How to hide it from the electric company

[Concept]

How do people go about hiding the huge amounts of electricity being used. I've been looking into alternative power sources but I'm unsure on the practicality of these. I'd like to hear some of your stories on how you guys have worked around the typical power source.

I'm looking to expand but I think my electric company would probably think hmmmmm why the hell does their power consumption go from minimal to over 6000w every day for 18 hours.

 

[JJ Bones]

You can't really. Depending where you live, they may not bother you as long as your bill is getting paid.

You can consider solar power for your home, which will save you tons of money in the long run.

 

[Jimmycricket]

The electric company WANTS you to use a lot of electricity. As long as you pay the bill they are happy.

Also electric meters are not setup to record when you use the electricity they record how much you used in the month.

All they see is how much you used. Not the hours it was used.

People that get caught growing are people who steal electricity from a neighbor or directly from the power lines. Or because of smells and strange lights.

The electric companies have a legal obligation NOT to give out customers information without a warrant. They do not want to give out such info and do not give out such info. Unless legally obligated, or they have an employee who has gone rogue.

 

[Alkhemist]

if you know someone with the know how, like i have done in the past.. a QUALIFIED technician who smokes OR is willing to do it for you, who can come in and bypass the meter for any room you choose.. i have done it myself BUT that was because i was shown how to run power directly to your grow room/space by running a bypass wire through the back of the mains.. again, i reiterate- ONLY through a qualified electrician. there MAY be some grower or supporter in your area who may know an electrician who can do this for you, otherwise there are many varied alternative sources of power you can experiment with.. from solar panels(can be expensive to purchase and set up PLUS you may need a SHITLOAD of them for the wattage that you want to run) to wind turbines for domestic use.. ive seen alluminium peltin wheels used in rural areas that have easy access to a running water source and are very effective. you can also, if you are really concerned about it, run extension cords from different rooms into your grow space so that it may appear that power is being used in different rooms etc, although this can be slightly cumbersome to have so many cords running here and there. generators can be good in semi-rural or rural areas.. or buried and covered with ply and dirt to minimize noise

 

[JJ Bones]

The electric company WANTS you to use a lot of electricity. As long as you pay the bill they are happy.

Also electric meters are not setup to record when you use the electricity they record how much you used in the month.

All they see is how much you used. Not the hours it was used.

People that get caught growing are people who steal electricity from a neighbor or directly from the power lines. Or because of smells and strange lights.

The electric companies have a legal obligation NOT to give out customers information without a warrant. They do not want to give out such info and do not give out such info. Unless legally obligated, or they have an employee who has gone rogue.

Keep in mind, if you live in California, they DO know what hours your electricity spikes. PG&E Smart Meters are new technology they have already put on most homes, new and old. It gives them the ability to see electricity usage, not only monthly, but by the hour as well.

 

[OG1969]

Yep the smart meter knows was just looking at mine hour by hour and day by day. I just try and conserve elsewhere, cfl's throughout the house, kill any ghost power. And try and keep the consumption level pretty much .

 

[Jimmycricket]

Also you guys gotta keep in mind that there are plenty of people out there with high electricity bills that arnt growing plants. For instance my house running 450 watts of lights 24/7 plus running a/c almost 24/7 too has only been like 90-110 a month.

110 is not a huge electricity bill where people would go "OH I wonder what hes doing in there" plus most of that bill is just a/c which I wont have but in the summer.

I know people who are just super wasteful who arnt growing stuff whos electricity bill is 2 or 3 times my amount. They leave lights on, leave tvs on, and are just very careless with their electricity usage.

But hey if you are setting up 6000w of hps lights like you said and you need something to help you sleep better at night get some wind turbines or solar panels.

I personally wouldnt give a fuck if I had 6000watts of lights going as long as I just paid my bill.

 

[JJ Bones]

Everyones energy company is most likely different here and there.

PG&E has tiered systems for charging you. It's really like a growers tax, IMO.

You'll be charged different prices per kilowatt hour depending on how much energy you consume, compared to your neighborhood.

So the key is, to move into a neighborhood that would have high energy consumption anyway, then you can have high energy usage however lower bills, legally. Always keep it legal, the grows most commonly busted are ones that are using energy illegally; don't break laws on top of laws.

For me, I screwed up, my energy consumption is way higher then my neighbors is. So 2 - 1000w + an A/C was about $600 per month

 

[Jimmycricket]

Yeah where I am I get a lot of water alocated and also I guess a lot of power too.

