Digital Smart meters (How long have you been growing with one)

Budweiser13

Active member

• Aug 20, 2008

• #1

Any body growing with a smart meter on your house. If so I would like to know how long and how many watts of a grow you are doing. These things are starting to go in and are planned to be on all homes by the year 2010. Thats only 2 years anybody have any solid info on these meters. I have heard they can be bad for grower's and I have heard a few say no worries. I believe this is going to be a concern in the near future especially for folks trying to do some 4000 watt or bigger grows with AC's and fans running all kinds of juice....Stay safe...........

 

Unionman

Member

• Aug 21, 2008

• #2

Budweiser13 said:

Any body growing with a smart meter on your house. If so I would like to know how long and how many watts of a grow you are doing. These things are starting to go in and are planned to be on all homes by the year 2010. Thats only 2 years anybody have any solid info on these meters. I have heard they can be bad for grower's and I have heard a few say no worries. I believe this is going to be a concern in the near future especially for folks trying to do some 4000 watt or bigger grows with AC's and fans running all kinds of juice....Stay safe...........

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I would also like to know. I think the smart meters are just so there are no more meter maids going door to door it will be all computerized. Thats what I heard from an electrition on the job. (was talking about them getting paid about as much as I do and just drive around all day) Its not etched in stone, just what I was told.

 

Unionman

Member

• Aug 26, 2008

• #3

Nobody else has any imput???

 

B

Brad

• Aug 26, 2008

• #4

well where i am,they are installed on the house,but....they are not hooked up to the internet yet,meter reader still comes to read the meter,most likely they are waiting till everyone has them till they send info right to the hydro company, till then have a blast, a friend ran 10kw wit a digital meter nothing happend

 

t.o.med

Member

• Aug 26, 2008

• #5

im runing 8200 watts ive had the smart meter for close to 2 years no problems.i use to have a 40 light op (not smart meter) never stole electricity always paid my bill on time never a problem.in my experience its not the hydro company you have to worry about its the people you know.

 

Budweiser13

Active member

• Aug 26, 2008

• #6

t.o.med said:

im runing 8200 watts ive had the smart meter for close to 2 years no problems.i use to have a 40 light op (not smart meter) never stole electricity always paid my bill on time never a problem.in my experience its not the hydro company you have to worry about its the people you know.

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Exactly loose lips sink ships. Thanks for the input hopefully more peeps will chime in......

 

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Lilly456

• Aug 26, 2008

• #7

2 yrs , digital meter, 3k = or - W, pay the bill no problem.No meter readers on your property either.Chaco.

 

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Brad

• Aug 27, 2008

• #8

t.o.med said:

im runing 8200 watts ive had the smart meter for close to 2 years no problems.i use to have a 40 light op (not smart meter) never stole electricity always paid my bill on time never a problem.in my experience its not the hydro company you have to worry about its the people you know.

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well i agree with ya to a point, hydro comapanies are pure rats!!! trust me

 

S

slipperysamus

New member

• Aug 28, 2008

• #9

I was thinking aobut getting one, mainly to benefit from the nice price break for non-peak hour power. You can just run your shit at night and save some money

 

HYDROJUNKIE

Active member

• Dec 10, 2008

• #10

had a gas smart meter installed recently and I talked with the guy while he was installing it,...he said the company is trying to save money and layed off most of the meter readers already,...He also said it saves the customers money because meter readers are in such a hurry they screw up the numbers and usually just round off.
He didnt install the electric one because he said they ran out.
its basically a wireless signal that goes back to the company rather than people manually reading them.

bad part is that they can probably read spikes in usage(ie:12/12,18/6) and figure out whats going on.also if the signal is wireless im sure leo will eventually figure out how to intercept this data.maybe,...maybe not?

otherwise a way to avoid spikes is to run two rooms on a flip flop box and run the juice 24/7 with no spikes.

hopefully its just another way to save the company money and were all just being paranoid

 

C

cktRAVEl

Member

ICMag Donor

• Dec 11, 2008

• #11

...

 

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yamaha_1fan

• Dec 11, 2008

• #12

I have had a smart meter for a while, few months, maybe longer. I posted it here when it was installed.

I am not too worried about it.

 

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PeteWeedSeed

Member

• Dec 12, 2008

• #13

I've been growing with a smart meter for over a year now at my house. My grow is under 2k and smells just a little bit, without anyone giving a crap.
What is even funnier, I had a cop come to house asking about a car crash I witnessed. All she said said was "wow it smells like a grow op in here", and just carried on about the interview.. ha! I think she liked me and didn't give a crap.

But really, the smart meter is to cut costs for electric companies having to send out "meter maids" to check the readings. Personally I don't think your going to get caught unless your over 15k with a smart meter and the police have a interest in what is going on with the power use.
Just make sure your plants don't make smells beyond the grow room and no is talking about what your doing, if people know and are talking... your done, it will eventually get back to you eventually. It might take a year or two but it will come back to haunt you.
besides the power companies using them to save money on readings, it's also there to make people use power during "off hours" to balance the loads. It's not police trying to find out where grow ops are. There are plenty of people using HPS lights for their own purposes and not growing profits.

 

HYDROJUNKIE

Active member

• Dec 27, 2008

• #14

To make a long story short I talked with a guy from pg&e and he says there still gonna send out the meter maids for a couple years,....I guess this new smart meter system wont even be working untill its installed on every home and they get their grid up and running with no problems which is scheduled to be in like 2010 or 2012 depending on how fast they get it done.
And I also heard that this wireless system can be hacked.
But anyhow I guess were ok for a couple years.

 

Y

yamaha_1fan

• Dec 28, 2008

• #15

PeteWeedSeed said:

I had a cop come to house ....she said ... "wow it smells like a grow op in here".......


if people know and are talking... your done, it will eventually get back to you eventually. It might take a year or two but it will come back to haunt you.

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you may want to follow your own advice

 

P

PeteWeedSeed

Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #16

Well geez yamaha do you think I'm retarded or something?

The very next day everything was packed up and gone.. I don't have a small personal grow anymore, I've started in new locations. And this time overkill carbon filters and a final blast of ozone on exhaust air.

I recommend a ozone generator to anyone paranoid about smells. These things are amazing, I've filled a room with smoke then turned on my 4" big blue within 10 min. the entire room was cleared, and completely odorless.
They're great but unlike carbon filters which instantly catch smells, it takes a bit of time for the power of ozone to destroy everything. And they cost like 3x more, but I say they pay for themselves keeping you safe.

 

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bigghead

Member

• Jan 10, 2009

• #17

had it for at lease 5 years,3k grow.no problem at all. benefit no one in your yard. no spinning meter for anyone to notice .

 

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_Dude

Member

• Jan 10, 2009

• #18

Power companies basically going paperless, so the only one to see your bill is a computer, sounds good to me.