WARNING: HEAT SCANS now standard! (NOT another FLIR post!)

[Strainhunter]

.


Had an innocent meeting with a MAJOR electricity provider I used to be involved with some time in the distant past.



The following is in FL...but he stated this practice is SPREADING country wide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



FFWD:

Dude says:
We now do mobile "heat scans".

I ask:
What are you talking about?

He says:
We now have infrared cams mounted in very "un-suspicious" locations.

Me:
Why "un-suspicios"?

Him:
So no one is warned.

Me:
Oh?

Him:
Yeah...like in the back of vans & truck beds.

Me:
What's the scoop?

Him:
If we get a hint (I asked...and he stated automated hints AND

) of unusual high usage (he did specify certain thresholds but which vary and are calculated based on square footage of the location in question, pool or not, AC or not, age of home etc.) we do "HEAT SCANS" of transformers in "the area" in question.

A transformer is the thing on top of the power pole right before the cable runs to your house or what ever other location you might be using legally or not, paying your bill or not.

That transformer basically has a coil and mineral oil in it tranforming high voltage down to a level the average consumer is able to use i.e. 110V and/or 220V.

Whether you are paying your bill or not...there's NO WAY you're gonna get around that transformer...unless your equipment is running between 2,300 & 2,400 Volts! (that's the juice the transformer is being fed...and for those who STILL don't get it...you CANNOT run your shit on anything else but 110V or 220V)

Or you have your own transformer. But no one does. Nor will.



Me:
Yeah so what does the heat scanning do?

Him:
Basically (and this is how he said it word by word) if a transformer "glows" red (hot) during a scan meanwhile all others stay blue (cold) that's an indicator for unusual high usage!

Me:
Well OK, what then?

Him:
Next we have trained personnel look @ the usage pattern and digital signature of what they got.

Me:
Yeah well...as long as they pay their bill...why would you guys care!?

Him:
C'mon....most try beating the system (theft) and even IF they pay their double+ bill (he said it differently using internal lingo)....they get a "knock & talk" visit (I did not ask by who).

So if you're running your 20...30...or 40AMP Jacuzzi and/or pool heater 12/12 or 18/6 AND are paying your bill...you'll get away with it.
But that's not what we are talking about here.


So y'all be warned....be careful out there! And that's not just in FL!!!!

 

[greenpinky]

Lol

 

[johnnybravo]

be careful out there:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scanning

 

[LumpStatus]

Knock and talk all they want...my power consumption is none of their business and until it becomes illegal to use high amounts of power they can kiss my ass! My fully paid bill pays their retirement. If they dont like it i would be perfectly happy paying the diesel delivery guys retirement to fill up a diesel tank! But pge doesnt want that now do they?

From what ive heard they ARE NOT bothering people who pay their bill but knocking on doors of folks stealing power and demanding access to see what they are doing. If you dont let them in the sheriff will. They take pics, calculate a bill and make you pay it.

 

[watts]

^ you're not in FLorida. You're in cali. Don't act hard girl scout.

 

[LiLWaynE]

yep.... there are so many ways they can find out if you are using tons of electricity, or producing lots of heat......

.....but there aren't so many ways for them to prove whether you are growing cactii, heirloom tomatoes, poppy pods, or cannabis....


.............THAT is the question that must be answered...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHmP_KtmcB4

 

[Guest 88950]

just another reason to be on your toes when growing in this police state.

but as LILWAYNE put it, how do they know what you are growing or why your electricity is high. it may not stop the pigs from doing things illegally but at least you have some ammo in court.

 

[Strainhunter]

....

but as LILWAYNE put it, how do they know what you are growing or why your electricity is high. it may not stop the pigs from doing things illegally but at least you have some ammo in court.

I mentioned that to him and asked how they would know.


He said with the smart meters they use they can see @ any given time if and when any electricity usage occurs (whether that be a toaster, TV etc. being turned on or your pool pump, stove, HID light etc).

So I replied they must be pretty busy checking on people with reef tanks (which use HID lights).

He said their "check ups" don't happen short term.
They do them over an extended period of time and they are automated. They are then reviewed by human eyes.


After all they might not know what you are growing indoors...but with a typical 12/12 or 18/6 pattern it is not rocket science to figure out it won't be tomatoes.


It's all fairly disturbing how it's being done.
And I can assure you if I were still in the business I certainly would not be doing it indoors, especially not in non medical states.

 

[PermaBuzz]

Strainhunter,

Werent you saying not long ago that the total consumption was the main thing to be concerned about? That even though it is indeed easy to identify HID lights with smartmeters due to unique signatures, it wasnt the main giveaway? Has your stance become more cautious?

 

[Captain Ginyu]

Suspicion(s) confirmed, I salute you!

