Electricity Usage and "Cops"

[REZDOG]

4000kW hours a month isn't a lot,it was just the #s that TX cop was using in his skewed theory.
If you run your pwer "high" from day#1 that you are in the space,then there's no issue,as your usage has always been the same.
Grows using an industrial amount of power in a residential neighborhood are 100% ASININE,anyway.

 

[SomeGuy]

yeah, and at&t is in the business of selling services too but does that stop them from handing over 100% of our private information to the NSA? not a chance.

these companies want to make money but they will also obey laws. and the police are telling them to give up info on usage- so they will.

They are getting PAID to hand over info on you, and were more than happy to, till the bills didn't get paid and they shut em down for awhile.

But thats another thread and would probably get binned anyway. Couldn't help myself, I'll shut up about it now.

 

[Guest]

In an average 3BR house,power use of 10KW or less,on 12/12,will never hem you up.
Power companies are in the business of selling power,and cops that say they got info from an electric company are most likely just covering for a snitch.
One of the biggest problems facing growers who make bank for the first time is they seem to frequently get into "high rolling"-coke,strippers,the whole steamy underbelly shitshoot.
It's their "4 a.m. Company" that gets you tagged,not the electric Co.
Nobody has shit for info at the electric co about you.
One employee reads the meter and enters the data.
That meter reader doesn't even have access to your last month's numbers,they just write down a number. It's simple data input,nothing more.
Then a computer takes the inputted
data and prints you a bill.
You pay the bill,someone opens it and processes your payment.
End of story.
No single person at the electric co ever sees all your usage and payment data.
If you want your electric bill kept as private as possible then use a money order so your monthly bill isn't part of your bank account statement.
Now,RELAX and grow some weed.

what a crock of shit... totally false and dangerous

my meter reader DOES know how much juice i'm using. i'm on the program where i take my own readings and place them in the front window (dogs in yard). the meter reader stopped taking my readings down and instead put notices on my door each month saying the readings were wrong, much too high elec usage. they know how many kwh you use each month upon looking at the meter readings. they are the ones who calculate each months kwh and submit THAT number to power co for billing.

i didn't get a power bill for 3 months. i had to call up the power co and complain that the meter maid wasn't doing their job. they said they had to have a sup come out and look at my meter...things went back to normal for 6 months then the same problem all over agian. and this was only for 3k in lights, 10k btu a/c. now i'm using 2k lights with no probs. my house has more than 2 bedrooms and def not in the boonies.

i suggest that anyone running multi kw grows research how their power company does things cause they all don't do the it the same way and there's lot's of bad info posted about it.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

what a crock of shit... totally false and dangerous

my meter reader DOES know how much juice i'm using. i'm on the program where i take my own readings and place them in the front window (dogs in yard). the meter reader stopped taking my readings down and instead put notices on my door each month saying the readings were wrong, much too high elec usage. they know how many kwh you use each month upon looking at the meter readings. they are the ones who calculate each months kwh and submit THAT number to power co for billing.

i didn't get a power bill for 3 months. i had to call up the power co and complain that the meter maid wasn't doing their job. they said they had to have a sup come out and look at my meter...things went back to normal for 6 months then the same problem all over agian. and this was only for 3k in lights, 10k btu a/c. now i'm using 2k lights with no probs. my house has more than 2 bedrooms and def not in the boonies.

i suggest that anyone running multi kw grows research how their power company does things cause they all don't do the it the same way and there's lot's of bad info posted about it.

thats intresting man.
you take the readings and put them in your window?
sounds bizzar, there not that trusting, and if theres a dog in the yard how did they know your number was wrong? im sure you wouldnt lie to them...

yea all power co's are different. just like all situations are different.

 

[THCV]

you think they really like those summer brownouts when they cant supply enough juice for everyone? busting these grows is actually helping the power companies... i mean shit if the power draw keeps rising they would have to build more power plants and that just costs WAY more then letting the cops in unfettered...

most medium to large scale growers run the lights at night, when power companies have plenty of headroom ie extra power generation capacity. Brownouts/blackouts generally happen during peak hours, 4-7pm, on hot days when the sun has gotten everything toasty all day and the acs are all running full blast at home AND work. By the time my 6ks fire up, everything has cooled off and grid load is almost at its minimum.

no need to built new power plants for my grow--my shit runs on base-load nukes! blame all the new houses with big central air and people leaving'em set on 72 when they are at work on a boiling day...

anyway, i have never heard that the electric co's are looking to bust ops as a form of "negawatts", ie increased efficiency in the place of new power generation capacity. nope, it's about snitches. and dumb growers.

 

[REZDOG]

All this makes me glad I relocated. :smile:
Power company policies vary from area to area,check your local listings.

