Watts till flagged - Apt

Ive asked around everywhere and can't seem to get a definitive answer to the question, so I'll just go ahead and ask it..

I live in an apartment, where my full hydro/utilities/etc are included in my rent. It's a fairly large building, 21 floors with a penthouse. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, and as stated already all utilities are included in rent. The rent stays fixed at the EXACT same rate every month, regardless of how much or how little hydro I use. For example, I could leave all my taps running and all my lights running 24/7 and my rent would not go up 1 single penny.

So, my friend got me a HPS 1000watt light for free.. So I figure why not use it? The question I pose to you experts is.. Will this get me flagged? Will 1000watts in an apartment get you flagged?

I want to point out as well that I've got a PS3, Xbox360 and a 50 inch plasma tv set. I also, out of bad habit, keep the kitchen lights on 24/7 pretty much. Each light is 60watts, and there are 5 in the one chandellier. On top of that, my playstation 3, for the last 3 years that I have lived here has also remained powered on, on an almost consistent basis. I did some scrounging and figured that the PS3 typically draws 340watts or around there of power. The back of my television set says the following:

100-240V ~ 50/60 Hz - 4.5 A.

If I calculated correctly my television uses approximately 600-800watts of power when on, correct? My television set is almost always on, since we're constantly watching it (usually along with ps3 hence why they're both always on).

My computer also has a 550w power supply and is never turned off, only restarted daily or as needed (updates, sluggish, etc).

So will adding this 1000w to all this get me flagged? If so then turning all these things off should be sufficient to be able to turn on the lights correct?

Anyone here have their rent set up like mine is? (fixed) successfully grow 1000w?

there is no set amount of electricity usage that will flag you by the cops. don't steal electricity and pay the bill on time and that is like 95% of the solution. your situation is a little bit trickier because your electric is included in the rent. if i were you i would try to cut down on other non-essential electricity usage. also you might try "ramping" up your usage slowly over the span of a month or two so that when you do use the light it won't be as drastic as a change and then cut out all non-essential electricity. hope that kinda made sense as im high as hell right now.

around here electricity is $0.12/kWh which means that light going for 18 hours a day will cost me $65 a month or so.

Depends on how they have it set up. If they only have one meter for the building they cant determine which unit it is coming from, short of inspecting each apartment, which they have legal right to do. If each unit has a meter then they can tell which units use the most electric.

Nevertheless, it is never wise to grow in/on property that is not yours. Too many variables at work here that are out of your control.

i think you'll be okay . as long as you don't do 24/7 light for veg. just do like16/8 or 18/6.do that and try to conserve power in other places. like turn the lights off . your playstation off . shit like that it'll balance out in the end . although, i don't think it matters anyways. space heaters draw like 1600 watts . and people use them all the time in winter.

I am fairly certain, as I was told by someone that knows the electricity of the building, that there is only one single meter for the entire building rather than on a per-apartment basis. I don't have any meters in my apartment at all either.

Right now I've got 2 plants under 92watts of 2700k CFL's and 76watts of 6500k Daylight CFL's. I really want to upgrade to that 1000watter and get the bigger yields I know I would get. Just don't want a flag to go off.

Is there a way I can find out for certain if there is one meter or if they can see on a per apartment basis as someone pointed out earlier?

Also it's 12/12 of course, flowering.

Thanks again

There is a good reason you have not gotten a definitive answer yet: There is no set amount of power that will get you 'flagged'. In fact, as long as they were paying bills on time, I'm sure the power company would love it if everyone had all of their stuff on all of the time.

Try turning some of your other stuff off sometimes. Also, keep in mind that a 550W power supply in your computer is rarely putting out it's rated power. If it is rated for 550W and was actually putting out 550W all the time, it would be hot as all hell. Keep in mind that nobody is going to see a power increase and immediately think, "He's growing weed!" For all they know you got another couple computers, or a computer and a huge plasma TV, or a space heater, or any number of things that suck lots of power.

It makes sense that there would be only one meter for the building, if it is included in rent. If you are really curious, go ask the front desk/management what the deal is. If they ask why you want to know, just tell them you were wondering about it or were talking with a friend and he thought X and you thought Y or something. No big deal.

In an apartment, I'd be more worried about odor control than power consumption.

rkm said:

Depends on how they have it set up. If they only have one meter for the building they cant determine which unit it is coming from, short of inspecting each apartment, which they have legal right to do. If each unit has a meter then they can tell which units use the most electric.

Nevertheless, it is never wise to grow in/on property that is not yours. Too many variables at work here that are out of your control.

Click to expand...

+rep for sure

1000 watts is nothin, spread that out over the whole 22 units and its insignificant. Maybe 5 of those lights and someone MIGHT come knocking, but 1 is cake. Believe me when I tell you that the combined rent more than covers the insignificant $60 increase on a monthly multi-thousand dollar bill the building as a whole uses. Smell will be the biggest issue.

Smell actually isn't an issue as I've got some very strong scented oil sprays on a timer, it overpowers the weed smell. However, everyone on my floor smokes weed and the entire floor constantly smells like it. Not to mention we constantly are smokin, have lived here for 3 years and never had an issue or complaint. I've actually met people in the building through smoking lol.

That and the fact that I've got huge bay windows that I can open that will air the shit out of my place if necessary.

ya 1000w light wont get you noticed but if your worried replace your light bulbs in the apt with some low watt cfls and turn your hot water tank down a few degrees.Theres always some way to reduce energy consumtion.veg with your cfls and flower with the 1000,that way its only on for 12hrs a day.

Just walk around the buildings. The meters are mounted usually to the back on the wall. Its a tell tale sign. Count the meters and see what you get.

I agree with all the others about reducing power consumption in other areas...and 1000 watts probably won't draw attention. Here's something very important to keep in mind...with repsect to your neighbors that you smoke with and such...DO NOT SHOW THEM OR TELL THEM ABOUT YOUR GROW.

And yeah, it's not wise to grow in property that is not your own either.

i turned both temps in my water heater and bought an auto trafnfer for my ac to kick on and off when im not home. i can see a saving of 40$ in a 1 bedroom apt. thats alot.