Smart Meters, Start up power ballast vs LED?

Hi, I'm hoping this threat can thrive with usefull information. My concern stems from Smart Meters that everyone says are not a big deal. I recently read a thread where a person whos brother works as Cheif of Police was telling him how they had undercover informants and paid tippers in power companies. For example our power company and most now have a graphical report of your hour to hour energy consumption. I also had a employee come out when we were having on and off power issued in the neighborhood and he looks at the smart meter and says "these things can see EVERYTHING".

The main problem is that Ballast have such a high startup energy consumption, they are a red flag of what your running for 12 hours. so two questions here.

What type of power consumption would a LED use at start up? is there a very high initial startup to get the LEDs going like a ballast uses to strike the bulb?

Dose anyone ACTUALLY KNOW if the power companies can see the exact appliance plugged into an outlet in your home?


Closing note:
Please do not SPECULATE, or leave post about paranoia and how no ones going to care about your 600 watt indoor grow ect, because at this point in time with technology I'm sick of hearing that on forums about smart meters from ignorant people leaving there opinion and not concrete evidence. No one out there actually knows the arrest record of indoor grow opps resulting from smart meter tippers.

I was busted via smart meter and a tip from power company...... 5k watts in a large 4 plant tree setup. Plant number was all that saved me. Well that and the 50k in assets they took and the 10k on a lawyer. 60 days in jail and a misdemeanor charge.

johndoe123 said:

I was busted via smart meter and a tip from power company...... 5k watts in a large 4 plant tree setup. Plant number was all that saved me. Well that and the 50k in assets they took and the 10k on a lawyer. 60 days in jail and a misdemeanor charge.

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Was that in a non-medical state?

Led isn't going to draw as much. Just stagger timers by 5mins or so at start up to help ease spikes.

Yeah grow tech that was in Illinois

The problem is NOT power spikes. No one is going to obtain a warrant based on a power spike. Using any amount of electricity over 300 watts for 12 straight hours or more is a dead giveaway. The question is, what amount of electricity will they try and bust you for.

What people are missing here is they run software alogrithims now on the smart meters. If 99% of your entire city has no appliance that RUNS CONSISTENTLY without turning on or off with no interruption on 12/12 cycle then they know your growing pot when your the 1% that has suspicious hours for power consumption.

there is no appliance that comes on and off at the same time every single day that uses the same electricity like a light for 60 days or longer. its all about patterns.


I mean think about it. You have to flower at some point so running lights over 12 hours only works until its flowering time. not even autoflowers on 20 hours will work.

you cant flip flop lights or now your running consistent electricity 24 hours a day even in the night, all night, every day at the same intervals. and they also know the signature HPS lights give out too, so its easy to match these two things. They could scan every account in your city within minuets in a software program and pin point potential grow houses. how many people in your city do you think run lights on a timer over 100 watts?

Smart Meters no matter how big or how small a grow will get you busted eventually. Theres nothing easier for police then to be handed a report of potential grow houses from the electric company. It probably boils down to someone within getting paid also to tip. so what police department WOULDN'T team up to make there job easier.

Even if your grow is small, they would not do a swat style raid most likely but you would get a nock nock in the middle of the night and if you did not answer you know they are coming in with that warrant.

Its pretty shitty when in society you cannot grow in your own house even on small scale because of the evasiveness and willingness of electric companies to shit on you and see if and how long your using even a hair dryer or a toaster.

what if you bought a battery bank and charged it with house electricity and then ran your lights off that, never to be plugged into your normal house outlet.....?

What do you think about this?

1. using two identical rooms and when one room shutoff the other one cross it at the same time and starts? if its led or cfl it dosent create the same spikes and you just have consistant electricity usage?

2. Lets pretend you have 2 HPS 600w, the first one goes on 12.00 the secound goes on 12.10, and to explain short, both lamps shut down every 4hours for 20mins, but not at same time, so its allways good light in the room and the plants will not get stresst or anything about this. What do you think about this one?

I thought this thread was NOT about fear mongering and spouting conjecture?

Seems that is what it has become though...

The 1 key fact here as to whether you get busted or not is down to how much power your using in your grow op and how its setup (all at once, or flipped).

But to act like a smart meter is gonna "catch" someone with say, 1 light, (or 2 lights, in seperate boxes / tents, flipped) is rediculous... People talk like the smartmeter has figured out exactly which appliance is using the power from which socket in their house and its just bloody nonsense...

There is no chance in hell a smartmeter will see a small grow up that is setup correctly, given all the background spikes in power consumption as washing machines / air conditioning / the kettle / the water heater / the power washer / dish washer and god knows how many other power hungry devices in your home are turned on and off within that period..

If anyone thinks that a smart meter can spot a 600w or 1000w lamp in all that other "traffic" they are smoking something far stronger than weed....

