How much power consumption before "the man" gets suspicious?

HottFuzz

HottFuzz

Active Member
I know there's no exact answer to this question, but what is a ball park figure of how many watts i can use before the power company raises suspicion? I heard or read that a 500 watt increase would cause the power company to get curious. This seems like a small amount considering i've got 300w in one ceiling fan right now for kitchen lighting.
 
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speeka

Well-Known Member
HottFuzz said:
I know there's no exact answer to this question, but what is a ball park figure of how many watts i can use before the power company raises suspicion? I heard or read that a 500 watt increase would cause the power company to get curious. This seems like a small amount considering i've got 300w in one ceiling fan right now for kitchen lighting.
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My brother has an air compressor & Large size electric kiln in his Garage alone & that shits all over that 500 w increase. As long as you pay the bill, the only thing they should be, is happy with profit's.
Depending on where you live, that kind of evidence is also inadmissible.
 
HottFuzz

HottFuzz

Active Member
speeka said:
My brother has an air compressor & Large size electric kiln in his Garage alone & that shits all over that 500 w increase. As long as you pay the bill, the only thing they should be, is happy with profit's.
Depending on where you live, that kind of evidence is also inadmissible.
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yea thats why i wasnt so sure about the "500w" shit i read. its so easy to use up 500w. but i have heard about the power company working with police to bust growers using a lot of power. but that would probably be like 5000w before they did that.
 
tilemaster

tilemaster

Well-Known Member
well my power consumption be4 moving to the location at now, wuz @ 45 cents a day. i recieved a yearly charted comparison recently listing daily consumption @ 15.00 dollar per day, currently. Just pay ur bill and make it smell , light, and noise proff, tell no 1 and youll be fine. but for the most part some1 breaks 1 of the rules and shit rolls down hill
 
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speeka

Well-Known Member
HottFuzz said:
yea thats why i wasnt so sure about the "500w" shit i read. its so easy to use up 500w. but i have heard about the power company working with police to bust growers using a lot of power. but that would probably be like 5000w before they did that.
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Naa m8, you got it wrong the Police can use your power consumption against you after the fact as proof of how long you were growing etc.;-) & in all likelihood will. But with all the plasma TV's in houses these days it gets harder & harder.
 
HottFuzz

HottFuzz

Active Member
speeka said:
Naa m8, you got it wrong the Police can use your power consumption against you after the fact as proof of how long you were growing etc.;-) & in all likelihood will. But with all the plasma TV's in houses these days it gets harder & harder.
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thanks, yea that makes a lot more sense. i'd like to know how many watts other "illegal" growers are using without problems. i read of people using thousands of watts on grows but rarely do i know if they're medical or not. i know the power company wont fuck with you if your medical no matter how much you use. im also running all incandescents in my house which im going to switch with cfl's to maybe "blend in" the power usuage.
 
Wolfrick

Wolfrick

Member
It's not unusual for average people to have electric bills upwards of 2-3 hundred dollars depending on their household setup. For instance, if a family uses electric heat they burn between 700 and 1500 watts on average per unit! During the summer they can use a lot of electric with A/C's and fans. I've heard of average families having $350 electric bills. If the electric company were to raise suspicion on every case like this they'd exhaust way too many resources, and probably never find anything important. You have to remember that your electric company is an institution which makes money off of its' clients so they are content usually as long as you pay your bill, and don't attempt to steal electriciy. The only case where you could get busted is if the police become suspicious of your "activites" and start an investigation, in which case they could pull your records.
 
HottFuzz

HottFuzz

Active Member
Wolfrick said:
It's not unusual for average people to have electric bills upwards of 2-3 hundred dollars depending on their household setup. For instance, if a family uses electric heat they burn between 700 and 1500 watts on average per unit! During the summer they can use a lot of electric with A/C's and fans. I've heard of average families having $350 electric bills. If the electric company were to raise suspicion on every case like this they'd exhaust way too many resources, and probably never find anything important. You have to remember that your electric company is an institution which makes money off of its' clients so they are content usually as long as you pay your bill, and don't attempt to steal electriciy. The only case where you could get busted is if the police become suspicious of your "activites" and start an investigation, in which case they could pull your records.
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Thanks, +rep!
 
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willworkforweed

Active Member
500 watts doesn't sound right. I had a big AC in my room that I kept on for a good 12 hours a day. Now, I'm only assuming this, but that should have been more than a 500 watt light. I never got any complaints.

I don't think that 500 watts will do it. You have to have a really big grow set up for the bill to be what tips them off. A 500 watt set up isn't that huge.
 
STZ

STZ

Active Member
tilemaster said:
well my power consumption be4 moving to the location at now, wuz @ 45 cents a day. i recieved a yearly charted comparison recently listing daily consumption @ 15.00 dollar per day, currently. Just pay ur bill and make it smell , light, and noise proff, tell no 1 and youll be fine. but for the most part some1 breaks 1 of the rules and shit rolls down hill
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Word. I'm sure PG&E knows youre growing but they just don't care. Pay your bill on time and keep your shit on the down low and you should be good. My bill went from around 45 or 50 bucks to around 500 bucks a month. The two guys in the local PGE office told me not to fill out a CARE discount electricity form because they use that information in prosecution. So obviously both of those dudes knew I was growing...
 
