masking electric consumption, any ideas?

[dankaholic]

is there a good way to fool the meter guy? what other reason could there be to be runniing (like in my situation) 2200w 12hs/day pluss fans and floros (5 double shop lights) in a 2 bed 1 bath house? my bill is $230 a month in the winter and i have gas heat,stove etc. Is This an issue if you have no traffic or neighbors to raise susspission? I dont feel worried about it but thought id ask what you guys think. Peace

 

[dankaholic]

i mean is the meter guy really a threat?

 

[drymouth]

Tell him your into exotic salt water reefs, clams, and breeding? Salt water tanks, exotic ones at that take up a lot of energy, "not to mention water" with pumps,wave makers, moon simulators,Mh lighting some clams and shallow water corals need hid lighting to thrive! So imagine if you had 3 or 4 125 gallon tanks! Thats a lot of juice! Just hope he's not into it as well!

 

[SweetNightmare]

Just pay the bill... they won't ask... for all they know you are a computer geek or something... they really don't care... how many people have to pay their bill?

 

[Chomas]

Be stealthy, pay your bills on time and you will have NO ISSUES WHATSOEVER. If you are skimping on your carbon filter, you have only yourself to blame.

 

[little-soldier]

if someone asks you can tell them that you are running multiple servers at your house. also I remember reading about video cards sucking 400watts and that was a while ago. maybe now they make one that uses over 400 but anyways just make up a good story IF someone asks but IMHO if you pay your bills on time and you follow the rule of thumb 1000watt per room your ass is and will be fine.
another question comes to mind though, what if I can only run 4000watt but I do a flip flop this way instead of using 4000watt 12 hours a day I run 4000watt 24 hours a day, will it still be safe?
sorry for hyjacking your thread dankaholic but its something Ive been wondering for a while now.
grow safe

 

[00420]

just pay the bill.....

BTW can i see your saltwater reeftank? you must have 10 grand into it.... i lov fish

i had a 800-2k bill in a 2 bedroom house for 5+ yr's....

 

[NiteTiger]

If someone asks, just go on with the conversation like he didn't say anything. "What are you using all that power for?"
"How much does a meter reader make? I was thinking about applying"

Just because someone asks you a question, doesn't mean you have to answer it.

Also, the wattage you're talking about is squat for a 2 bedroom. Be stealth, pay your bill, and wave to the meter reader.

 

[cktRAVEl]

....

 

[bingobango]

hi dude,i used to live in two bed flat over a shop and had a 1000watt lamp with all fixtures and fittings.Was there for 3 years and never got asked anything by power company,like peeps before had said iff you pay your bill you can use as much as you like,well i did and never even got visited from the power company

 

[fred_light]

I buildt a server room :9 Works fine. Even had some friends over that don't know I grow and had them inside the room when the lights where off, and the tent shut. Said: "Inside that box there are servers. They don't like dust in the air..."

- Hook
- Sink

Peace

 

[Deft]

Yea, excuses are sketchy IMO. Don't say anything and maybe use less power around the house otherwise (CFLs etc) for the first few readings and ease into it if your worried.

 

[ogatec]

if someone comes asking anything shut down & move...it wont be the meterman asking the questions tho..

 

[JohnnyToke]

is there a good way to fool the meter guy? what other reason could there be to be runniing (like in my situation) 2200w 12hs/day pluss fans and floros (5 double shop lights) in a 2 bed 1 bath house? my bill is $230 a month in the winter and i have gas heat,stove etc. Is This an issue if you have no traffic or neighbors to raise susspission? I dont feel worried about it but thought id ask what you guys think. Peace

$230 a month in the winter is not a red flag. $2300 in the winter in a 2 bedroom house could be a red flag and only then if you are late paying the bill.

remember, computers issue your bills and post payments. Humans only get involved when bills are delinquent or power on the grid comes up missing and they go looking for it.

pay on time and there are no issues.

JT

 

[ourcee]

seriously the bill could literally be 10x yours and... as long as you pay it on time you could go for years.

I've had a 900+ bill for months in a 2 bdrm duplex.

My only concern would be the meter reader seeing a spinning top. not the actual number of wattage consumed.

 

[geopolitical]

I agree completely with the above. If you pay on time and don't run around nude on the lawn covered in fan leaves you're generally fine. You REALLY have to stand out in an insane way on a hydro bill for it to be anything to be concerned about.

 

[Deft]

run around nude on the lawn covered in fan leaves

I gotta try that, sounds exhilarating!

 

[gdawg]

i used to worry bout the spinning top too but nowadays most readers dont even have to get out of the truck. i had a 400$ bill in a small 2 bedroom for a year and no problems. pay your bill and there will never be a question.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

The meter guy may not even know what you used. Knowing your monthly useage would require him to know your last months read as well.

I used to read water meters 15ish years ago. We had a hand held computer that we punched our read into. If we couldnt read the meter (alot of meters were in the ground, dirt scratched the glass, etc) we could pull up the last months read and try to figure it out.

Well guess what? Some dudes decided to read the whole route while sitting in IHOP all day. The machine tells you which house to go to in a specific order. So they would just pull the previous months read and base the read off that.

Guess what? Once they got caught, we no longer had the previous months read.


I cant see any reason why the meter reader would have your pevious usage in his device.


I wouldnt sweat it. At least digitals dont have a spinning top

 

[hehateme19]

Yeah Im not sure where everyone lives.....but even where I live they switched the meters to some radio frequency reading. All they do is drive around the area and it automatically reads. It was a bitch when they had to come put a new meter on the water though (Had to move EVERYTHING temporarily) but that was a while ago.

Just remember to always pay your bill on time.

Out here my heater and water heater are gas, so if they shut me off someone has to come inside the house to "relight" the water heater, guess they dont trust the dumb public (good idea) So just make sure you pay.

Also if your super worried and have the ability build it a little slower, 2k here 2k there.

oh yeah 1 more note I had a 150 gallon saltwater (coral reef) fishtank (had 2 250 hps on top of it) before I started this, and with all the water pumps, night lighting, scrubber , etc, etc, etc my electric bill was about $40 less a month than now with 2200 watts Hps lights + (1) 4ft T5 8bulb setup, exhaust fans, light mover, ez cloner, etc, etc. So fishtank is a good reasoning.......But no one should ever ask....If they are asking I think it is too late.

And now Ive gone to hydro so it will be a little more. I just stepped it up slowly ya know.... Im gonna get an a/c and another 600watt hps before the summer. I felt safer stepping it up slowly since I live here.

If the power company ever starts passing out thank you's to people around here who use the most energy I bet I would still be way down on the list. Familys with 3 kids use more than I do......

Ok Im done..............

This is it......
Remember to always conserve your other electic whenever possible. Buy Cfls, turn off the lights, only run 1 tv at a time, and oh yeah TURN OFF UNEEDED LIGHTS (reoeated on purpose)