(Of course of your stupid and have 5k+ all coming on at the same time, for 12 hrs at a time, then yeh sure, it'll probly get ya busted... but it would have got ya busted eventually without a smart meter too..

At the end of the day... if you dont wanna get caught, dont do the crime.. its that simple... Crying about smart meters etc... wont change the fact they are here to stay... so we have to figure out ways to work around them... if that means multiple smaller enclosures flipped at differing times, so there is no noticeable high power draw for 12hrs at a time, then so be it...


But please people.. put down the tinfoil hats and the paranoia about smart meters and just figure out what your power consumption would actually look like in TOTAL, with all other household things you have being used and then redesign so it doesn't look so damn obvious.

Dont do the Crime ? lol

@Oxygen_Man Apparently you have not seen how a fully automated pool and spa system can make meter spin like a dreidel. Mine comes on @8am and shuts down @10pm every day on a perfect schedule. Never a knock or call at my door. Hell, my home theater is over 3000 watts, so the thought of a single 1k grow getting called out is a little tin foil based, however there are some very dirty shenanigans that local LEOs do with utilities. Perhaps to cover ones small hobby, a voltage isolator would be the best bet. It reconditions the power coming in so there is no data that the smart meter can read beyond the device beyond that it is turned on and supplying a static amount of power with no spikes.

The power company got a nice little award and a kick back on my bust. True hero's I tell ya...... It was a small power company that runs a rural grid in Central Illinois.

how many people in your city do you think run lights on a timer over 100 watts?

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Tons of motherfuckers! There are a lot of us growing pot.

Local municipal power plants are having to rapidly upgrade their equipment because they never intended residential neighborhoods to use as much power as they currently are. Not necessarily all from cannabis grows. Tech geeks use a lot of power for long period of time as well. Bitcoin mining operations run non-stop no? I'm pretty certain there is a kid or two in every neighborhood all over the map that sleep a solid 12 hours a day and game non-stop pretty much the remaider of their day. haha...

And I'm not even necessarily talking about med and rec states either. There are dozens of us in tons of neighborhoods, in every city... growing pot! Lots of little 1k-20k ops running 12/12 along with all the little juice hogs when ya add everything up.


If they want you they have you. That's the world we live in.

Most people get busted for other reasons. I know a handful of people who've been popped with small grows. They ALL were doing stupid shit with crazy females and the alike or screwed up otherwise with smell or nosy neighbors.


Not to say these instances aren't happening out there by thieves for the state, but also a bit bad business for the power company allowing police in to bust good paying customers. Smart meters suck when used for more then remote billing, but I doubt it's time to panic about 12/12 cycles. There are people out here posting this shit on instagram & youtube and shit.

That said.. I'd say its best to stay away from smaller co-op providers and similar local electricity offerings. I do know of a single bust where it's questionable how they were really discovered. Pretty rural.. bases covered (or so I was told).. Plead out so they never got to see the discovery. Power was the only thing they could think of as the source of their heat. Cops were looking for hundreds of thousands of dollar that were sure existed from this little 8k barn grow. They stole around 6k and few TVs.. (jewelry and stuff never on the report). Ultimately a lawyer and bit of money and they are successful proprietors in another industry now.

The problem is the inherent smell of growing dank cannabis. That's what ultimately gets them in the door "legally" whether it was really ever smelt or not. We need to get subdivisions around the globe planting GMO lawn seed that puts off a nice cannabis aroma. Maybe then we'll put a stop to all this invasion of privacy.

Loooooong time browser, first time poster...

I would like to point out that first of all these lights are being sold to us not for growing cannabis but for growing indoor gardens which are not illegal in any state as far as I know...

My second point is that I haven't seen one person mention people with exotic fish tank setups and reptile setups. I have a buddy who probably runs 6000 watts just for his reptiles... all on timers and most are set to 12/12 intervals... Hes not running any grow lights, but I know for a fact some saltwater tanks have metal halides

Nice post to pop your forum cherry with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrm-rPSCIBw

The Doktor said:

Nice post to pop your forum cherry with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrm-rPSCIBw

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Offtopic, HAHAHAHAHA

OM has pretty well nailed it, actually. The problem is the periodicity of the load - there is no load other than lighting that will regularly go on and off at the same times and at the same consumption level. And yes, that is both easily seen and easily searched for via software.

Ok, so your power consumption profile is a red flag to anyone looking. Some power company rat turns the information over to LEO and now they think you're growing. But how will they get a warrant to search, can't base it on illegally obtained information, so they'll need to either keep an eye on you or try to push you to agree to a search? It's all bad news for anyone wanting to stay off the police radar. (Hardly a perfect world, just my point.)

