In Ontario, Canada the utility company that provides our electricity is : Hydro One.

This is a simple question. I'm new to growing, and was just wondering that if my electricity usage goes up suddenly (because I'm using a 400 Watt HPS light) to grow, can Hydro One report this to the police as "suspicious activity"?

I haven't started growing anything yet but I'm very paranoid, and I would think that the utility companies look for spikes in usage as being suspicious. I plan on buying all my hardware via cash.

You're probably burning 400 watts with your computer and monitor.
No worries

They're watching for substantial spikes against an average.

BTW, if you want to compensate for increased power usage to save a few bucks, pick up a kill-a-watt tester. It will let you check the load at each receptacle and figure out what everything in the house is chewing up cost wise. Then you can disconnect vampire devices that are leeching power you weren't aware of.

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It's not so much that I'm concerned about the extra bill. It's just my paranoia. I had this strong feeling that if I plug this lamp in for X amount of hours, they might see the spike and consider it "suspicious activity." I often wondered how the police catch these grow ops, and the first thing that comes to mind is a nosey utility company that reported them.

But then it raises the question about customer privacy, right?

Just curious, are you a fellow Ontarian? I only ask because I was wondering if you deal with Hydro One.

Hey dont worry about it man, Ive got 2. 400watt lights going for 12/12 right now. and man you wont get caught.

Well that's TWO for it not being detectable. That definitely puts my mind to rest!

As my earlier post(s) mentioned, yeah...I'm paranoid. LOL. I don't want to buy anything via credit card and/or cheque. Don't want to leave a paper trail.

I plan on buying everything via cash and was just concerned about suspicious activity about my electricity usage.

But you guys have put my mind at ease. Heheheheheh, great! Now I just gotta buy my lamp and then I'm finding a local seed bank where I can buy my seeds.

wouldnt be to worried a 1000 watt hps roughly raises a bill 50$ a month a 400 shouldnt draw any suspicous spikes for anyone to look into.