Quote Originally Posted by FreeDaHerb
.it takes ALOT of juice to really raise eyebrows at the power company but household voltage spike signatures CAN be read as HID light igniting if they are loooking for that, i.e. a spike every 12 hours and then off for 12 hours..they know this is the flowering cycle of marijuana if LEO was watching you electrical consumption and could possibly in conjunction with other evidence get a warrant, but they would really have to be after you for all this to happen..The voltage spike signature is not an issue with digital ballasts which have instant/constant on regulated current and do not spike. These are the safest (and imo the only) ones to use if you are using HID lights.
It does take a lot of juice to raise eyebrows... That part is correct, voltage spikes can not be read as HID igniting. A voltage spike can be caused by a number of things and not limited to HID lighting. Furthermore a police officer cannot get a warrant on this a lone.

You would be more likely to have a helicopter scanning IR specifically over your house than you would have a cop investigating voltage spikes. To be clear helicopters are expensive to dispatch and would not be sent out for a guy growing 2 measley plants. Even if they did your heat signature would be kind of weak to where the IR they are seeing could be a number of things (I'm assuming you're running something small like 400 watts HID or less).

You're all scaring this poor guy with inaccurate information. Give him the full story of how likely what you're suggesting is at least.

Anyway; personally I wouldn't worry too much. If there is an issue it will get held up at customs (all board sponsors are in canada or europe) and if you get a notice saying it was held at customs then you just don't go pick it up. Nothing bad will happen to you.

edit: Just read your next post where you clarified the general rule of thumb etc etc.

It's also worth noting that the boxes on the poles you are describing only work if you have one of the new digital meters also attached to your house. Also the power companies are not out there hunting for people with voltage spikes. You would have to jump from low power usage to over 7-8000kwh a month to start to raise suspicion from the power company. Even then they would assume their meter is broken first rather than assume you're growing.