How much is too much?

[HUGE]

What is the maximum wattage you could safely draw on a 4 bedroom 2 story house before it gets to be a red flag. I know most time the power place don't care but at some point it becomes commercial scale and should be in like a warehouse where high power is more acceptable. 10k 15k 20k? Where does it become a problem for a residential grid?

 

[Sam the Caveman]

If your only concern is high electricity usage, i wouldn't be too worried. A human never sets eyes on your bill unless your late or a new resident asks about previous usage.

I'd be more worried about plant counts, and keeping a low profile.

 

[mdk ktm]

It depends if you are going to live in the house or not. And if all of the appliances would be turned off. If I had a house that size, i would probably build 2 6kw bloom rooms on a flip flop. And then some 4" 8 bulb fluorescent fixtures for clones, maybe some HID if you have big mothers there....


And if you want to run the maximum your panel can run? Depends the size of the main breaker...

 

[Zen Master]

if you are thinking 20kW, why not just get a warehouse and some commercial electricity rates that would GREATLY reduce your cost?

 

[has_some_sinse]

we run 5400---9 x 600 and that perfectly covers 99 maxi pots, 3 rows of 33...3 600s inline and its actually on a light rail 5...each row has its own 6" x 24" carbonaire....no smell at all, even when I pretend I'm in the sound of music and I'm dancing around...my 99 girls are ghost, you cant even tell theyre there, 1 floor away. My electric bill is $400-$460 per month, but its always paid on time....and when u break it down, 1 whole zip per girl, every 2 months, $300 per plant wholesale. Forgot my 600 hid and 104 watts of CFL as a vegroom...yeah...all that, and stealth...usually you're biggest concerns are logistics like trash disposal, and drying a large amount at 1 time, if you force drying, quality always suffers...gotta contain that reek.

 

[has_some_sinse]

Yeah, I'm federal...most of the time, but we're taking action, I don't like surpassing that mark in my non med state. I got 99 problems but a minimum mandatory sentence ain't one.

 

[philcollins]

i have always heard the rule....1k per bedroom as a guideline, to stay safe....so, according to this rule, I'd go with 4k on a flip flop....making it 8k total flower...seems like u could pump out plenty with this settup...

 

[HUGE]

Not planning anything. Just wondering what the general cinsesus was as to how much is too much in a house that you ARE living in would be. Before it's smarter to move to a warehouse.

 

[HUGE]

if you are thinking 20kW, why not just get a warehouse and some commercial electricity rates that would GREATLY reduce your cost?

That's the question at what point dies this become a better idea?

 

[Zen Master]

if you dont give a shit about plant/weight count, get a warehouse and blow it up.

If you care about that kind of stuff, do a house and max IT out instead, like phil said, 4kW on a flip flop would get you nice yields and keep you plenty busy (unless you've got a crew).

if your question is basically, "at what kW is it beneficial to get commercial rates" it would vary from region to region. Where I am, I max out my baseline allowance before I even get to my grow lights, then its ~.20 cents a kWh. Pretty expensive if you're gonna be running >10 lights perpetually. So its personal preference regarding how much you are willing to pay for elec to keep it "hidden in the house" is up to you.

 

[HUGE]

if you dont give a shit about plant/weight count, get a warehouse and blow it up.

If you care about that kind of stuff, do a house and max IT out instead, like phil said, 4kW on a flip flop would get you nice yields and keep you plenty busy (unless you've got a crew).

if your question is basically, "at what kW is it beneficial to get commercial rates" it would vary from region to region. Where I am, I max out my baseline allowance before I even get to my grow lights, then its ~.20 cents a kWh. Pretty expensive if you're gonna be running >10 lights perpetually. So its personal preference regarding how much you are willing to pay for elec to keep it "hidden in the house" is up to you.

I'm more talking about the safety aspect. Like what is not a huge blinking red light. I saw 1k per bedroom. However I see people like crunch doing 10k 15k and laZyman. To me 15k+ the ac to cool it would melt the line from the pole to the house. But that's why I'm asking. At some point the power guys might consider it a safety hazard.

What it seems like is 8k at a time max. And if your living there it's risky.

 

[Zen Master]

a 3 bedroom house could easily run 8k without any melting/fire worries.

get a 240v dryer outlet that you can designate for grow only, cant use it if ya wanna do this.

then build a lighting controller (or buy one) and plug 4 1000w lights into it, then setup a flip/flop and do the same thing for the other room, set your timers right and you can run 4k flipflop off one 240v dryer outlet no worries, then plug your fans/carbon filter/etc into the room outlets and your set.

I ran 5k in a 2 bedroom duplex and could have gone further if I wanted to.

the physical safety aspects of electricity can be managed, if you are smart about it.

 

[statusquo]

i have always heard the rule....1k per bedroom as a guideline, to stay safe....so, according to this rule, I'd go with 4k on a flip flop....making it 8k total flower...seems like u could pump out plenty with this settup...