 

[Guest]

first off, it totally depends where you live. Texas is a fascist state, so no surprise there re that Austin article. And I bet F8's reference to So Cal busts is San Diego county, also fascists (ok, not hitler, but very anti-pot, you know what i mean). Los Angeles county doesn't do this sort of thing, I haven't heard of DWP doing anything like this. It is all about local power co and local police and their attitude about MJ. So look into your own locality.

second, don't allow them to give you a digital meter if you can avoid it. The old analog spinners tell nothing but total usage, which is more or less like Rez described. The digis will straight up show 12/12 etc and if i had one I might stop growing--if i lived in a locality that has a history of these electric co snitch stories.

The only sure fire way to make sure that a meter reader isn't in your backyard - if you have a dog for example is to get an rf transmitter meter - which is digital. I think that we are at the will of everyone else. Time for a diesel generator I think.

 

[Guest]

When you can get a 25kw generator for $6k I think it is worth it. If you are large enough to justify the hassle.

 

[Guest]

Sticky- I think that a good one might be a little more than 6K, but definitely worth it.

 

[THCV]

oh, I don't care if he is in my back yard. why would I? please come on into my yard, i have nothing to hide out there. no smell, no sign of anything abnormal--as it should be. plus, my lights run at night-when he isn't working--and with my old analog spinner he'll see it running at a normal level when he comes by, he'll take his total KWH reading and be gone.

no digital if you can avoid it. it divulges too much info. more than you realize, probably. often, right down the wire. 24/7. f that.

The only sure fire way to make sure that a meter reader isn't in your backyard - if you have a dog for example is to get an rf transmitter meter - which is digital. I think that we are at the will of everyone else. Time for a diesel generator I think.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I used to read water meters. In the beginning, the handhelds had the customer info including what the meter was read at last time. This was useful as water meters are in the ground and get all scatched, making them hard to read. The previous read would let you know if you were mis reading the meter by beeping and showing the previous read.

But then some of the readers got lazy. They would sit at IHOP all day and by using the previous read, they would fake the whole route. Yeah didnt take long for the county to figure that out and simply removed the previous read.

The readers dont figure out your bill. They simply input the read and the device is downloaded when the unit is turned in.

The reason the reader thought the read was too high was probably due to an average in the reader and it prompted him.

You are giving way too much credit to meter readers.


But none the less the electric company does know how much you are using and if they are willing to share that, then we are in trouble. If you read the link though, it seems like there is a privacy issue and a high electric bill is not sole grounds for a warrant

 

[Guest]

oh, I don't care if he is in my back yard. why would I? please come on into my yard, i have nothing to hide out there. no smell, no sign of anything abnormal--as it should be. plus, my lights run at night-when he isn't working--and with my old analog spinner he'll see it running at a normal level when he comes by, he'll take his total KWH reading and be gone.

no digital if you can avoid it. it divulges too much info. more than you realize, probably. often, right down the wire. 24/7. f that.

Some folks have pets, can't have ANYONE in the back yard - ole ladies get bit and whatnot.

Still, I'm not sure what to think anymore. The setup I wanna run now isn't that big, but will go over 4000kwh a month...

 

[BritishColumbia]

LOL!

LOL!

You guys got it easy,i gotta re-locate my grow some time this year to a town that's 30 minutes away as some time this year the city will be hiring a EFSI team (electrical fire safety intiative) which will try to inspect anyone using more then 5766kwh on a 2 month billing cycle,now don't get it wrong as they can't just come over and inspect.What happens is bc hydro gives a list of anyone in the city using more then 93kwh a day to the EFSI team which consists of 1 safety inspector 1 RCMP officer and 1 fireman then they start knockin on doors and tell you they want to due an inspection in 36/48 hours any yes they need your consent to search so they come back in a couple days and you can refuse to let them in but if you due so the hydro company will shut your power off but buy this time you have moved your grow and if they find any trace that their was a grow op they bill you $3500,so this is not a raid and you are not getting busted but it is quite affective as their are around 5 city's that have EFSI teams and their doing around a 100 inspections a year each.Times are changing aren't they........FUCK em they can't ever stop people doing what they love to do.

 

[GDB]

You guys got it easy,i gotta re-locate my grow some time this year to a town that's 30 minutes away as some time this year the city will be hiring a EFSI team (electrical fire safety intiative) which will try to inspect anyone using more then 5766kwh on a 2 month billing cycle,now don't get it wrong as they can't just come over and inspect.What happens is bc hydro gives a list of anyone in the city using more then 93kwh a day to the EFSI team which consists of 1 safety inspector 1 RCMP officer and 1 fireman then they start knockin on doors and tell you they want to due an inspection in 36/48 hours any yes they need your consent to search so they come back in a couple days and you can refuse to let them in but if you due so the hydro company will shut your power off but buy this time you have moved your grow and if they find any trace that their was a grow op they bill you $3500,so this is not a raid and you are not getting busted but it is quite affective as their are around 5 city's that have EFSI teams and their doing around a 100 inspections a year each.Times are changing aren't they........FUCK em they can't ever stop people doing what they love to do.

