I've just recently heard about smart meters. The power company switches it with your old meter and then they can get your hours of usage and whatever other info remotely from the power company. Anybody have these on their house? Heard of any plans to install them in your area? Know of any ways to trick the meter?
We have them here in California. There is probably some way to mess with them, but I don't know how, unless you tap into the powerl line before it goes into the meter. And yes, they can get an hour-by-hour of our power usage.
Their starting to install them in my area if you don't want them you need to write the gas & elec co. & tell them plus you have to pay a fine $50 & so much more a month like $20 . Plus the elec co. act like they don't get your letter.-Bud P.S. It's just like Obama care don't get the meter & you get taxed (fined) LOL
I have one on my house. They came and installed it last year sometime. So far as I can tell, the elec co still doesn't give a shit about your power usage as long as you pay the bill. y bill is regularly over $1k a month and as long as I pay, I have never been bothered. Plus I never really have to worry about a meter reader somehow smelling my grow or something and reports it. I am a legal MMJ patient and collective grower though so that does help to lend some peace of mind. I'm going to be looking into some solar panels and batteries with an inverter to possibly augment my power consumption and lower my bill some. I can run most of the grow off of the solar panels and just run my A/C off of the grid power. On top of it I think I can get a credit or discount from the power company for going green. asssit:
I run 7 1k watt lights plus about 600 watts of fluoros, and an 18.5k BTU A/C plus my normal home power consumption. PLus I live in a hot region, so my A/C is on a lot. asssit:
My electric bill got up to 300$ for my shop/grow space last summer when I was running a portable a/c in addition to my two tents. Haven't run it so far this year and bill is about 175$ Alienbait, do you grow with a smart meter on your house? I'm curious about people growing even if they have a smart meter. Right now, my shop doesn't have one, but if they put one on there I will stop my indoor grow. asssit:
Why all the worry? Haven't we determined it has no baring on us? It is just reporting power ussage like a regular meter just more accurate.
Well, since it's broken down by hour they can see the 18/6 or 12/12 cycles of power usage. Maybe in the states a small time grower needn't worry too much, but I would definitely shut down shop in Japan here.
To be honest, I haven't had a grow in a couple of years. Still smoking the stuff I grew 2 years ago. The meter went in about the time I finished that one up. I don't think I would worry about my little 600 watt grows. If they aren't bothering Ras, then I should be o.k. Now, Japan is a different. I have no idea how they would react.
Dont get me wrong, I understand the risk you are taking. With that said power consumption based on a cycle is easily explainable. Reef tanks use some pretty serious firepower depending on tank size and kind of corals being kept...AC unit on a timer....etc, etc. Again I do however understand the concern and dont blame you at all. I have a smart meter on my house and Im growing. Of course Im a small time grower only using around 1000 watts of lighting. I dont worry about that because like I said it can easily be explained by other items. They arent going to kick my door down because of it. That is why I run 24 hour light cycle in my veg cabs and soon I plan to get a second 400W HPS and run two flower rooms. Gonna have one shut off and one come on at the same time....that way it will look like I am running 24 hrs still. :thumbs-up: Good luck Hank! -V420
Cheers Virago! I was just thinking about switching one of my tents around 12 hours to do that. Gonna have to throw in the a/c unit though and change a few things around. Maybe I'm feeling a little bit paranoid these days. :redbong:
