Can the fuzz catch a 400w lamp?

Hey folks, I have been growing indoors under CFL for a little bit now, but I am thinking of upgrading to a 400w HID.

The only reason I went with CFL in the first place is because I am VERY VERY paranoid of cops. I live in a state where marijuana prosecution is serious biz, and the wife and I would go away for a long time if caught. I am aware that I am being overly parinoid, but I want to grow as safe as possible.

I know that HID is hotter and takes more juce to work, but is it enough to get the cops attention? I live in my own home with an attic, but no basement. Any thoughts or suggestions on ideal ways to keep a 400w grow as discrete as possible would be appreciated. Security is my #1 priority.

Thanks!

no brother your good. chances are if you got caught it wouldnt be because of the electricity....your tv prolly runs 400 watts...i run 1600watts...plus an A/C which has to be taking up some juice too. from what i know...elec. companies figure you run about 1k watts a room....my elec. bill has only gone up maybe 25$ at the most. just pay your bills and keep your mouth shut.

I would personally not be concerned with only 400 - I thought the same way early on with 600 & last go-round used two 600's with spectacular results!
The thing is to not draw attention to yourselves with "short term" visits by people, or leaving root balls out in plain sight. Use discression, don't tell anyone and you'll be fine.
Please take into consideration that this state has lots of legal hoops authorities must jump through to get a search warrant. Here they have to prove you are selling (I do not), or they have to have a snitch verify that you have more than 25 plants (No one sees mine, but still I do not).
I've heard the rumors of power companies questioning more electrical consumption - in the very unlikely event this happens just tell them you got a couple plug in heaters or A/C units - or you have taken up welding as a hobby etc ...
Good luck in your endeavors.
Peace

lambofgod said:

no brother your good. chances are if you got caught it wouldnt be because of the electricity....your tv prolly runs 400 watts...i run 1600watts...plus an A/C which has to be taking up some juice too. from what i know...elec. companies figure you run about 1k watts a room....my elec. bill has only gone up maybe 25$ at the most. just pay your bills and keep your mouth shut.

Click to expand...

Our electricity bill already sucks because of a hot tub, but makes a nice dodge from the power co. Its thinking about that damn heat sig. that keeps me up at night.

i dont know my room stays nice and cool with a/c and air flow....get some duct boosters or inline duct fans and buy a aiir cooled hood when you get your 400.....no more heat signature. not to mention your roof even at night during summer will be hotter then the room

Please take into consideration that this state has lots of legal hoops authorities must jump through to get a search warrant. Here they have to prove you are selling (I do not), or they have to have a snitch verify that you have more than 25 plants (No one sees mine, but still I do not).

Click to expand...

Sounds a little more sane than our state. We had a 100% legit Hemp clothing store in town that got raided 3 times a year, and her business was as legal as butter on toast! She ended up having to close shop because the local LEO harassed her out of town. The cops where I live Barny Fife, back wood idiots!

if you wanna play it safe you could go with a 250 or a 150, could probably provide enough for personal use and alot better than the cfl's. and i would still use cfl's to veg to save power. have a veg box on 18/6 or 20/4 or w/e and then have your hps on 12/12 always

DocGreen said:

Sounds a little more sane than our state. We had a 100% legit Hemp clothing store in town that got raided 3 times a year, and her business was as legal as butter on toast! She ended up having to close shop because the local LEO harassed her out of town. The cops where I live Barny Fife, back wood idiots!

Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that - the insanity of the marijuana eradication effort while futile are life changing in some areas.
As far as a heat sig - how hot is your hot tub? My closet grow only gets to 82 deg f & I can't imagine that stands out that much. Just remember to exhaust through a roof vent or chimney.
I hope this helps you.
Peace

GreatwhiteNorth said:

I'm sorry to hear that - the insanity of the marijuana eradication effort while futile are life changing in some areas.
As far as a heat sig - how hot is your hot tub? My closet grow only gets to 82 deg f & I can't imagine that stands out that much. Just remember to exhaust through a roof vent or chimney.
I hope this helps you.
Peace

Click to expand...

It gets up to 100F, but unfortunately its outside. On a side note, the wife and I have decided *while baked mind you* that it would make an awesome exhaust vent for a million dollar underground grow op lol.

Really, we just have a small stealth grow in a 3x3x6 (ish) closet. Is their a huge difference in results of a 250 vs a 400??

If the 250 works almost as good as the 400, ill stick with that just to sleep better at night

DocGreen said:

Our electricity bill already sucks because of a hot tub, but makes a nice dodge from the power co. Its thinking about that damn heat sig. that keeps me up at night.

Click to expand...

That hot tub alone will pretty much save you. That much of a heat signature showing outside will pretty much put most cop suspicions at bay.
Not like they can use FLIR without a warrant, and those things are expensive to operate.

Not to mention FLIR cameras don't see through walls, they only detect heat leaks. If you have a properly insulated house, you will not have a signature to speak of.

