[EastCoast710]

Originally Posted by highbrid1

So I just got the worst bill of my life and I'm trying to figure out if it's legit or there's some sort of mistake here. I live in a 1 bdrm apt and run 2x 600w digital HPS in flowering and sometimes a 400w digital MH for veg. It is a medical grow and within the legal guidelines, but I still strongly prefer the building owner and electric company do not know what I'm doing. The bill was over $1400 total for August and September. It was the hottest 2 months of the year and I had the AC on a good amount, but still do not see how that justifies a $1400 bill. I work full time, am gone all day and do not consume much power at all outside if growing. I have a laptop computer, fridge and big screen TV that is on avg of 3 hours a day - that is it. I also run a 6'' vortex 24/7 and have a few other fans running most of the time. Also, for this billing period, I was only running one of the 600w HPS, not both.

I live in SoCal and they have this tiered billing system where the more power you use, the more expensive it gets. Here are how my numbers appear on the bill for two months:

Total of 6700/kwh
Avg of 108/kwh per day

I ended up using most of my power in the expensive tier where electricity runs 20 cents per kwh.

Does this sound right for my situation? I did the math and it doesn't add up at all.

If it's not legit, how do you recommend I contest the bill without setting off any alarms?

Thanks

you know what this is.. is.. exhausting your ac air.. had this happen to a friend of mine in the summer.. dude was using ac in his grow .. and was retarded and exhausting that air instead of exhausting the lights.. and using co2.. lol.

[Al Botross]

Most growers saving the most have figured out how to be on PG&E's CARE program. Opps....as previously stated

[stoned-trout]

fuck em even with care we pay too much.. i don't care.....yeehaw

[MgoKush]

Originally Posted by EastCoast710

you know what this is.. is.. exhausting your ac air.. had this happen to a friend of mine in the summer dude was using ac in his grow .. and was retarded and exhausting that air instead of exhausting the lights.. and using co2.. lol.

::Yeah that don't make a lot of sense there. But sshhitt would love a $1400 bill. It is a touch bigger than a one bedroom apartment.LOL It is a closed system so saves a few bucks. Here in Mich the cost of Electricity Doubles if you go over a certain kilowatts!! Try to guess how much 15 double ended 1000's, 10 T5's, MF'n 4 2ton AC units and all the rest of the electrical crap fans, meters, monitors, Video cameras......hammer's us for a month? Damn near need to take out a bank loan for the first run! No BS! Put it this way you could buy a damn nice new car for 6 months worth.
We know this poor kid that had to Borrow 10 grand from his parents and you guessed it the whole damn crop hermed out bad REAL bad! That so unlucky dude never recovered from it. Packed that shit up and said I'm out! Sell it all I don't even want to look at it!!
I'll tell you what I don't think I could hold myself back from driving to Cali and shooting up the place his feminized OG seeds came from!! Hells no! NO FEMS OR BS AUTOS indoors up in our joints!!!

[MgoKush]

I run my lights at night in the summer.. it saves me on cooling BIGTIME.[/quote]

Well that's a no brainer! Jk We got all this crap up and running 18 hours now. Because my Cousin can't just work for 12 hours a day! Still working on tables and what not. These bitch's are and will really be massive running two more months at least. Good thing we got 15' Ceilings! Double enders are not sealed air cooled. So get any closer than 60" from them and its scorch city baby!!

[Muleskinner]

all I can say is watch out - at a previous house I rented, the upstairs neighbors found an outlet in the basement that was wired to my meter. They dropped an extension cord down the side corner of the house and stole electricity from me to run space heaters in winter.

There was an extra $250 on my bill. The OP's situation sounds like a billing mistake was made though, I would definitely ask for another meter read or something. 1200w of HPS is not unusual. I've seen household kitchen and bathroom lighting fixtures that run 500 watts easily. A friend of mine had about 700 or 800 watts of lighting on in her kitchen all day and night.

[RockinRobot]

Originally Posted by Muleskinner

all I can say is watch out - at a previous house I rented, the upstairs neighbors found an outlet in the basement that was wired to my meter. They dropped an extension cord down the side corner of the house and stole electricity from me to run space heaters in winter.

There was an extra $250 on my bill. The OP's situation sounds like a billing mistake was made though, I would definitely ask for another meter read or something. 1200w of HPS is not unusual. I've seen household kitchen and bathroom lighting fixtures that run 500 watts easily. A friend of mine had about 700 or 800 watts of lighting on in her kitchen all day and night.

Just as an FYI. NEVER ask the electric company to check your meter for a billing issue. Why? Because when an electric meter starts to go bad it slows down not speeds up. You will never end up paying more because of a bad meter. First thing that happens when you report an issue is they put in a freshly calibrated meter and then take the old 1 for testing. Chances are your bill will go up.

For the OP that bill looks quite normal. 2 600W lights is 1.2KWH for every hour it runs. Most AC pull about 10amps as well so that's easily another KWH for every hour it runs. that's just your lights and AC. Now add up all other equipment with the grow. Then add in everything you uses just for living and 6700KWH/ month is easy.