I got a lot of families in the neighborhood. So they still probably use more electricity then lil ol me does.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Take a look at gal lantern routine (GLR) and diminshing light routine (DLR) for lower electricity use...



How to reduce the cost of growing cannabis saving 30-50% on your electricty bill using the 12-1 lighting schedule.

The biggest innovator in the history of cannabis in my generation is Reinhard Delp. Not only did he invent and is the holder of the patent for ice water extraction, he has been building flower forcers since 1992. His new solar powered Sun-gate is the leader of the industry. He was the first to feminize seeds and sell them in Europe in the late 90’s. His process was done naturally, without the use of any chemicals.

save energy cannabis cultivationNo one is more copied but seldom matched than Mr. Delp, who to me is the top grower of our generation. The first time he impressed me he showed me 2 plants, planted next to one another, 1 completely covered in powdery mildew, the other completely clean and beautiful. He was developing mildew and mold resistant genetics.

In the late 90’s Reinhard brought back the gas lantern routine that you find in any college grade horticulture book, and applied it to cannabis. Cannabis needs only 13 hours to stay in the vegetative growth stage. The 18-6 lighting schedule in vegetation, actually stress your plants, that never get that much light in one-day outdoors. Cannabis is an outdoor plant. Growing indoors you should copy how it grows outdoors. No Cannabis growing in Afghanistan gets 18 hours of light in growth pattern. Most strains today have some part Indica in their genetic pool. Even equatorial strains don’t get 18 hours of sun a day.

The 12-1 lighting schedule is as follows 12 hours lights on, 5.5 lights off, 1-hour lights on, 5.5 lights off, and repeat schedule. The 1 hour on in between off period fools the plants that stay in vegetative growth state! Your immediate savings are 5 hours in energy costs daily, as well as your bulbs and equipment lasting longer. But how do the plants react to this lighting schedule?

You see immediate growth response from your plants, they are happy from the added rest time. By day 14 the plants tripled in size. The plants are bushy with twice as many bud sites without topping or bending, In fact when you top and stretch your plants out, you get many more bud sites than you would have had under 18-6 using same procedure of topping and stretching plant, your growing bigger and better and faster.

12 - 1 light cycle gas lantern routine

So your saving 5 hours daily in energy costs, as well as your excellerated growth pattern which also saves you time and energy and equipment use.

In the flowering stage, never use 12-12, start your flowering period at 11 hours on 13 hours off. When your are growing outdoors each day you get less and less sun light, you should copy the way the sun acts naturally in your indoor grow. So first 2 weeks of flower you go 11 on 13 off, the next 2 weeks you go down to 10.5 on 13.5 off, next 2 weeks 10 on 14 off, next two weeks 9.5 on 14.5 off and the last weeks of flower you should be at 9 hours on and 15 hours off. You’ll get bigger and better buds by copying the way the sun light works on cannabis outdoors.

Cannabis is an outdoor plant and you should copy the way it grows outdoors indoors. The only thing that 18-6, and then 12-12 lighting schedule's do is make the energy companies rich as well as the people who sell lights and equipment, the more you use the more you spend. 12-1 lighting schedule is a more natural way to grow indoors and you well have the best results you have ever had and save as much as 50% in energy costs.

 

[Jimmycricket]

Mr Duck I was hoping you could bring some insight into a few lighting phenomenon which I and many others outdoors have noticed.

Some people get flowering starting with as much as 14 or 15 hours of daylight. Even myself a few strains started at 13-14. So growers outdoors are already 4 or 5 weeks into flower yet we are still not at 12 hours of light 12 hours of dark. Is it because a hour or two usually both at sunset and sunrise are not direct light and blocked by small hills or mountains?

Personally I can attest that I live in a very flat plains like area that has no hills or mountains to block the sun. It is getting bright at around 6:10 am and not dark till around 7:45. Basically 13.5 hours total of light. Yet everything is starting to flower and one strain has been flowering for almost 2 weeks.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Mr Duck I was hoping you could bring some insight into a few lighting phenomenon which I and many others outdoors have noticed.

Some people get flowering starting with as much as 14 or 15 hours of daylight. Even myself a few strains started at 13-14. So growers outdoors are already 4 or 5 weeks into flower yet we are still not at 12 hours of light 12 hours of dark. Is it because a hour or two usually both at sunset and sunrise are not direct light and blocked by small hills or mountains?

