Raising eyebrows

[2small]

I have heard of a person getting busted growing MJ from the electric bill either being way high or a sudden jump in use. I'm not sure which one. What I'm questioning is would it raise eyebrows if a relatively small house had a jump in electric use from one years to the next in the amount of electricity that a small grow room would use to run?

For what I'm planning I would be looking for the usual 400w or 600w light and of course the fans and other goodies. I would think that if my neighbor got a big screen, used his dryer more, got a second fridge for the garage, and any other normal increases in electric it wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Am I worrying for no reason or do people get busted from their electric bills sometime?

 

[dr pyro]

they only way you get busted from electricity is either you stealing it, your bill is just insanely high.pay your bill on time. my bill was 100-200 depending on month now its like 300-350.if your using 2500 plus kilowatts a month then i would be alittle worried that number is alittle on low side to. that 400 you will see maybe 30-40 if ran 18 hrs day that includes distibution charges and all that crap

 

[dman1234]

you could have gotten a sauna or hot tub, big fish tank any number of indoor
hobbies, its a good question but i dont think you need to worry.....JMO

 

[Thomas420]

"they only way you get busted from electricity is either you stealing it" :yeahthat: that bro has it correct. no shame when it done right.

 

[Heemhoff17]

if you pay it they dont care

 

[lordhighlama]

yep what the others said. The increase in your bill should not cause a red flag. Many things take just as much power to run if not more than your lights.

main reason people get busted because of power is if they don't pay there bill or if they are stealing it.

 

[dr pyro]

there makin money off you why would they care. also the only way leo can get bill is if they get a warrant for info and even then there has to be cause like dealing,traffic,smell you carrying a 3 ft plant across the yard you get the drift

 

[kaotik]

$15-$20 bucks a month.. i don't think they'll notice.
like heem said, as long as you pay your bills they really don't care.

 

[lordhighlama]

$15-$20 bucks a month.. i don't think they'll notice.
like heem said, as long as you pay your bills they really don't care.

zactly,, they are just as greedy as everyone else. So as long as you put the money in there pocket they don't bother you.

 

[Smot_poker]

they'd probably start snoopin if you started using 6 kilowatts per hour for 12 hours a day or some huge jump like that, but 600 watts could simply be a new appliance...

 

[cmd420]

Only reason I'm chiming in iz because I love it when a whole bunch of people say the same good news...

Don't worry, dude...everybody here is right on...as long as you don't steal it, they're more than happy to accept your money!

 

[DonJones]

There was a time in the US not too long ago where some of the power companies were cooperating with LEO, but that is pretty much a thing of the past. A more pressing threat is the use of thermal imaging from the air. They fly over a given area and record the thermal images of the various structures and watch for the typical grow operation heat signature and then start investigating that address.

However with the current massive invasion of the violent mexican cartels, most departments are focusing more on that than the small private grower.

 

[2small]

Yeah, I'm glad to hear so many people saying the same thing. It makes me more confident to invest in a nice 400-600w. I guess if I run a clean ship and use a little more electric, no one would ever notice the difference.

As far as helicopters, does a cooler light attract less attention? I would think so. Can a large enough exhaust fan system cool a light so that it is not detectable through thermal imagining?

 

[fleshstain]

they pretty much search the outside of the residence only for the heat signature.... if your temps are pretty much inline with the temps in the rest of the house you have almost zero concern.... i say almost zero because if they scan in the residence they can face major problems with invasion of privacy laws.... but that doesn't mean they can't or won't try....

if your that concerned, you can set your light to come in during the daytime.... the sun renders the devices almost totally useless during the daytime....

 

[dirtyolsouth]

Hi,

The amount of power you're talking about is like the diff of having a new roomie added to the house... Whenever I hear it mentioned in a news story about a bust that the power bill was high it's ALWAYS something else that alerted LE to the grow and they used power bills AT THAT POINT to justify a warrant... Don't steal power and pay your power bill and you'll never have any reason for concern. Most busts are due to a slip of the lip turned into a tip... Another major cause for getting busted is stealing power by wiring around the meter...

Peace