty broad... How many kw if you don't mind my asking?

Over 10kw?
 
wantaknow

wantaknow

ruger 500
Veteran
where i live the power guy said they now can tell what type of appliance comes on and off and when and what the wattage is ,he says the new digital meters are the lattest in high tech and can meter even the smallest wattage use
 
REZDOG

REZDOG

Active member
Veteran
In an average 3BR house,power use of 4KW or less,on 12/12,will never hem you up.
Power companies are in the business of selling power,and cops that say they got info from an electric company are most likely just covering for a snitch.
One of the biggest problems facing growers who make bank for the first time is they seem to frequently get into "high rolling"-coke,strippers,the whole steamy underbelly shitshoot.
It's their "4 a.m. Company" that gets you tagged,not the electric Co.
Nobody has shit for info at the electric co about you.
One employee reads the meter and enters the data.
That meter reader doesn't even have access to your last month's numbers,they just write down a number. It's simple data input,nothing more.
Then a computer takes the inputted
data and prints you a bill.
You pay the bill,someone opens it and processes your payment.
End of story.
No single person at the electric co ever sees all your usage and payment data.
If you want your electric bill kept as private as possible then use a money order so your monthly bill isn't part of your bank account statement.
Now,RELAX and grow some weed. :D
 
Last edited:
REZDOG

REZDOG

Active member
Veteran
4000 kilowatt hours is a LOT of power,unless you're running one hell of a grow you'd have a hard time piercing that ceiling. That's an obscene amount of power usage for a house under 4000 ft2.
Power usage is subjective,unless you're in an urban toolshed.
 
F

F8 Leader

New member
Actually, the electric co. does track usage patterns AND are in cahoots with the police. There have been a few busts in So.California that were due to electricity related issues. One thing they look for is the patterns, you know the 12/12 cycle and for above avg. usage. This is a recent thing with the electric co. maybe the past two years they have picked up the pace but the electric co. is in the business to make money. however, electric co. will bust you if your not careful.
 
Maj.PotHead

Maj.PotHead

End Cannibis Prohibition Now Realize Legalize !!
Mentor
Veteran
yepper seen same cops sherrif john burnell the host of many LEO shows lol they only counted 20 plants gotta be more then just power company snitchn. but the house did look quite old and maybe just maybe he has compared to todays standards sub standard wireing. stuff upto code 30-40 yrs ago but would cut the cake today, i used to rent a house had fuses i couldnt run a fuse less then 20 amp amd alot had to be 30 amp because of old ass wireing. i know i'm very lucky fire didnt happen but i would have over 300$ month power bills with a fn swampcooler 6 yrs ago now. the house i moved outta last yr has 15 yr old a/c unit we had a power bill of 700$ for 1 month thats with only 400w hps flower and 240w cfls veggn. house thermo set @ 77 outside temps 115+. this house my highest bill was 430 last summer with 1k hps flower 420w cfl veggn house set @ 77 degrees outside 115+
 
Last edited:
G

Guest

REZDOG said:
4000 kilowatt hours is a LOT of power,unless you're running one hell of a grow you'd have a hard time piercing that ceiling. That's an obscene amount of power usage for a house under 4000 ft2.
Power usage is subjective,unless you're in an urban toolshed.
Click to expand...
Edit - did the math wrong. Thanks Archivist and Grat3ful for paying attention in math class!

I still don't think that 4000kw is a lot of power. I can easily see going over 5,000kw just hobby growing tomatoes and having nice appliances, electric heat, a hot tub, etc...
 
Last edited:
Grat3fulh3ad

Grat3fulh3ad

The Voice of Reason
Veteran
one 1kw lamp burning for 1 hour = 1 kwh
one 1kw lamp burning for 12 hours = 12 kwh
one 1kw lamp burning 12 hours a day for 30 days = 360 kwh/month
eight 1kw lamps burning 360 kwh/month = 2880 kwh/month
four 1kw lamps burning 360 kwh/month = 1440 kwh/month
 
G

Guest

Grat3ful - thats what I was coming up with. I didn't read Archivist's part about "thats calculated at" before I posted. I thought he was doing the math at 1150. Stupid me.

Still, these f___ers are being too damn nosy.
 
S

sneakyninja

Interested to know whether the point at which it becomes a problem should be measured in KWH/Month or KW/Hour. Part of my desire to run a flip flop system was to reduce the KW/Hour number at any given time, however if that number is irrelevant and they are only interested in KWH/Month then there's no point.
 
SomeGuy

SomeGuy

668, Neighbor of the Beast
Interested to know whether the point at which it becomes a problem should be measured in KWH/Month or KW/Hour. Part of my desire to run a flip flop system was to reduce the KW/Hour number at any given time, however if that number is irrelevant and they are only interested in KWH/Month then there's no point.
Click to expand...

My power CO OP recently did a major upgrade last year and every device, IE: meter, transformer and the like is a networked device. All the info is fed into a main terminal and they can monitor any device from that source. The lineman was telling me that if I was to go out and shut off my main a few times in a set period it would actually trigger
a trouble alert, and cause them to investigate. Nobody has to come read the meter as its fed to them real time over the network. From the way he talked it would be no problem for them to monitor patterns if they really wanted to.
 
T

THCV

first off, it totally depends where you live. Texas is a fascist state, so no surprise there re that Austin article. And I bet F8's reference to So Cal busts is San Diego county, also fascists (ok, not hitler, but very anti-pot, you know what i mean). Los Angeles county doesn't do this sort of thing, I haven't heard of DWP doing anything like this. It is all about local power co and local police and their attitude about MJ. So look into your own locality.

second, don't allow them to give you a digital meter if you can avoid it. The old analog spinners tell nothing but total usage, which is more or less like Rez described. The digis will straight up show 12/12 etc and if i had one I might stop growing--if i lived in a locality that has a history of these electric co snitch stories.
 
T

twojoints

Member
im so sick of hearing "the power companies are in the business of selling power"

yeah, and at&t is in the business of selling services too but does that stop them from handing over 100% of our private information to the NSA? not a chance.

these companies want to make money but they will also obey laws. and the police are telling them to give up info on usage- so they will. like a power company would give a fuck anyway- you think they really like those summer brownouts when they cant supply enough juice for everyone? busting these grows is actually helping the power companies... i mean shit if the power draw keeps rising they would have to build more power plants and that just costs WAY more then letting the cops in unfettered...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top