how much power is too much power??

just Wondering peoples opinion on how much power you can comsume on a residential dwelling with-out throwing A "RED FLAG"... Im tring to decide how big to go, but I been pretty small for awhile and no problems..like one 400w hps and one 400 mh running at once.. plus living in the house... I've heared of city, I/E power companies monitering this stuff close these days... Any thought or suggestions would be great!!

If you don't need to add new circuits just for your grow setup your nowhere near setting off any red flags. Pay your bills, and they don't care. I would worry more so about your neighbors smelling the sweet aroma of ganja.

i just moved from my 1 bedroom apt where i was running 2-600's now im in a 2 bedroom condo with 3-600's with no flags, but then again im in cali where they really dont trip on rooms, but a general rule of thumb is 1000 watts for every bedroom in the house, so a 3 bed house can run 3x1000 lights, and always use power saving tricks like small 9 watt cfl's for regular house lights and switch to a gas dryer if you can or gas water heater, also set your lights to run at night or as much off peak hours as possible, in my area the difference between peak power prices and off peak are about 30% so that pays

yeah, looks like I should be good then!! thanks for the input guys much appreciated!!! any other input is awesome too!!

what is the best way to set up your electrical from the panel?
If say i need 5o amps...

power companys look for big jumps and drops in your use, so if you have a 200 dollar bill one month and a 600 dollar bill the next its a red flag. trust me i work for a power company so i know

northern cali said:

power companys look for big jumps and drops in your use, so if you have a 200 dollar bill one month and a 600 dollar bill the next its a red flag. trust me i work for a power company so i know

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Don't listen to this fucking idiot. Your fine, fat sam broke it down perfectly, 1000 watts per room is "rule of thumb", even legendary Jorge Cervantes agrees with this. With 2 little 400 watt lights, I wouldn't worry. I'd worry more about odor like said before. Put your money in your carbon filter.

northern cali said:

power companys look for big jumps and drops in your use, so if you have a 200 dollar bill one month and a 600 dollar bill the next its a red flag. trust me i work for a power company so i know

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I have a friend that works for the power co as well and he'd agree with you totally! They're looking for 'jumps' not spikes........ If your power bill is not usually $200 and it jumps to 6, something somewhere is wrong.....they not looking for you to be over useing, but rather if something is wrong like someone stealing your power, or it being lost somewhere.
Work it up gradually and keep it steady and pay your bill on time. My power runs me always over 350 a month up to 5 at times in the summer with ac, etc....... You thinnk they care what you use the power for??? If the cops are already looking at your power records, your already busted.
I hope this last idiot gets slammed for his worthless rude comment.....aren't we all here to help? And you know it all??

Good Luck and have fun--but stay safe first always

growinman

303 said:

Don't listen to this fucking idiot. Your fine, fat sam broke it down perfectly, 1000 watts per room is "rule of thumb", even legendary Jorge Cervantes agrees with this. With 2 little 400 watt lights, I wouldn't worry. I'd worry more about odor like said before. Put your money in your carbon filter.

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look here fucker i never said he would not be fine 2 400 they won't use much power i was just telling him what the power companys look for

hey, I appricate any input... it seems we have a little differance in opinoin.. I think it would be smart to ramp it up slow tho, like it seems if you jump up they will see that and wonder how it got so high so fast!!! thanks guys keep the awesome advice coming!! Thanks!

headbandrocker said:

what is the best way to set up your electrical from the panel?
If say i need 5o amps...

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what are you using the 50 amps for??
Im a electrican, if you need 50 for one piece of equiptment then you will need a bigger wire and a 50 amp breaker.

If you need 50 amps in a room to add circits I would just run a few 20 amp branch circuts to the "room" or what ever, this will run most any equiptment needed for grow use...

Hi dano,thanks for the advice,I need to run 6 x 1k but im switchin to 24o so 6o amps should run the a/c and lights.Would you advise a sub panel in the flower room?
Im having my buddy help me out with the hard stuff,but would apprecite any info i can share with him on the matter,as he knows his stuff but not in the Garden/electrical sense.cheers

well were i live in the winter electric is like 35$ a month but in summer it can ge tas high as 200$ a month. just cuz ppl go from using gas heat to air conditioning and fans.
a jump in a few hundred $ is no biggy

but if ur bill jumps from 200$ a month to 1200$ a month, then ya thats a "red flag" thay might think ur building a nuke or sumthing lol

realy "pot growing" is not on the agenda of power companies.
ever time u read about sum 1 getting cauth cuz of the power company its ALWAYS cuz thay were STEALING power.

Xigmo said:

well were i live in the winter electric is like 35$ a month but in summer it can ge tas high as 200$ a month. just cuz ppl go from using gas heat to air conditioning and fans.
a jump in a few hundred $ is no biggy

but if ur bill jumps from 200$ a month to 1200$ a month, then ya thats a "red flag" thay might think ur building a nuke or sumthing lol

realy "pot growing" is not on the agenda of power companies.
ever time u read about sum 1 getting cauth cuz of the power company its ALWAYS cuz thay were STEALING power.

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so true!!!

Just throwing this out to add some info. but if you own a Saltwater Aquarium that's large enough, you're pushing as much/more wattage than an average (400-600 watt) and some aquariums use 1000 watt MH's depending on how big they are. So keep that in mind, also this is America, the power company would rather have you use more electricity and pay for it, than get rid of a good customer cause he "may be growing" but that's just my opinion. GL growing!