 

[AOD2012]

So if a smart meter is not being used at the grow, is this something that does not need to be worried about? Got me freaking over here.


aod

 

[MotaHead]

Jumpin Paranoid Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, do you really think looking for pot grows is a full time Power company effort these days? I don't. Looking for theft sure but playing Weed Inspector not so much.

Why would they need to check a transformer for unusually high use-age when they can just check individual power bills - once again theft.

Don't steal power! Don't turn your home into a warehouse grow.

 

[Strainhunter]

Strainhunter,

Werent you saying not long ago that the total consumption was the main thing to be concerned about? That even though it is indeed easy to identify HID lights with smartmeters due to unique signatures, it wasnt the main giveaway? Has your stance become more cautious?

Yes and yes.


See....I used to grow but that was outdoors, not indoors. The only indoor grow I used to have going was while I was on my island...and out there it was legal to do and I had nothing to worry about. (now PLEASE no one start asking me a million questions or doubt what I just wrote, just take it for what it is )

Total consumption certainly always has been the main point.
With technology advancing on both sides and political changes happening things have been shifting towards more tricked out ways nailing down grows.
We're not talking 1 light closet grows here. We're talking anything from a few lights and up.

A commercial grower is not going to do his thing inside a closet.
He is going to burn through as much power in a day the whole house would use in a whole month.
There are states such as Florida is being one where power companies are in bed with LEO.

I keep reading "pay your bill and you'll be fine".

Paying your bill certainly applies in many cases. But it's not always the standard.

At the current average Florida electricity rates a half dozen lights with fans, AC, Dehu etc. are gonna run you approx. (roughly) a grand a month give or take a few hundred bucks.

If the average calculated bill for that location would be $300/month including pool & AC......but is $1,300 instead due to running a grow-op....it WILL raise a red flag.
If one taps the power

he might get away with it, sometimes even for years. It happens, we all have read about those instances here on ICmag and elsewhere.

Long story short....whether one pays his bill or not...and gets caught...stealing power likely will add on to the charges and god forbid even make it a federal case.

A lawyer for a federal case?

Hope you have set aside roughly $70,000 because that's how much it's gonna cost to defend your rights.

Don't know what else to tell ya...there's a lot to say but each and every guys situation is different.

Just be careful...they're out there and they are looking!

PS: And before someone suggest LED's to stay below the radar...go and spend $700 EACH on 2 dozen lights for your commercial grow. NO ONE DOES THAT!!!

 

[kmk420kali]

It seems to me, this is only helpful in finding ppl that are stealing power-- If there is a high transformer usage, but the surrounding customers are not showing high usage, they will know that someone is stealing power--
Don't steal power, no prob--

 

[badboy287]

lets get into the solar revolution people, put these bullshit power companies outta business, or lets do a mass nationwide guerrilla grow, grow em faster than they can chop em. This is just getting ridiculous, meanwhile Rx companies are operating with immunity even though their products can cause suicidal thoughts, diarrhea etc. .... smfh

 

[Skip]

Yesterday I was watching a science program and they were illustrating how much heat loss there is from typical housing that's more than 20 years old. To illustrate they went in a power company helicopter that flew at night with an infrared camera, and it was sooo easy to see which houses were wasting heat (glowing red) and which ones were newer with better insulation (blue).

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to see which houses are using grow lights, by doing the same survey in the summertime. What was scary was how big an area they could survey from the sky as opposed to ground monitoring. They could spot any house among hundreds in a second or two. So an hour in the air and they could survey a good portion of a city, easily identifying hundreds of grow houses.

So the ONLY solution to this invasion of our privacy is to...OVERGROW THE PLANET!

Let there be so many grows they can't possibly deal with them all...

 

[rives]

I think that it is possible that your friend was putting a little different spin on a very common practice in order to pull your leg a little, but perhaps not. IR scanning of electrical gear has been pretty widely used in industrial plants for well over 20 years. Scanning for hot connections is typically used where it isn't practical to shut the load down and physically check the torque on the bolts holding a connection together, as well as a quick way to spot overloaded gear. The tightly-focused lensing allows you to quickly check connections that would be very time-consuming to get access to, like pole-top transformers.

 

[johnnybravo]

lets get into the solar revolution people, put these bullshit power companies outta business,

how i wish i had $30k. i could run a nice garden off grid!
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar...off-grid-with-gridtie-solar-power-system.html

 

[Hammerhead]

As far as I know there is not a transformer going to ea house. Normally they service the whole block. I dont see any transformer's here or even poles. I have underground power lines..

 

[Weird]

they do that because so many people steal power, they know the usage is higher than usage billed and they want to stop the loss

they know they put out certain amount of electricity to a grid and can tell when what they are delivering does not meet what they bill

in areas there is were the electric distributed = the electric billed they don't do heat scans to figure where the loss is happening