Growing in a rental

[fishheadbob]

I've seen way too many threads over the years started by people unintentionally preparing to burn themselves to the ground. Seems people expect a rental house or apartment to come with enough electricity to run a welding shop, but rentals don't come that way. If you are living there and planning on anything over maybe a 600 watt grow, you're going to need more than that 15 amp circuit that's in your room now. Not just the lights, but pumps, exhaust, and everything that's also on that circuit are going to put a strain on your electric system.

If you're a commercial grower renting a grow house, different story. You likely have experience as well as most of the power in the house not being used for much else. My concern is someone utilizing the spare bedroom, basement, or whatever.

It's not that easy to add a heavier circuit. Your panel box has to have the capacity, and more and heavier wiring is going to need to be pulled to that location. If you have the ability to do it fine, you're halfway there, but as a frequent reader and occassional contributor here, most people asking for help really need a lot of it. Some people will get it right the first time, a lot won't and should not try. If you're lucky enough to find a discreet electrician who buys your story that you're really putting in a server farm or woodworking shop, realize it's not cheap to do this the right way. If you need to upgrade your service most municipalities in the civilized world require inspections for that sort of work; your power company won't do their end without it.

You also need a very absentee landlord who is NEVER coming around to inspect the property, arrange for any repairs when the plumbing or roof lets go, and isn't going to sell for a long while.

If you have all of this, wonderful. Even if you do have it all, spend 10 bucks for 2 smoke detectors anyway. If you don't have it all, there's always the great outdoors.

 

[bdomina]

like it or not this guy is right. along the lines of measure twice cut once. always know what your doing or you shouldnt be doing it.

 

[Danks2005]

If I were going to rent a house to grow in. I would mount a sub panel and all my electrical receptacles and controls onto a piece of plywood. Of course I would wire it to meet my load. I would wire the sub panel feeds to a whip of SO cable to a good large ampacity plug twist lock or somethin like it. Then all you need to do is add one double pole breaker and receptacle to the house. Or forget the plug and recep, just wire it to whatever breaker you need for the main panel, turn off main, snap it in, turn main back on and your done. You can do a lot of damage on a 50-60A subpanel, when you bring 240v and 120v and run a/c lights 220v everything else 120v. If you can wire everything correctly to meet your loads, this could be very easy setup dismantle with no damage to house.

 

[Strainhunter]

......

You also need a very absentee landlord who is NEVER coming around to inspect the property, arrange for any repairs when the plumbing or roof lets go, and isn't going to sell for a long while.

........

The above and never re-finances, has his Mortgage modified or puts a lien on the property such as a Home Equity line.

All usually require inspections to justify/determine the value of the home.

There is NO WAY there should be an (illegal) grow on a rental property unless it is just a couple plants and even doing that carries an inherent risk for surprise visits.

 

[Lazyman]

Yeah I did an 8K grow in a rental and my key design element was "can I break this all down myself in 24 hours with no help, and make it look like a regular building again?" The answer was yes, in fact it only took about 8 hrs of work to break it down and another couple to hide everything.

If you're always ready, you never have to get ready!

 

[Danks2005]

That is the key, make sure you get your 24h notice before visits, and be able to break everything down quickly. I think you should have a good knowledge of building in general so that YOU can handle any emergencies that come up (plumbing, elect, roof leak ect). If landlord comes unanounced tell him you are very busy, and need the 24hours given by law, and that you would be more than happy to accomidate him tommorow, and be very polite, then get your ass in gear and start moving. I would prolly be paranoid and spend the vast majority of time there so they couldn't come on in unannounced, I think changing the locks is suspicious, and would prolly piss em off.

 

[Strainhunter]

That is the key, make sure you get your 24h notice before visits,

.......

It's NOT the key, there ARE occurrences (depending on on the state you live in) where there is NO 24hr notice necessary...

Unless it is either a legal or a small grow you generally ARE taking chances growing on a rental property.

 

[mjr99]

A couple things. First the power issue. This guy make it sound like even if you dont overload the individual circuits you still shouldnt run more then 3-4k watts at a time on a regular residential panel. I mean, in theory couldnt i power every single circuit in my house all at once at 75% and still be good?


As far as growing in a rental...

The key is changing the keys actually. No one should ever have access to your grow show but you or your girl i guess. You also have to get a feel for your landlords pop in tendencies. Its probably not a good idea to setup your grow the day you move in. Wait a couple months and see how often he comes by. You should use tents too so like the guy above said youll be able to take everything down in a few hours. As far as picking a place try and find a house thats been available for a while or keeps getting vacated so the owners have less incentive to "look" for things you're doing wrong.