Adze said:

Ok, so your power consumption profile is a red flag to anyone looking. Some power company rat turns the information over to LEO and now they think you're growing. But how will they get a warrant to search, can't base it on illegally obtained information, so they'll need to either keep an eye on you or try to push you to agree to a search? It's all bad news for anyone wanting to stay off the police radar.

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^In a perfect world.. yes, but the police do what they want and clear their actions later.

SMELL. They are going to claim they smell fresh growing cannabis 10 times out of 10. If you get on their radar.. they'll pull your trash, maybe do a hair of half-ass leg work, knock and talk if they take you as an idiot who open the door (aka.. more smell), and ultimately bust you.

Anyone who thinks the police can't do this or can't do that because it's not legal grounds for a warrant is kidding themselves. How do they get a warrant? They ask the judge on a Friday afternoon while he's trying to get out of the office and home to his family. He signs it. Judges aren't out here for our protection.. they work hand and hand with the law. They golf together, party together, and their kids go to school with one another. A respectable officer requests a warrant.. the judge is signing that shit. Guarantee it.

FlowerFarmer said:

^In a perfect world.. yes, but the police do what they want and clear their actions later.

SMELL. They are going to claim they smell fresh growing cannabis 10 times out of 10. If you get on their radar.. they'll pull your trash, maybe do a hair of half-ass leg work, knock and talk if they take you as an idiot who open the door (aka.. more smell), and ultimately bust you.

Anyone who thinks the police can't do this or can't do that because it's not legal grounds for a warrant is kidding themselves. How do they get a warrant? They ask the judge on a Friday afternoon while he's trying to get out of the office and home to his family. He signs it. Judges aren't out here for our protection.. they work hand and hand with the law. They golf together, party together, and their kids go to school with one another. A respectable officer requests a warrant.. the judge is signing that shit. Guarantee it.

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You put evidence in your trash? I'm not talking shit i'm just saying.... smart growers aren't doing that lol. They also aren't opening the door for LEO.

Let them check out my trash... im a nasty motherfucker.. they are gonna have fun with that one.

Now im not saying people havent been busted due to simple mistakes.... but hopefully everyone learns from those mistakes. The same judge thats signing that warrant is also going to want a good rhyme or reason for it.... and my exotic reptile collection and indoor fruit farm showing on a smart meter isn't good enough.

You completely missed my point bud. No I don't throw anything related in the trash.

I think you may be a bit naive in how it really works... not so CSI style...

The same judge thats signing that warrant is also going to want a good rhyme or reason for it

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I assure this is not the case everywhere. People get busted because a tip generates interest in you or your residence. If the police believe this info to be accurate (or a certainty in some eyes as per the smart meter discussion) they are going to ultimately say whatever they want to gain entry to your house. The don't show the judge evidence.. they say they smelled a "strong odor of marijuana plants" around your house and found some sticks and stems, & seeds in your trash..other related shit, and only sometimes a bit of news fluff that they compared your electricity to neighbors and your way above the average... and wahla warrant warrant.

Ya don't think cops have access to some schwag weed & seeds and such as evidence from your trash pull should you to be found with nothing and want to make a fuss? If they know you are growing, and want in bad enough.. it's going to happen.


The topic at hand is if they are automatically receiving info on top residential consumers running consistent suspicious load cycles (12/12) to ultimately bust and rob cannabis farmers. It doesn't matter how they "legally" get in the house at that point... that's just evidence fluff to make it kosher. You wouldn't know if they were specifically targeting like this... they don't want to publish it.. alas you hear reasons such as smell and noise, trash, sale to undercover, etc, etc..

At the end of the day it's just a racket for them. They don't expect people to fight these things. They intend to scare the shit of you into paying big bucks to their system of remaining free or sitting in prison and having the tax payers pay..or both. They intend for you to take their plea and plead guilty and pay. That is what the war on drugs is all about...asset forfeiture & for profit imprisonment.


..and a good lawyer doesn't put up your defense with lack of evidence and shit.... he smooths things over for you for dollars resulting in a better plea and more $$ for the state, and perhaps many personal pockets... Dont have the cash or not enough? The taxpayers fit the bill on your prison stay at 60k a year or so. This type of corruption is why it is such a profitable biz for them. Larger grows, partner things? You're liking paying with your cash & freedom unless you're super rich. 4 non-violent growers imprisoned is a quick mil from the tax payers for your 4-5 year stay.


All in all though, again I don't believe it is time to panic right now.. If states get pushed harder and harder to outright ban home cultivation as this legalization thing grow stronger well then maybe we'll have a more worrisome concern at hand. I'm not totally naive to think Smart Meter busts becoming more common place as they weed out competition while developing the necessary monopolies to control the cannabis markets. This is the green rush.. it's out of the bag. Big Money/ Govt want to own it.