Stealth against the not-so simple enemy?

Greeting everyone here at RIU, first of all I would like to say it has been such a pleasure being a member of this community so far. I just cannot leave this forum alone! So much to learn

Onto the question:

Well it is accepted that a large portion of grows are in areas that it is illegal to cultivate the sticky icky we all love to smoke. So naturally people still cultivate the plant and I believe with a decent level of initial expenditure and discretion/common sense the average Joe can avoid reprimand for his crimes attributed to the usual vectors of punishment (snitches, neighbors, raids due to mouthing off etc.)

However when it comes to monitoring from the Power Grid I wonder how people combat having irregular power usage patterns? I have heard of this being used to obtain a search warrant and perform a house raid. RIU's thoughts on this?

My second concern is FLIR, I wonder how people avoid the helicopter reading elevated heat signatures through their roofing and also the heat spewing out the exhaust duct into the *wherever*? This evidence could also lead to a raid and thus a very unhappy grower.

So, I request the accumulative knowledge of RIU to enlighten me.

Regards, Kaeden

Dude this is a great topic and has been discussed many times on here but lets look at it with some common sense real quick. If you run a 1000 wat light and every fan and other gizmo you can put in your room you still aren't using as much power as the guy running an electric space heater or a decent size A/C. So by the theory that people get busted by using too much power shouldn't the be searching every house running a heater or A/C? And FLIR is a highly debated topic but contrary to alot of paranoid opinions, FLIR only detects surface temps and heat leaks. If you have a cab in your house vented to the inside you are fine. I am a certified home rehab carpenter that uses IR to inspect a house before any work takes place so I do know about this. Common sense goes along way. As we speak I have maybe 5 100 watt lights on, an air purifier, my computer, fridge and a load of laundry going so I dont believe that a grow light is spiking my light bill excessively nor do I believe that any power company has the time or the man power to monitor this. The light company may report it if your light bill triples from one month to the next but other than that I think you can sleep tonight without worrying about the drug task force waking you up.

bigv1976 said:

Dude this is a great topic and has been discussed many times on here but lets look at it with some common sense real quick. If you run a 1000 wat light and every fan and other gizmo you can put in your room you still aren't using as much power as the guy running an electric space heater or a decent size A/C. So by the theory that people get busted by using too much power shouldn't the be searching every house running a heater or A/C? And FLIR is a highly debated topic but contrary to alot of paranoid opinions, FLIR only detects surface temps and heat leaks. If you have a cab in your house vented to the inside you are fine. I am a certified home rehab carpenter that uses IR to inspect a house before any work takes place so I do know about this. Common sense goes along way. As we speak I have maybe 5 100 watt lights on, an air purifier, my computer, fridge and a load of laundry going so I dont believe that a grow light is spiking my light bill excessively nor do I believe that any power company has the time or the man power to monitor this. The light company may report it if your light bill triples from one month to the next but other than that I think you can sleep tonight without worrying about the drug task force waking you up.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the speedy reply!
I am not growing yet just doing a lot of research as every one should
Well the vent question was my thoughts exactly just to clarify though if I am venting at 2 x cabinets at 1.8m tall x 1.4m wide x 80cm deep internally then I would naturally have to intake externally? So I would probably just opt to tap into the sky light and place a rain filter on there

Also howabout the fact I am thinking 4 x 400 Watt HPS? (2 for each cabinet)

As far as intake that is up to you but the light question is relative to your normal energy usage. If you keep all your electrical items turned off most of the time and decide to start running 1600 watts of lights a in tune power company may pick up on it but 1600 wats in a house is not alot bro!! Run around your house at the peak of your electrical usage and start counting wattage. You will see that another 1600 watts is not an exponential amount of juice and if you are paranoid start shutting lights and unneccesary electrical items off when they are not in use. I bet you can go through your hous right now and kill 500 wastts. Shit turn of your computer and save 400-500 watts. It's daytime. Shut off your lights that are on and count the total wattage. The whole light company calling the cops thing is, in my eyes, total paranoia for any normal sized growing op.

Thank you for putting my paranoid side at rest bigv!
I am still nervous about FLIR however, won't the IR generated by 1200 Watts be able to penetrate the insulation of my roof and show up a blisteringly hot surface temperature?
Howabout if I vented outside won't they see a plume of heat bursting out my window and be like "Errr excuse me sir but wtf?"

I may just be being paranoid but I do love to learn these things

if nervous to start, start small and low profile
400w hps works, so 250w
i grow with 78w of cfl's and get enough for my small needs
start at your comfort level, then work up

Yeah you are like me. You wont to grow a forrest. I started out with a 10x5 room in my shed now I have a cab that I built that is 2x4x5 and a small 1 plant box that I built today to journal a grow in which I am gonna grow.... I am getting off track. If you vent outside and a bird with FLIR scans your house yes a cop will probably knock on your door at some point and you be forced to politely inform him that you have a portable a/c and it requires the venting to the outside and apologize for any trouble you have caused and wish him well as you clos the door. As far as the 1200 wats yes it probably will make a warm spot on the roof if you are growing in the attic but you could minimize it by insulating well and then it will appear as you have a thin spot in your insulation and noone will think any different. My advice is about the same as the last guys. Downsize bro. I dont know about you but I would much rather sit at home and smoke some killer dope off one of my 6 plants rather the tell my cell mate about the 50 I was just getting ready to harvest when they kicked te door in.

to figure out how much your bill would rise while experimenting to figure out how much it would cost to run the extra watts goes like this: if you use 800 watt lights this means your lights use 800 watts per hour and every 1000 watts used is one kilowatt and for every kilowatt it will cost you 8-10 cents so if you use them 24 hours a day for 30 days it would cost you about $1.50 per day that is if your electric supplier charges 8 cents per kilowatt so for the whole month it would cost about $46.08 extra so yea i hope you got that its kind of alot you just have to know how much your electricity supplier charges per kilowatt, and if you were flowering it would only be half of that.

