Possible will start only with 2 plants with a DWC setup and will only need a little air pump, not a water pump.
[QUOTE=" We have a small acreage/hobby farm that's wired for light industrial and no smart meters here in Alberta either."
I should live in a small farm... A small farm in the countryside cost less than the apartment where I am. And I can live their because I work online.
The country I am from, not a big problem if I am caught growing weed, but is against the law, I cannot grow 1 plant. I always try not use a lot of electricity. But in reality I think I could use a lot more, some people have graphics cards running 24h mining crypto, some people work from home and have AC working all day.[/QUOTE]
All sorts of reasons to have higher power use than average. In a town called Maple Ridge in BC years back the authorities came up with a sneaky method to hunt down growers. The went thru electricity bills and any that were really high they showed up and demanded to do a home inspection. Out of the 100 or so places they did this they only found a couple of pot grows and the rest had a hot tub and even electric pottery kilns. Some were growing veggies in their basements. They would still hit them with a bill for a couple of grand. So much shit was raised they had to stop and return money after a big court case.
BC started changing over to smart meters years back that track usage second by second and many devices like some digital ballasts along with many other 'smart' appliances actually identify themselves so they know when you make toast in the morning etc. They would just show up and switch out your meter without saying a word. Same thing in Ontario and many states. End up paying a lot more for power and many of the meters were faulty and houses were burned down.
The guys growing big were tapping into the power lines and stealing the power for lots of lights and that was one of the main arguments for smart meters in the first place. First there was all sorts of propaganda in the media about power theft and the dangers of grow-ops with unauthorized wiring. Not to mention the danger to children from bad wiring and dangerous chemicals used to grow pot. Save the children! lol
In truth there was a lot of illegal grows run by both biker and vietnamese gangs where they would rent a big house and gut the insides growing pot in every available space then stick some slave in there to manage it. Mould everywhere and a destroyed house with the owner stuck with the bills. They applied that model to even guys with a few plants so now if your home is identified as having a grow in it you can't sell it without paying thousands of dollars for testing and remediation. Big business for companies doing that. Then it's hard to get a mortgage or insurance for that house.
The general rule was that you can run an extra 1000W for each bedroom in the house without attracting attention. This 'smart' world we are moving towards is removing the last bits of our privacy. My 2005 Chevy Malibu has On Star in it and even tho I don't subscribe to it if the cops were interested in my movements they can still get that data from On Star as it's still tracking me. I need to figure out how to disconnect that damn thing. Not that I'm doing anything I need to hide but who knows what I may get up to in the future.
Next is the cashless society so they can track every penny you spend. As it is when I go to the city to do some shopping I take out what cash I think I may need and pay cash everywhere so they don't know what I spend my money on. Especially when I go to the hydro shop. lol
