is it legal to have an empty grow room?

Hello all

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area California. Recently I got a visit from PGE trying to check my smart meter. I've been able to dodge the PGE guy so far as he doesn't have access to my meter and needs me to open my garage door to access it. I pay my elec bill on time every month for the past year. I was running 8000watts for a collective medicinal grow. I am a post cancer patient and am sb420 exempt which states that the limits don't meet my needs however there isn't any guidelines to what I can cultivate or have on me. My Doctor recommended not to go over 99 plants for myself. I have other patient recs all posted in my grow room.

I assume that PGE is trying to check my panel to make sure it is functioning properly because of my high usage in a residential neighborhood. I was 2 weeks into veg when i found out the PGE guy has been snooping around so i decided to just cut them down and lay low until this thing blows over. A lot of you are probably wondering why I decided to cut them down. For one, we had a bout with PM that would not go away and we also didn't want to raise any additional attention. Seemed like the smart thing to do. might have started over because of the PM anyway.

Questions....has anyone had a similar experience with PGE? My concern is that if they finally do get ahold of me and request to see my panel, they will see that power is being drawn from a certain area as there is conduit running into the grow room. Will they request to inspect my grow room? which leads me to my next concern...is there anything illegal about having an empty grow room? no plants whatsoever. just 8 lights, 3 reservoirs, 4 trays, nutes and 2 filters/fans all set up. I am contemplating taking everything down and hiding it but, it will be a PAIN IN THE BUTT. also.....is there a law about using too much electricity if you pay the bill on time every time?? Its a little fishy why they would be checking my meter if i pay the bill. If the bill was more than I thought i was using you would expect me to complain to PGE...A lot of you might say Im over thinking this being from The Bay Area but, we would rather stay under the radar as much as we can if we can help it.

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks all hope to hear some responses.

In general, I would say PGE doesn't give a damn about your internal home wiring. That is not their responsibility and they don't want to make it theirs as that would incur a liability for them. They are not in the business of searching houses so there is no reason for them to request access to any part of your house other than the meter location.

It is legal to cultivate in CA, so why would they be concerned about your "excess" electrical usage? The more juice you use, the more profits they make. For all they know, some dummy is trying to recreate the sun for just a few plants. I think you are overly paranoid.

Not too much too worry about, the real question is are you willing to accept that the pge guy will know whats going down when he sees it all and will from then on know your house is grown in. May not matter..more than likely wouldnt guy probably wouldnt give two shits, biggest fear though is if he decides he wants the harvest in another 6-8 months or if he has friends hed tell about it. Me Personally I wouldnt worry much at all, but depends what your acceptable risk is.

Throw a bunch of garden plants, tomatoes, potato buckets, onions, lettuce, cabbage.. Whatever you like, then when he sees it you can sy ou grow all your own veggies.

It is perfectly legal to have an empty grow room. How do you think the hydro shops stay in business.

Bleach your walls and equipment,I have heard of people getting in trouble with cops for empty grow rooms.
They swab the walls and equipment and test it for thc

I just read an article a lawyer wrote stating it's not uncommon for pg&e workers to inform local police in exchange for some cash.
https://www.erowid.org/freedom/police/police_cannabis_defense1.shtml

hesbishop1985 said:

I just read an article a lawyer wrote stating it's not uncommon for pg&e workers to inform local police in exchange for some cash.
https://www.erowid.org/freedom/police/police_cannabis_defense1.shtml

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That article was written in 2000 an its citations are court cases from the 80s and 90s. For a quickly evolving legal scene,that makes it pretty dated info.

To the OP, I wouldnt worry about it. There are a massive amount of home grows in the bay area and PG&E is well aware of it. I blew a transformer the first night my shit went live

Thats a problem in non legal states. There are people that grow vegetables indoors, so yes it is legal as long as there is no evidence of marijuana in the room.

And in that case it would only be paraphernalia

BustinScales510 said:

That article was written in 2000 an its citations are court cases from the 80s and 90s. For a quickly evolving legal scene,that makes it pretty dated info.

To the OP, I wouldnt worry about it. There are a massive amount of home grows in the bay area and PG&E is well aware of it. I blew a transformer the first night my shit went live

Click to expand...

Thank u for updating me. I'm new to all this & was just searching for answers for my own problem. I never thought to look at dates & sources. This may change everything I ever learned from the internet! Lol

Reminded me of this.
The process of indoor growing is not illegal.
But it can be suspicious.
Medicinal herbs. Medicinal herb. Medicinal herbs.
He totally medicates lol. 7:00 to 7:07 lmao.