Indoor growings, "Power usage". Myth or Real?

I've been thinking of starting a mini grow, like a cab or dresser. Maybe 3-5 at the minimum and probably 10-12 max plants.

Anyway, I heard of this alot. Could you get caught growing just because of how much power you use?

well theres only a few ways this happens. one is you steal power and get caught. another way is to have a 1000 + electric bill and they send a guy to do an audit and find your house. if your growing for personal your not really using enough electric to spike it up that high unless your using your whole house to grow and have dozens of lights. one or two descent lights wont effect your bill enough to notice. your whole house is a grow house then you can get caught from a tremendous spike. if your nervous about it go to walmart or home deopot or lowes and get cfls. hardly any heat and energy saver bulbs. plus if you growing stealth in a cab or dresser cfls are better for controlling the temps

Unless you are going to give those 10-12 plants some crazy 5000 wattage HPS or something else crazy stuff like that - don't worry about it and make sure to pay the bill.
If you use like a 600 watt hps or 1000 watts hps you will not be using enough to make anything unusual to the electrical company or anything like that. Take a look at your coffee machine, electrical heater, Flat screen tv, air condition. They all consume power similar to a single lamp like that so don't worry buddy and happy growing. Will be looking forward to seeing pics from your cabinet ;O))

Oh alright! Thanks! That makes me not so nervous anymore.

Also, anyone heard something about power companies monitoring power usage in canada?
I saw an article a long time ago but i can't seem to find it.

Don't worry about it. It's waaay to little power usage to give any reason to think you'd be growing weed. You could might as well have an aquarium heater on for 12 hours a day.

Ooh haha, Aquarium heater..I like that example. I understand it better now.
Thanks man! [[=!

No problem buddy. Relax and grow ;O)

i dont know where in canada but if you're on BC hydro, you gotta watch those guys, notorious for overbilling when they can't send somone to check the meters. thats about all u gota worry about other than payin on time

You mean Smart Meters? I have time of use billing, so there is a different rate charged for certain times of the day. This means they can see that X hour spike in consumption everyday. I don't think they can bust you on that alone, the cops need a reason to check your bill and hydro can't give them your records. As long as you pay your bill I doubt it'd be an issue due to privacy laws.

Keep it small and you won't have any issues..
Just remember rule #1

Tell no one you are growing.

Not friends
Not relatives
No One.



& good luck with your grow

Thanks Methias. I agree on that.
I'm just planning on a cabinet grow so that probably counts as a small grow right.

Anyways, how many plants would count as a small grow. Dwarf grows like lowryder, maybe 15 max?