A rather silly rule imo...space heaters can go up to 1500 watts and computer power supplies can easily be 1000w+ now adays. Then there's huge variances in the amount of power people use on their appliances so that gives you a lot of leeway to use more watts. I would think that 10 would be doable, safely.

Not sure about high wattage grows with all the smart meters that are being installed - something to look into. I feel like 10K watts for exactly 12 hours in a residential house would raise some questions but I don't know how your electric company does things. And as an above poster said, as long as you are paying your bill on time they want you as a customer and to use as much power as possible haha.

 

[has_some_sinse]

I like to know that when I go to visit my girls they're still there. Offsite, every night is a crap shoot...risk can be reduced, never 100% eliminated but night watchman sometimes vanish....watch the docu "Green Rush"....dogs chase hotdogs and quickly lose the motivation to fight when you have nathans famous hotdogs and your willing to share! A .22 long rifle against their head quickly dispatches them with minimal flash & noise, or resistance, ...if you aren't there, you are risking something. It's sad that people will make every attempt to take the work you have done. Rippers wait til October 13th, they saw your tracks from checking on the 10th and they knew you were planning on waiting just 5 more days, they worked through the night, with cheap Russian night vision goggles, and your plants were hanging up somewhere else 24 hours before you got there that next morning...or if someone sees perlite around your house, I know that people who do not grow don't have errant perlite just floating around, they don't even know whats it called or how it is sourced, or its function, they thought it was styrofoam that came in the $1 per bag top soil from home depot....
Think Sniper vs. Counter-Sniper, you have to learn the 1st to be functional as the other. You have to think like that. I can walk into a room and see improvements easily made to maximize the potential, I see toxicity, cause I've done that and learned. I see deficiencies because I've had that, I had to fix that problem...mental notes taken, data analyzed, issue addressed.
People who know where you conduct operations and have intimate knowledge, of your schedule, security, ease of entry and exit, are more likely to cause the downfall than a random burglar or a cop hearing a buzzing or girl scream on the other side....97% it's that Brutus-like asshole, the last to stab, but the closest in the circle of trust. I know it's hard not to be proud of what we do, and you are dying to show your passion, like all those asshole people handing out pictures of the kid that you don't care about, they love them...you-not so much, but if could sell those lil' ugly children for $4000 per lb., you might think about kidnapping them...if you know you wont get caught.. This is not just the SSH talking...paranoia, no...but...for 1 day, just forget all your virtues, all the moral standards you were raised with and developed, what makes you a civil human, now you are ready to take from others, this is our enemies mind set, if you have nothing to lose, then risk doesn't matter. If a person is aching for meth and on the other side of that door, is that hit they need...and at this point, to them it is life and death, and only you or a padlock stand in the way. If you have nothing to lose, you are capable of anything.
If you have something worth keeping, you must do what it will take to retain it.

 

[odium33]

As much as the breaker will handle. who the fuck cares about power. as was said earlier. you are in a huge client list of numbers at the power company. there is not a spread sheet showing, "4 bedroom house, hot tub, no dryer - $1000 a mo" there are tons of reasons to have a high power bill, and you will not stand out in a list of other peoples houses

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I just did the math and a 200 amp residential service is only capable of safely running 30k at a time. That's with nothing else running.

I was going to say that the 40 light option was obsolete for a 200 amp service, but if you ran a flip flop, your capability doubles, so you could safely run 60kw.

 

[zenoonez]

60kw would be some amazing shit to see. Can't you have your service upgraded to accommodate even more? I mean if you were a madman and wanted to get caught....

 

[odium33]

60kw would be some amazing shit to see. Can't you have your service upgraded to accommodate even more? I mean if you were a madman and wanted to get caught....

cant fit much more than 60k in most decent sized houses. say 4 bedrooms, 4k each, a huge garage, 16k, and a huge basement, another 16k. thats 48k already. i guess if you really just went 400 amp service, you could do the living rooms, dining rooms, every available space.

 

[lvclosetgrower]

What is the maximum wattage you could safely draw on a 4 bedroom 2 story house before it gets to be a red flag. I know most time the power place don't care but at some point it becomes commercial scale and should be in like a warehouse where high power is more acceptable. 10k 15k 20k? Where does it become a problem for a residential grid?

I would say it depends on the state if u will get the "red flag" some more strict than others. I say far as residential in any given big city I woulnt go over 10K think about it you can do alot more than u think with 5-10k

 

[toohighmf]

I have run 16 hoods off 4 ballasts & 2 flip boxes for the last 2 years. With air cooling and AC I use less than 50 amps and I live there. My neighbor is running 18 hoods w 9 ballasts and a flip un cooled in a 3 bedroom house he lives in. Most houses have a 1-200 amp service. Use as little as you need to live, and run your power 24/7 so 12/12 isn't a factor.