What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Had idea to throw off tracking of power consumption

heatherlonglee

Active member
I use it for comfort. Just realized what it could do though. I use a small bedroom heater in my bathroom when I take a shower. 1500 watts going on and off at random times during the day could cause problems with tracking consumption. You take showers at all times of day. That big wattage going on at random times for 10-25 minutes with no real pattern, sometimes quick morning shower, another day pm shower for a night out. The randomness of life with make it a easy way to use. Setting the heater on a setting that makes it turn on and off a few times while showering, may be best. I only have the heater on 15 minutes at a time cycling on and off 2-3 times, on average I'd say. I do that naturally once or twice a day sometimes lights on sometimes lights off times =)
 

dank.frank

ef.yu.se.ka.e.em
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Ummm...or a washer and dryer...or a stove...or a large tv / entertainment system...or a gaming desktop computer, or a server station, or central heating / AC, or...

The reality is...there are many things that use large amounts of power. However, the key is staying within a reasonable range of your house size / neighbors. If all your community has similarly sized homes, you assume the power usage will be within a given range per sq footage / weather conditions, etc. It's when your power usage is 3x that of your surroundings that throws up the first red flag - not exactly how much of it you are using or in what intervals.


dank.Frank
 

wantaknow

ruger 500
Veteran
not if you have a smart meter ,there damn capibility is awsome ,and sucks at the same time ,they have ability to know what smart machine is running ie new washer and dryers anything digital ,and anilog too ,i have one next door that is used and can read our wifi ,if you have a smart phone or tv go wrap some brass screen around the pole and meter so it cant recieve wifi and watch your pc and smart phone ,mine gone through a reboot over and over and the tv shuts down ,pull the screen off and this stops ?
 

heatherlonglee

Active member
Well Dank.Frank some of those use large wattages and could possibly turn on and off every 3-5 minutes or so. My idea was more about a large draw going on and off quickly (every couple minutes) and randomly.
 

watts

ohms
Veteran
smart meters can not tell the difference between a 3000 watt dryer and a 3000 watt oven. The device you are powering has to be "smart-ready" before they can see what's running exactly. Technically this feature is used to monitor your power/energy usage on new "smart appliances"
 

GMT

The Tri Guy
Veteran
when they put mine in they asked i unplug the very old tv that was turned off in another room. could see all devices plugged in and what they were. scared me senseless. Now I expect a visit anytime.
 

leepy

Member
I use it for comfort. Just realized what it could do though. I use a small bedroom heater in my bathroom when I take a shower. 1500 watts going on and off at random times during the day could cause problems with tracking consumption. You take showers at all times of day. That big wattage going on at random times for 10-25 minutes with no real pattern, sometimes quick morning shower, another day pm shower for a night out. The randomness of life with make it a easy way to use. Setting the heater on a setting that makes it turn on and off a few times while showering, may be best. I only have the heater on 15 minutes at a time cycling on and off 2-3 times, on average I'd say. I do that naturally once or twice a day sometimes lights on sometimes lights off times =)

mucka its not a good idea using a heater in your bathroom m8 :eek:
 

wantaknow

ruger 500
Veteran
when i grow with my hydro system ,the power at my house will go off then back on and i will have a small power spike that will make my controler bucket relays contacts stick and it will flood the room or wont flood athe buckets at all just depends what cycle its on when the bullet comes in ,so to prevent this i use a battery backup that is between the pug in and my bucket power in ,it works well ,this does not happen when my small grow room is not being used ,the smart meter is on the house that is next to me less than 60 ft away,i tell you that thing is way smarter than you are lead to belive ,better safe than sorry,stay safe all
 
Last edited:
Just run 2 Bloom rooms on a flip, then you have constant power draw and dont have to worry about them seeing the 12/12 schedule that is a dead give away.
 

00420

full time daddy
Veteran
from my research there is nothing in the form of power that looks like grow lights on a graph a reef tank is close but they know what every house is running & at what times no way around it. no light amount's add up to 1500 watts like your heater. a water heater runs for 1-2 hours tops (@3500 or 4500 maybe 5500) after a shower or running the dish washer not 12 or 16 hours like lights i get the idea but honestly there is no way around it just keep with in reason and there will be nothing to come to worry about, most "400" watt light's read 420 on a kill o watt meter
 

ydijadoit

Active member
Hi Heather!
Even in a med state, I sweat the consumption issue. All I can do, has been done. The whole house is CFL's, and I just switched my hot tub to "Economy" mode, so it only heats during filter cycles.
I can tell you my bill goes up 25%, when everything grow related I have is running full throttle.
I don't really stress over it, just the background, always there paranoia.
My total usage, for everything, never exceeds 5KW, and that's broken up between 2 rooms.
Be smart, don't run 20kw in a one bedroom house, while peeking out the blinds all day, with a Grateful Dead sticker-covered VW bus in the driveway, and you should be fine!
I personally wouldn't mess with trying to "Fool" a meter. I would just try to reduce my overall consumption, and keep on growin!
Regards.
 

bigshrimp

Active member
Veteran
Excess consumption might make them notice you but if you have a smart meter the pattern of use will give you away no matter what else is running.

No mistaking a large flower room, 12/12 daily, good luck hiding that.

If you are concerned you best option would be to opt out of a smart meter program if possible.
 

myiqis55

Member
It still surprises me how paranoid small growers get. Power companies sell power and push off hours usage. And I can attest that having an electric bill that's 4x your neighbors isn't as alarming as you think. Household consumption varies by members and usage patterns. If your power bill is being supenad you fucked up somewhere else
 

ydijadoit

Active member
It still surprises me how paranoid small growers get. Power companies sell power and push off hours usage. And I can attest that having an electric bill that's 4x your neighbors isn't as alarming as you think. Household consumption varies by members and usage patterns. If your power bill is being supenad you fucked up somewhere else

Funny, I got paranoid, at least to some extent, when I turned on my first light, over my first seed.
I think, and this is one man's opinion, that we, as growers, are mostly paranoid over things we can't control. Odor? Got it nailed. Don't tell anyone, Hope we have that nailed. The power company? Well, rationally, I agree with you 100%. My freedom depends on that belief. I do however, worry... :)
It gives an old man something to do!
Regards.
 

Crusader Rabbit

Active member
Veteran
Two separate grows on a flip with ballasts running 24/7. Does the flip leave a signature?

Try to reduce your non-growing electrical load. Do you have an electric water heater, kitchen stove, or home heating system? I think that running extra heaters at odd intervals is just going to amplify the power usage which is a red flag in itself.
 

rives

Inveterate Tinkerer
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Strainhunter put together a bunch of information on smart meters that should be read if you have any concerns about them.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=217895

A smart meter has the potential to determine if your air conditioning unit has a GE motor or a Mitsubishi in it - other details of your usage are a cake walk. The vast majority of electrical devices have a unique start-up signature, and at least some of the smart meters are easily capable of reading it. There is no similarity between a resistive load (1500w heater) starting up and a 1kw HID lamp.

Flips do not hide the start-up signature - they keep the demand reasonably even over a 24-hour period, with the exception of an easily distinguishable start-up spike. The smart meters aren't a worry as far as having a high-demand - the old analog meters could do that. The biggest issue with the smart meters is that, after you've attracted some attention with your high usage, they can easily detect HIDs starting at roughly 12-hour intervals, and a flip isn't going to hide it.

The good thing is that there is far too much information available from them to have everyone be scrutinized closely. Unfortunately, I don't think that it would be all that difficult to create a program that searches for repetitive 12-hour lighting signatures, but at this point your best bet is to pay your bill on time and avoid attracting attention.
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top