How often does power bill get you caught?

Is it just a myth?
Do they do it EVERYWHERE?
Are they only looking for major irregularities? At the power company, does it show X amount of kW comes on at 10:00, then goes off at 10:00??

How does the getting caught due to power bill take place?

 

If youve got a stack of lights with a huge power drain then that could bring up red flags, but if your only using a 1000w or even two they couldnt distinguish that from other type of household appliances, ie Electric hotwater, Stove tops.


Im a bit naughty as a sparky because ive set up my house so i can stop the meter but still allow power through. Switch it off to heat the spa pool and such. I left it off accidentally one month and i got a power bill of 8 bucks. Really thought that would "red flag" me but didnt hear a thing.

 

oOO... Got a crash course in what you got to do to do that?

 

i know all about stoppin the meter, haha just pull it and put jumpers in, lol, good stuff, i'm not brave enough to do it cuz enough people around me are dealers and enough heat is around as it is, but as far as hydro company noticing it its more or less if ur stealing it, they'll notice the power factor going down in a neihborhood and look for the person stealing it, if u have a big hydro bill and you pay it, less likely for them to look for you, cuz i've worked for b.c. hydro so i know exactly what they look for, and if you have a big house and electric heat, its impossible to prove a few 1000 w fixtures, there only like 35.00 a month in hydro roughly with power prices varying. remember they make lights in almost the same sizes of baseboard heaters, cant prove any thing

 

Thanks guys. I just relocated for the third time in 2 years. I have ~300.00 us dollars in utility bill. That's water, electric, and ... uh, something else. My friend across the street only has 157.00. The neighbor next door has 240. My house is only SLIGHTLY bigger than the folks next door. I didn't know what would raise a red flag....... I run the cool at 69. Maybe I should bump it up to 73, that would probably help me look more "normal"

 

I'm not sure we have a reason to worry as much as in the past? Tell me what you all think about this... Talk of legalization, the new drug czar calling for an end to "the war on drugs", the economy in the dumps. I think it is starting to saturate into the minds of Americans that Mj needs some rethinking. It is a huge part of our culture. Tv, movies, music it's EVERYWHERE! You can walk into any convenience store and buy a pineapple flavored spliff, I mean come on!! I think if your growing a few plants and not selling or involving others you can stay safe. I went through my paranoia stage, doing commando rolls behind the couch every time I saw a white van, but now I figure if the state is going to drop the coin to bust in on me eating some ice cream with a few oz's to my name there not much I can do about it... I'm not saying I will be giving tours of my grow anytime soon but I would not sweat the electric bill as a problem. The one thing that will get you caught more than anything is your mouth!

 

loose lips sink ships

 

When I got my 1k hooked up a few years back, I went through the whole house and put in the lowest wattage cfl's I could comfortably get away with, and my electricity bill actually went down a few bucks.

 

If the law is on to you and they need a little more evidence for a search warrant. Then its a factor. Perhaps a high water bill as well.

 

The landlord pay's the electric and water. When I finally had the nerve to ask re: the bill, telling her that I tried to keep the (electric)heat down over the winter...she didn't 'bat-an-eye'!


Unless you have a HUGH bill, thereby causing them to 'feel it their duty' to report, they couldn't care less.


What would raise a red flag is an abnormally low bill. Ever notice(in the new's)how alot of dude's get busted because they were stealing power?! Tempting as it is; I'd be the stupid fuck who completely forgot and had several month's of no bill's! :roulette:

 

something i do cut the power bill on my hps grow lights is i get a ballast that has 240v tap off the ballast and run a 240v 15a circuit to my light and its cuts it down big time, think of ohms law, current equals voltage divided by resistance, and voltage is inverly proportional to amperage so if u increase the volts(240v) the amperage will go down, if u lower the voltage (120v) the amperage is greater than if u gave ur ballast 240 v, something to think about, helps a lot i notice a big difference

 

Don't Get Me Wrong


I'll probably try it at some point; just not here. I have too good 'a thing' going, to fuck it up!


I should have clarified, but I meant the guy's that go out, dig up the line, and tap into the house next door! Like the homeowner isn't going to notice/report!

 

Yeah wiz, turn the AC down a bit. That's proably the problem. Unless you have massive lights. I only have 2 400w but I don't notice more than a few dollars at most when they're running all the time. With the ac at 74 (all the AC can handle down here in the south), the TV, and computer running all the time my bill is only between 140-170 year round.

 

Shit my sister told me her electric bill was $3000.00 yea $ 3 grand & she doesn't grow she just has a big ranch . I about shit that's what I make in a month.

 

I wouldnt of thought this was correct because you get charged for kilowatt hours, not amperage. Doing the above doesnt change the kw you use.

 

Without doing the math, I would say just replacing all the bulbs in your house with CFL's and turning off lights when they are not needed should easily offset the cost of a 400-600 watt HPS running year round on 12/12.


It did for me. My bill didn't go up any noticable difference.

Unless you have one of those digital "smart" meters that actually log exactly when you use the power, the answer is no they can't log daily use. I have just a regular ol spinny meter and the power company only logs how much I use each billing cycle. The data is probably uploaded by the meter reader to a computer and a bill spits out. Most likely nobody is looking at anything unless the computer flags irregularities.

 

So with you guys replacing ALL the bulbs are you going totaly CFLs? And your seriously seeing a differance in the elec bill?

 

actually if ur saving on amperage ur saving on $ think about it, the single phase, induction, kilowatt hour meter uses an aluminum disk which is turned by the flux of the votage and current coils, the speed at which the disk rotates is proportional to the current and the voltage of the load, total energy supplied to the load is proportional to the number of disk revolutions, and if u hook up your ballasts 240v instead of 120v you will indeed save money on power, i have to keep up on my mind for work because i'm a forman on site so i answer all the electrical questions lol