Personally I can attest that I live in a very flat plains like area that has no hills or mountains to block the sun. It is getting bright at around 6:10 am and not dark till around 7:45. Basically 13.5 hours total of light. Yet everything is starting to flower and one strain has been flowering for almost 2 weeks.

Thats an interesting question which i may not be able to answer correctly as their is a fair amount of enviromental conditions / strain hybrids charactistics which could possible alter the flowering cycle...


When the day length decreases to about 12 or 13 hours per day, flowering will start. For outdoor and greenhouse plants, this usually starts some time in September but can be earlier in some modern hybrid strains.

Could relate to dominance of sative/indica traits of strain also.

Flowering is induced when the level of a particular hormone reaches a critical point. This hormone is produced during the dark period (night) and destroyed by light during the day.


It could be a combination of factors which has caused the early flowering from over shadowing landscape features possible promoting a longer night time period ? to enviromental conditions like weather/temps effecting plant hormones leading to an early flowering period & whether the plant/strain is a hybrid... passed down genetics of parent plants of multiple strains to create present strain grown etc


Its not uncommon that enviromental conditions such as weather/temps can alter delay/progress flowering/fruiting of many plants & possible modern hybrid strains of MJ may effect what we know as 12/12 cycle when grown out doors - possible exceptions for indoors also !

 

[addi]

Guys, I used to work for British gas and they were constantly reporting people.

We could see when there was a great voltage draw this is caused by the igniters for discharge lamps used a surge to ignite the bulb which we can see, when the bulb is first ignited, its only when they reach full brightness this then drops its a very unique power draw.

Only fair sized scale operations were reported the best way to hide it is use Tesla modules to charge and discharge the electricity, you can even charge Tesla modules at charging stations if you want to be super under the radar but no electrical company will report high usage its only if they see a correlation at certain times of the day lights on / off, this way we are unable to see the surge, dont tell them I told you guys though.

 

[BedroomFarmer]

Rooftop solar panels

 

[Southerncough]

Buy a welder? No sir, just out here welding with my welder! LMAO

 

[Southerncough]

Guys, I used to work for British gas and they were constantly reporting people.

We could see when there was a great voltage draw this is caused by the igniters for discharge lamps used a surge to ignite the bulb which we can see, when the bulb is first ignited, its only when they reach full brightness this then drops its a very unique power draw.

Only fair sized scale operations were reported the best way to hide it is use Tesla modules to charge and discharge the electricity, you can even charge Tesla modules at charging stations if you want to be super under the radar but no electrical company will report high usage its only if they see a correlation at certain times of the day lights on / off, this way we are unable to see the surge, dont tell them I told you guys though.

Soo... do LEDs make this surge?
Of not, another advantage of LEDS!

 

[Marzbadrock]

Eliminate a big veg room. Learn to clone a bunch and run SOG. Use quantum board for flower.
Try not to run your grow during peak hours to.

 

[Billpopy79]

Bought an electric car, I charge it at work but told my energy provider I'd be charging at home.

 

[addi]

Soo... do LEDs make this surge?
Of not, another advantage of LEDS!

No they dont but they have transformers which we could also tell the draw from they are unique again but not as unique as discharge lamps, Theres nothing like a discharge lamps draw or hps / CMH / Metal halide bulb as you call them, people even use LEDs and transformers for downlighting in their homes but not quite as powerful as the ones to grow with, we could even tell when people open their fridge. Invasion of privacy I know!

Regarding the electric car, the only way is to charge and discharge directly from the car battery. But you will only get a max of 6kw output from the car battery and the units to discharge cost over £3000, you are better buying Tesla or Nissan leaf modules connecting them to a charger and inverter.

 

[GooseGenetics]

The electric company WANTS you to use a lot of electricity. As long as you pay the bill they are happy.

Also electric meters are not setup to record when you use the electricity they record how much you used in the month.

All they see is how much you used. Not the hours it was used.

People that get caught growing are people who steal electricity from a neighbor or directly from the power lines. Or because of smells and strange lights.

The electric companies have a legal obligation NOT to give out customers information without a warrant. They do not want to give out such info and do not give out such info. Unless legally obligated, or they have an employee who has gone rogue.

I don't know for sure how this works country wise but there was a huge farm in Sweden Gothenburg area that got busted due to their unusually high electricity consumption and it was notified to the police and they paid the bills. I read that they even used diesel generators to hide it more but got caught in the long run. They raided the place after stake out. I think that high consumption overtime will definitely raise eyebrows but that is the risk of the game if that is the game you wanna play you know. But that grow was huge so I doubt small grows will raise suspicion.