Cops & Power Companies

Just curious if any of you guys know about the deal where if your power usage increases by a certain percentage, the power company notifies the police to check you out.

I heard it was 3x the previous year's usage for that month. So you'd have to go from $30 - $90 or something like that. Even then, maybe the cops just roll by and look at your place. It's not like that's enough for a search warrant or anything.

I'm a bit spooked because my power usage is probably $50-$60 a month right now, and the 1000W HPS light will jump me (by itself) $60 a month, plus another $15 I imagine for fans and other lights.

So that's more than double, but honestly my air conditioner (if turned on) probably uses as much juice. For now I'm powering everything off in my apartment that isn't needed, and hopefully that will make the first month of new power requirements a bit easier to handle.

Anyone know anything about this?

Well, I've had my power bill go from $30 a month to almost $100, and no cops ever showed up... my bet would be the power company is just happy to be getting paid more.

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Originally Posted by darpin

Just curious if any of you guys know about the deal where if your power usage increases by a certain percentage, the power company notifies the police to check you out.

I heard it was 3x the previous year's usage for that month. So you'd have to go from $30 - $90 or something like that. Even then, maybe the cops just roll by and look at your place. It's not like that's enough for a search warrant or anything.

I'm a bit spooked because my power usage is probably $50-$60 a month right now, and the 1000W HPS light will jump me (by itself) $60 a month, plus another $15 I imagine for fans and other lights.

So that's more than double, but honestly my air conditioner (if turned on) probably uses as much juice. For now I'm powering everything off in my apartment that isn't needed, and hopefully that will make the first month of new power requirements a bit easier to handle.

Anyone know anything about this?

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Do you know if this is for All states? It shouldnt matter for me, cause I don't grow.

Here's a link of it happening in San Diego (out of state from me, but only a few hours drive):

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...7m26wrong.html

From what I've read online, it looks like every six month or so they gather a list of all the people who have insane power consumption, probably using a scale of what's different from your neighbors, and a marked increase from before for your particular account.

In that case they brought a drug dog by all the places the power company flagged. That's a tough one to get around; dogs are clever.

I remeber reading that 1000Watts used 18 hours a day raises it around $30 a month.Not exactly sure that that was the figure,but something around that.I recall a conversion chart for all wattages.And you have to keep in mind the light cycle you run.Find a knowledgable,trustworth electrician.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by darpin

Just curious if any of you guys know about the deal where if your power usage increases by a certain percentage, the power company notifies the police to check you out.

I heard it was 3x the previous year's usage for that month. So you'd have to go from $30 - $90 or something like that. Even then, maybe the cops just roll by and look at your place. It's not like that's enough for a search warrant or anything.

I'm a bit spooked because my power usage is probably $50-$60 a month right now, and the 1000W HPS light will jump me (by itself) $60 a month, plus another $15 I imagine for fans and other lights.

So that's more than double, but honestly my air conditioner (if turned on) probably uses as much juice. For now I'm powering everything off in my apartment that isn't needed, and hopefully that will make the first month of new power requirements a bit easier to handle.

Anyone know anything about this?

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they do.but it then goes into investagation.like power leaks .bad meters.bad lines.then they need to come in and check the lines.only no cuz i have friends on both sides of power and weed growing.if it is to outrages at perieds,.they do wonder.ppl have been cought before cuz of high power bills.that is why alot of us growers that do power grows do our time at non pk hrs,like 6 at night to six in morning

Just get a genorator to help with the power usage.... they have some real quiet ones these days....

Where would you get one of these genorators HYDRIZZLE

rule number one with power usage, and the power companies. do not steal power! i consistently run seven thousand watts at a time, bills average about six hundred dollars, and have never had a problem. keep your house kept up in appearance, and make sure you control your odor. also, it never hurts to have a real good relationship with your neighbors as well.:thumbsup:

Don't sweat an extra $30 or even extra $50 ... that's likely not even going to be noticed. ~$100 electric bills is common even for small dwellings.

If your bill goes up from like $50 to like $300, that may be noticed and acted upon ... but as redneck1 posted, they're primarily focused on theft not increased power usage alone unless it's way, way high causing excessive load on the transformer, etc.

Some growers get by with less lighting ... see if you can run your grow on 400W or so of lighting ... that may limit what you'd planned on, but may still be workable depending on your situation / needs.

Ron