I borrowed a subway work shirt from my buddy who works there and i keep it by the front door 24/7. My plan is if they come by and want to visit ill throw that bitch on and say very politely that im late for work and ask if they could come back tomorrow.

 

[Danks2005]

I'm sure you would want to find a landlord that just wants his money on time every month, and no come fix this calls. As for the 24 hour notice, unfortunately it is not garunteed, and growing in a rental is prolly more risky than growing somewhere you own. But if you do get caught they cant take the house from you.

I would answer the door naked w/ a small towel, and tell em I am about to bang some bitch on the living room couch, tell him you got candles, rosepetals the whole nine, and now ain't a good time, please come back tomorrow. haha. I mean come on, what guy is mean enough cock block like that, not many.

 

[flyer]

every house has different wattage available, you may want to check yours and see what yours are capable of handling..
you may also want to see what kind of wires yours are, watts, volts, amp, etc


you should always not be at home anyways.. neighbors might always see you at home and wonder why you never leave the house, especially old nosy neighbors

 

[IamAdirtyGirl]

I would answer the door naked w/ a small towel, and tell em I am about to bang some bitch on the living room couch, tell him you got candles, rosepetals the whole nine, and now ain't a good time, please come back tomorrow. haha. I mean come on, what guy is mean enough cock block like that, not many.

You do this any you might end up with a pervert looking in every window for a peep show of a good bang!

 

[reckon]

my studio apt has a RIDICULOUSLY large built in wall mounted A/C unit,...and THREE (yes count em) separate 15A lines,...the breaker panel is a 20A

so I run a 1K

best thing is, there are 11 units, and ONE power meter for the entire building, and all the utils are included with the rent.

people ask me from time to time,......"why do you live in that POS studio by the freeway"?

 

[foolish fool]

If you're always ready, you never have to get ready!

that's what's up

 

[thatguy]

I gotta agree with the author.

One of my less intelligent friends added a 1K to his 800W in a 1 bdrm apt.

Called me like 3 days later asking why his breaker kept tripping. Turns out he had 2 computers and monitors (used quite frequently), a 52" TV, the 800W, a 6" fan, basically his entire bedroom and living rooms, and now the 1K all on the same circuit... And a 15 amp nonetheless!

I told him he was damn lucky he never had any problems in the past! He ended up having to drill a hole in his living room wall into his bedroom so he could use extension cords from his dedicated AC circuit in the living room ( I made sure and had him get the 15 amp rated cords) for the 2 400's and the vent fan.

So yeah, be careful when adding lights in an apt especially! A lot of apts only have 100 amp service, that's not much extra...

And when you can, adding circuits is definitely the way to go. I added 2 20 amp single outlet circuits in my last growroom, that room still has 75 amps of juice in it! No problems ever with an 8K btu AC, 1800W in flower, and another 500W in veg.

As far as landlords go, alcoholics are great. As long as you have the money for them, they're too damn drunk to give a shit what you're doing to the place

All the best,
TG

 

[Strainhunter]

......

As far as landlords go, alcoholics are great. As long as you have the money for them, they're too damn drunk to give a shit what you're doing to the place

.......

...........

 

[guest2012y]

Rentals are mental. Done ton's of them,every bad trip you could imagine, as well as the greatest successes as well. I always get into the main panel and wire out a sub panel that can handle around 6 or 7k. Always do 220/240 circuts. Never overload anything,and it all runs cool.

 

[grow nerd]

I love blowing up rental homes.

But warehouses are also fun.

So are basements in commercial buildings.

Backyard sheds can be fun too.

Oh yeah!

Like others have said, my style would also be to put a subpanel at the other end and go from there.

 

[Diiirty]

interesting, I agree with most of this stuff. I grow in a rental but i keep it relatively small. I have a friend that was growing in a rental, the dude changed his locks and had cops at his door in 24hours. The police didnt search his apt but he threw it all in the trash :S Ive got another buddy with approx 6ks that runs pretty damn smoothly but every few months youl be playing video games or watching some video and booom shut down power outage. The guy runs to the fuse box and its back and running in under 5 minutes.
in my experience as long as it doesnt smell and you pay your rent on time the landlord wont be a problem. then again i only have experience with drunks/addicts and 70+ers