You should start small and get a feel for growing. Then expand.

As far as patterns go-
Many run thier lights at NIGHT and think they are saving money, because the Kwh rates are lower (off peak). The problem with that is two-fold:

Most homes have reduced power use late at night... because they are asleep and most everything high wattage wise is OFF. Now if the power company looks at your HOURLY USE HISTORY, they will see that you are burning a lot of watts at a time when most people don't. The other thing is the steady 12 or 18 hrs cycles... kinda plain as day there.

So, run your lights and high wattage stuff during the DAY. This way you don't stand out from your neighbors as bad. It is possible to have TV's stereos, A/C units and other things all running during the day drawing lots of power. Your lights will blend in with other high use items. Running your lights at night is a BAD idea, period.

I also like to SLEEP well at night. I do this by knowing I have CO alarms, Smoke alarms and other monitoring equipment watching my grow 24/7. If my lights are all off at night when I am asleep, then the chances of fire WHILE I am sleeping are greatly reduced. If something goes wrong during the day, I am awake and there to know about first thing. This is simple common sense, yet so many disregard it. Go figure.

I thought I was starting small with a stealth cabinet at 1.8m tall x 1.4m wide x 80cm deep?
I have read another DIY design that uses insulation etc. internally on the cabinet, that has put my mind somewhat at ease.
Growone

400w hps works, so 250w

Click to expand...

That made no sense? Please elaborate? You think I should start at 250W as opposed to 400W?

Once again many thanks for the speedy replies!

How does the poer company study hourly use when the only thing keeping track of your use is the meter on the side of the house. Come on lets use common sense people.

Kaeden said:

I thought I was starting small with a stealth cabinet at 1.8m tall x 1.4m wide x 80cm deep?
I have read another DIY design that uses insulation etc. internally on the cabinet, that has put my mind somewhat at ease.
Growone

That made no sense? Please elaborate? You think I should start at 250W as opposed to 400W?

Once again many thanks for the speedy replies!

Click to expand...

sorry about the garbled post, was supposed to read
400w works, so does 250w
what i was going for was is you can grow good plants way down low on the watts
for that size chamber, a 600w would probably work pretty well
it really depends on your comfort level and the laws in your location

Laws make it illegal, naturally why this thread exists because of my concern.
I am not overly worried, just doing my research.
You think 1 x 600W HPS or HID would handle that sized cabinet?
Regards, Dom

bigv1976 said:

How does the poer company study hourly use when the only thing keeping track of your use is the meter on the side of the house. Come on lets use common sense people.

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the age of computers is upon us, there is an app for that. meter on the house is for billing individuals, computers monitor the power grid and trust me they know

Kaeden said:

Laws make it illegal, naturally why this thread exists because of my concern.
I am not overly worried, just doing my research.
You think 1 x 600W HPS or HID would handle that sized cabinet?
Regards, Dom

Click to expand...

overkill for a box that size

Kaeden said:

Laws make it illegal, naturally why this thread exists because of my concern.
I am not overly worried, just doing my research.
You think 1 x 600W HPS or HID would handle that sized cabinet?
Regards, Dom

Click to expand...

600w hps are nice because they have the highest lumen/watt output
the sizes usually quoted for hps bulbs in feet measure

3 x 3 feet - 400w hps
3.5 x 3.5 - 600w hps
4 x 4 - 1000w hps

my quick estimate was your cabinet was about 12 sq ft

growone said:

600w hps are nice because they have the highest lumen/watt output
the sizes usually quoted for hps bulbs in feet measure

3 x 3 feet - 400w hps
3.5 x 3.5 - 600w hps
4 x 4 - 1000w hps

my quick estimate was your cabinet was about 12 sq ft

Click to expand...

69 Cubic feet or 25 square feet.
Your estimate was off.
3.3 feet to metre (approx)

But still the input is appreciated.

Kaeden said:

69 Cubic feet or 25 square feet.
Your estimate was off.
3.3 feet to metre (approx)

But still the input is appreciated.

Click to expand...

no, double check shows

1.4 * 3.3 + 0.8 *3.3 = 4.62 * 2.64 = 12.19 sq ft

at least that's how i came up with my number

growone said:

no, double check shows

1.4 * 3.3 + 0.8 *3.3 = 4.62 * 2.64 = 12.19 sq ft

at least that's how i came up with my number

Click to expand...

in case you didn't know a feature of google is conversion of anything to anything

simply type 1.8 meters to feet and google will do it for you