Wattage and how high can i go?

i was wonderin when does it really get bait with the energy consumption for a small apartment in a building in Canada, i know most of u might find it funny but i'm tryin to decided whether i wanna go with hps 400 watts or hps 250 for like 4 plants and relatiely small closet space....do u guys think if anyone would suspect anythin with 400 watts runnin€? Maybe u could tel lme some limits....

 

You can safely go 1,000 watts extra. A commom elec. space heater uses that much (sometimes more).

If the utility happens to call (very unlikely), tell them you have guests staying with you.

 

thanx, i appreciate it

 

My rule is 1000W per room in your house, I would go with the 400W for your plants. Its very unlikely you'll get caught unless you're doing commercial grows with 5-8 1000 watters.

 

Back in the early '90's, I increased my growspace size from 16 sq/ft using 800 watts to 64 sq/ft using 3,200 watts.
Several months later I received a phone call from SoCalEd.
The woman said they'd noticed a large increase in my electrical usage and offered me a free "energy audit", where people from the elec. Co. come out to my house and poke around, looking for electrical shorts and elec. drains.

The utilities have "red flags" hard-wired into their computers when there is a dramatic increases in elec. usage. The main reason is it shows if there might be an elec. short, or maybe a neighbor "tapped" into the line. It also shows that there maybe something illegal going on, such as a sweat shop or other commercial enterprise in an area zoned residential.
When these red flags appear is based on:
-the sq/ft of the residence.
-the past elec. usage at that house over the years.
-how much juice others in that neighborhood use.

1,000 watts/room is way too much, based on my own experience.

BTW, I told the woman from SoCalEd that my sister, brother-in-law and 3 kids had moved into my house. I could get away with it because I lived in a 5-bedroom house with a 1 bedroom apt. over the garage, and in reality there were only 4 of us living there. So the extra 2,400 watts (actually more when you consider pumps, fans, etc.)could be accounted for by an additional 5 people.
"I tell those darn kids to turn stuff off but they don't listen."
"I know what you mean" she said "my kids are the same way."

 

Wow, I dont know that much about growing weed indoors, I've only researched it. I grew a few plants outdoors but most of them died, what was I expecting? I live in Scotland.

You said in an earlier post about how heaters can use more than 1000W, so if you had a heater in each bedroom thats 1000W per room. But wow, 800W to 3,200W is a big increase. Yeah and considering the pumps and fans and all that other good stuff, you also had people living with you so at times you might have been running 3,200-5,000W, thats just my estimate and I'm no electrician lol.

But personally living in a 1 bedroom flat I would use a 600W HPS to flower and flourcents to veg, I wouldnt want to go over the 1000W mark. Would you mind telling me what some of your yields where when you where running 3200W?

 

both of my computers uses a 600 watt psu alone both on im burning 1200 watts

 

rangerdanger is totally right about the electrical companies having "red flags" there are hundreds of reasons for them to be concerned about a big spike in electrical usage besides the possibility of a cannabis grow. One way to help soften this increase is to save electricity elsewhere in the house through more efficient usage. Replace every incandescant light you can with CFLs, be wary of some appliances, cable boxes will sit there and use 100 watts even when not in use! Look for energy-star complient appliances, upgrade you're house's insulation, especially in the attic and basement areas. Switch to a natural-gas clothes-dryer, stove, oven, etc. Best yet, invest in solar pannels, even when you aren't using the electricity from them, the energy will flow out into the grid and the electric company will pay you for the electricity. Any of these things are a great way to soften the blow of a grow, and its good stuff to do anyway, our beloved cannabis came from mother earth and we should do our best to preserve her!