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growone

Well-Known Member
i do seem to see that power is seen as a low risk item
i've read a thread over in the legal forum that makes me a little more wary
guy in Connecticut was running 2700w, definitely good sized, but not huge
busted, talks about having brain tumor, been using weed during treatment
says the power use was the only item on the search warrant, nailed from power use only
can't say i know it's true, but sounded genuine
 
bobsgreen

bobsgreen

Active Member
It depends on the house imho I hear a Kw per bedroom in your house is pretty safe..get away with more in upper class neighborhoods too..500w isn't anything to worry about
 
sven deisel

sven deisel

Well-Known Member
most power busts come from the people that are tapping into the line b4 the meter and stealing it. some retards on here think there is some kind of magic in the lines that the power company can sence when your lights come on. some people have bills in upwards of $400 u could have baseboard heating an electric stove elctr water heater heat ac a welder in the garage. i run 2 400's 24/7 and a 600 and a 400 36/12 my bil stays well below 300. just a hottub heater will spin a meter like a disco ball more than likely anyone they have used the old power trick on was that something else put the ehat on to them mad ex woman pissed of friend whos old lady ur banging now but 1 person saying it isnt good enough so they make up some other shit say power useage
 
vertise

vertise

Well-Known Member
The dea is allowed to look for spikes in energy bills that are unusual and they do. So lets say you have a 300 dollar a month bill during winter and 500 during summer before you start growing, then based on that info if they notice that your bill increases a considerable amount cost wise then it will cause a red flag. Its based on what past seasons energy costs were. dont jump from 300 a month to 450 a month.
 
Wolfrick

Wolfrick

Member
vertise said:
The dea is allowed to look for spikes in energy bills that are unusual and they do. So lets say you have a 300 dollar a month bill during winter and 500 during summer before you start growing, then based on that info if they notice that your bill increases a considerable amount cost wise then it will cause a red flag. Its based on what past seasons energy costs were. dont jump from 300 a month to 450 a month.
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But they have to have probable cause in order to check someone's electric bill. There's no way they would sift through hundreds of thousands of people's electric bills for each city and intend to know who grows and who doesn't. That's just ridiculous. Most people are busted because they give off other signs and slip up with trash, heat, smell, etc or someone talks.
 
mochadog70

mochadog70

Active Member
Wolfrick said:
But they have to have probable cause in order to check someone's electric bill. There's no way they would sift through hundreds of thousands of people's electric bills for each city and intend to know who grows and who doesn't. That's just ridiculous. Most people are busted because they give off other signs and slip up with trash, heat, smell, etc or someone talks.
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You hit the nail on the head. 99% of the time its someone talking. Do you know how much time and resource they would have to use to go through every ones power bill that jumped up and down? It would not be possible. Then take in that there are a lot of states that have MMJ. If you shut your mouth and don't show your friends and keep the smell in check you'll roll forever without any problems. I know that people are proud and want to show it off being legal or illegal it's a VERY VERY BAD IDEA. So don't even sweat 500W because you could go 5k without any problems. I have seen people setup 10k+ with no problems and they have been doing it their whole life and never once had anything happen, but also these people live a double life so only a hand full of people know and these are the same people that help with the project in one way or another.
 
KlosetKing

KlosetKing

Well-Known Member
i think usually the busts that happen over electricty happen when someone is running like 6000w of lights, all on the same cycle. its easy to see huge drops like that, and they really stand out. that article in the legal forum said that the dudes who got nabbed were running something insane:

Officials' suspicions were first raised when NIPSCO said Monday that the house had averaged between 2,300 kilowatts per hour to 2,700 kilowatts per hour in the past four months. An air-conditioning wall unit uses about one kilowatt per hour, meaning the house was using the energy of what amounted to running 2,300 to 2,700 air conditioning wall units per hour.

now, there is some controversy as to whether this is accurate, as that is an INSANE amount of energy per hour.
 
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Toolage57

Active Member
I use about 500watts and over 2200 watts in the summer for the 2 a/c that I have to keep the place cool in the summer and never had any one come to my door asking what's going on and my place was a 2 bed room place but 1 of them is more of a storage room but 2 more were added on. I don't think they'd give a crap about the power usage as long as your not causing fuses to blow and then having to replace the massive fuses on the power polls and as long as you pay your power bill. I have my PS3 running pretty much 24/7 and it uses around 200 to 300 watts
 
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Wohjew

Well-Known Member
well now with these smart meters the can see your 12/12 cycyles. they can see how much your using per hour, per day ect ect . what does that mean to everyone ? im considering a flip flop and 2 rooms to keep a constant draw of electricity. but for now i will still continue to pay my bills on time . i run 3000kw hours every 60 days . in a 1300 square house . ppl live in :)
 
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