I know it's considered draconian here in the US but this type of crap would NEVER fly, no matter what neighborhood, city, state, town, nowhere in the US would this be considered legal or tolerated on any level. The power company teaming up with the cops and the fire department is a complete and direct invasion of your privacy. Sure they will process subpoenas and give up information to LEO but they truly have no reason to turn in their legal paying customers. Anybody I know who has ever gone big in a residence usually kept it under 3kw per bedroom. They also never had any problems because they kept their mouths shut about the details and locations. Anyone running from 1-9kw in a 3-4br wouldn't be considered a blip on the radar not the slightest blip. The whole paranoia about meter readers and digital meters is 100% technophobia, yes data mining exists but not to some level of conspiracy that works directly against us. SO until you are busted for growing or stealing power you're a "paying customer and upstanding citizen" and no amount of electrical usage at whatever interval is going to say different. That is unless the power company gets a subpoena during a warrant application and does notice something out of the ordinary (got any loose ends?). If they really did have all these resources that everyone claims just to capture us growers then they would not be going house to house knocking on doors requesting safety reviews. What is going on up there in canada??

 

[BritishColumbia]

Invasion of privacy,50% of the house's they inspect never had a grow as many residents have basement suites,hot tubs ect.As far as bc hydro assisting the inspection teams they have no choice in the matter because it is a safety by-law and when a municipality requests consumption records they have to comply and no they can not use the information obtained to get a warrant.On a more serious note i would like to thank the RCMP for taking the time to get rid of the "DANGEROUS" marijuana grow ops and buy doing so WASTING millions of tax dollars in the process and to all the other law enforcement agency's that are consumed by their own stupidity and aragence FUCK YOU and have a nice day.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

GDB, did you read the link posted? The officer asked for certain info and received it w/o issue and followed up on it. What more would you like? I have no doubt if they had data that showed 12/12 usage, he would have received it as well.

Is this wide spread? I dont know. But if its happening in one place, I believe it can happen elsewhere.

So how do you go about finding if your electric provider works with LEO? DO you ask them for their privacy policy? DO you just flat out ask them if they provide account info to LEO?

 

[GDB]

The Austin article is proof that these tactics will never hold up in court. Did you even read it in its entirety? They are going to have a very hard time (nearly impossible) bringing in the electrical usage as evidence against this guy. Whether or not anyone agrees with me is not really my concern, what they did was ILLEGAL 100%. I doubt this ever goes to trial or makes it past a plea deal, it's already April and nothing has been updated so this guy is either walking or already worked a deal and flipped. It's another basic cat and mouse game, this time it's definitely the mouses fault. Who think's this guy was n't under 10kw and had his houses ALL linked up to him?
I do - it's another beautiful example of a major oversight or lack thereof.

 

[Guest]

You're right GDB, they will have a hard time using the electrical usage in court - I would still rather not end up in court. KnowWhatIMeanVern?

So how do we avoid our electricity use getting us in trouble? Stay under a magic kw number for square footage? Flip-flop relays? Both?

 

[GDB]

I really do hope that bull$#!+ does not fly in court especially here in the states. Have they thrown this level of privacy out the door in Canada without a fight? It really goes against all good judgement to let these types of things happen. I have no problem when the powers that be use decisive means to affect terror plots, take down huge crime syndicates, or try to protect our borders from serious threat. However, when we start to throw all basic principals and freedoms out the door and subsequently infect our homes with paranoia SOMETHING has to give. Are you really worried about your electric? I'd be 100x more worried bout some pig with a FLIR and an itching to bust someone, usually anyone they can get their hands on. Hang with criminals much? Do you even think the combined wattage of every member on this site would amount to something remotely notable? Anyone else notice the amount of people on here constantly spreading propaganda and paranoia?

I'll repeat myself...Electrical usage(within limits) by itself is not means enough to warrant any precipitous fear or extreme paranoia so UFCK what you heard. Don't give into the frenzy, they truely want you to perceive it, remember it's a mental judgement. I 100% honestly do not feel what I do is illegal, my neighbors couldn't say shit to me if I got busted etc., or at any level would it ever mean any uber-harsh realities or insanely long prison sentences(never been busted for blowing up my own SPOT ya see?). Therefore some of you with all to lose and nothing to gain (commercial growers) might want to reconsider exactly why you do what you do. If you want to thrive in this country and make due you have to step outside the bounds and if you can't live with that then this is surely the last subject matter to concern you. Everyone grab those hoods and ballasts and get back to work, damned if you do damned if you dont! Now I'm gonna go smoke me a big effing fatty and inspect my buds and know that the cops AREN'T looking for ME, and one hundred million thousand percent likely won't be ANYTIME soon.

"Oh no just posted some pics of my grow oh the Internet to some servers in europe through some untraceable proxies and not one shred of evidence points back to me, maybe I should delete my account and tear down my grow."

 

[GDB]

They might say there is nothing illegal about it but wait for the jury or judge to decide on that one. How many people actually think their name would be on the top of a list just for huge power bills? Do you honestly think there would be some legal grounds for an investigation based soley on this? If so, why the hell would anyone even consider growing if that was the case!

Quit being so paranoid people it's a damn plague of bull$!@%