You could probably grow two to four decent plants under a 250 watt....I'm using a 150 on one plant and she's gotten quite big.http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=48631 This is a link to high tech garden supply, and a 250 watt grow light.It's got a mh conversion bulb for veg, and the hps for flower.Also a timer.Assemble the reflector, hang it, and plug the ballast in and you're good. A 400 watt system with the same setup is here.http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=47981 It's actually a bit cheaper. I personally have one of these, but I can't run it because I don't have proper ventilation and my grow room gets hot enough to bake my plants, lol.If you have the room for it and proper ventilation,go for it.You could purchase a cool tube or make one,and I bet it would stay pretty nice. I think you really have to have a lot more watts going to be noticable to the cops.And they have to have a warrant to use FLIR, they aren't supposed to just run around randomly peeping at houses.I'd think a bigger issue would be odor control,but if you get a charcoal filter for your exhaust, you'd be ok.

Appreciate the feedback folks

The wife and I were talking it over, and we are leaning to the 250W at this point. For security reasons, we would prefer to keep our grow in a not so well vented closet, and 400 would probably be too hot.

My only other question is approximately how much of a hit in terms of yield would I take with the 250 vs 400?

You will need to be pushing somewhere over 2000 watts in order for the heat seekers to detect u.... 400 watts is nothing, it's like finding a needle in a hay stack. If they were chasing 400's they would be getting a search warrant for every electric kitchen oven or 50" palsma tv they picked up, that would piss alot of people off... I understand that u feel u are doing something the police will get u for... Trust me they r not looking for 400's unless u str8 tell them your self... Now if u were pushing maybe 4000's then yea I'll say your top is too hot for sure but 400's nah, NO WORRIES MATE !!! enjoy your space and your peace of mind bro gro a half to a whole pound... good growing mate !!!

DocGreen said:

Appreciate the feedback folks

The wife and I were talking it over, and we are leaning to the 250W at this point. For security reasons, we would prefer to keep our grow in a not so well vented closet, and 400 would probably be too hot.

My only other question is approximately how much of a hit in terms of yield would I take with the 250 vs 400?

Click to expand...

If you are going to go with 250w range, I would suggest using T5HO lamps instead of an HPS or MH, but it's a little more expensive because of the multiple bulbs. However, the growth is quite nice vegetatively and switching to 2700 or 3000K bulbs for flowering does well. Plus you can add an aquarium UVB bulb to the array to increase the potency of your crop, as they make T5HO UVB lamps.

Over 250w, I would say go MH or HPS. 250w or under, go T5HO.

DocGreen said:

Our electricity bill already sucks because of a hot tub, but makes a nice dodge from the power co. Its thinking about that damn heat sig. that keeps me up at night.

Click to expand...

I used to know a guy who lived in a very rough area, there were helicopters over his area every night of the week, he used 2x400w in his loft and never had trouble.

I also know someone who converted a shed into a snake room, he had multiple snake tanks in there with uvb lights all round, the police knocked at his door and asked to see inside the shed because it was lit up like a runway

Can the electric company tell if your using most of your electricity on a cycle like 12/12. for example at 8am my 600watt light kicks on, fans,A/C, 47"lcd, ole girls blow drier and hair straightener so on and so on then after 8 pm all of a sudden I turn off 700 or so watts. I guess im trying to say, can they tell the hour by hour usage of electricity? Sorry if this doesn't make sense

easygrinder said:

I used to know a guy who lived in a very rough area, there were helicopters over his area every night of the week, he used 2x400w in his loft and never had trouble.

I also know someone who converted a shed into a snake room, he had multiple snake tanks in there with uvb lights all round, the police knocked at his door and asked to see inside the shed because it was lit up like a runway

Click to expand...

First off knocking on the door and asking would have got them a hell no, weither it was snakes or not. there gonna need a warrant for that, but i can understand why he allowed them due to the fact that it was only snakes.

sippi said:

Can the electric company tell if your using most of your electricity on a cycle like 12/12. for example at 8am my 600watt light kicks on, fans,A/C, 47"lcd, ole girls blow drier and hair straightener so on and so on then after 8 pm all of a sudden I turn off 700 or so watts. I guess im trying to say, can they tell the hour by hour usage of electricity? Sorry if this doesn't make sense

Click to expand...

well you think that they would be able to tell exactly when it switches on and switches off, that they would be able to see all and any power spikes, however the reality appears to be quite different.

If they could be that accurate over however many watts when it comes on and off, then the fuckers wouldn't be quite so anal about getting a meter reading, if they don't get a meter reading they always say that its estimated, and when you give them the meter reading the bill normally goes up.

So on the face of it, it would appear as though they can't really tell that well.

Digital meters can. Old school can't. If you are really worried look up a usage calculator online. You will see that an electric water heater or base heater will use 4-10x the electricity of a 400w being left on 24/7.

Anything over a 10 degree temp difference between your grow room and the rest of your house will cause an IR camera to shift to a different color on the monitor and can be added to a list for future fly-overs. You can have your lights on during the day if you live in a warmer area and you will never have a problem with IR copper choppers.

PS - NO WARRANT NEEDED TO FLY OVER YOUR HOUSE AND SCAN IT! YOU OWN THE GROUND AND YOU HAVE YOUR RIGHTS ON THE GROUND BUT YOU HAVE NO SAY IN WHAT GOES OVER YOUR HOUSE SO BE CAREFUL.