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
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.
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
Here's a question.
Let's say johnny law for some reason gets suspicious and looks into your usage and sees the patterns and have a good idea you are growing. Lets also say that your grow op has not been reported by anyone for suspicious smells or anything like that. Even if they see you are running 10kw on a 12-12 schedule, is there really anything they can do without having any type of other evidence you might be growing?
For instance a while ago I read an article where a couple was growing vegetables in their basement in a hydro setup. Cops got a warrant and busted the place in only to find vegetables being grown. Never did look into it again to see if they tried to press charges on the police.
So what does it really take for cops to get a warrant? Who's to say I'm not just growing vegetables inside? How can police get a warrant based solely on power consumption?
if I was that concerned, I would run the light 24 hrs a day and have a light mover on rails move it over another grow box every 12 hours...
You could object on the grounds of heath , refer them to a nut job site like beforeitsnews , should work and who cares if they think you are mad.
For once a conspiracy site might be useful.
Just like with mobile phones and baby monitors, smart meters emit low radio frequency emissions. This allows meter readings to be wirelessly transmitted to us and means no more estimated bills as smart meters send a message, similar to an SMS, with gas and electricity readings back to British Gas once a day.
If you are unsure about radio emissions, Public Health England (PHE) – formerly the Health Protection Agency - provides advice and information around of variety of domestic appliances.
PHE state there is no evidence to suggest that exposure to the radio waves produced by smart meters poses any health risk. In addition, they state that the exposure from smart meters are lower than from other appliances we use today like televisions and microwaves, and likely to be thousands of times lower than from a mobile phone. Their website states: ‘the evidence to date suggests exposures to the radio-waves produced by smart meters do not pose a risk to health’. For more details on smart meters and health, please see PHE's website
but they can see the difference between your hps and that heatersmart 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"