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Busts for increased electricity usage

S

Syndicated_Death

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
1,603
Considering how much juice goes into some of the folding farms do things like this concern you?

These particular guys were bitcoin mining but it could just as easily apply to us.
 
Not at all. I run a dozen or more PC's every day out of my home. They don't draw near that much electricity. I have never heard of anyone anywhere near me getting investigated for this. If they do knock on my door, then by all means waste tax dollars looking for marijuana.
 
I've always wondered this. Or they raid you because the ghetto bird picks up too much heat radiating from your house.
 
Gilthanis said:
Not at all. I run a dozen or more PC's every day out of my home. They don't draw near that much electricity. I have never heard of anyone anywhere near me getting investigated for this. If they do knock on my door, then by all means waste tax dollars looking for marijuana.
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Actually according to the article in Canada they waste YOUR dollars if they don't find what they were looking for. to the sum of 5200 (CAD).

Being American I don't know what our policy is in respect to this. But, having someone come in to my house with guns drawn and tossing it for doing a good deed is unsettling.
 
So some background is in order here. BC has a huge issue with these organizations tapping power upstream from power meters and siphoning "free" electricity. As utilities with this issue install both metrology instruments at the distribution center and at the premises endpoints they are finding very big operations.

One may think that investigations like this are a waste of taxpayer money. On the other hand, utilities still pay for the siphoned power, which gets passed though rates to ratepayers. Most taxpayers also consume electricity (I have no support for this, but I would guess the overlap is something like 99.999%) It may seem unreasonable at first, but those operations cost everyone a lot more over time.
 
the following is a complete lie:

last I heard the helicopters with the heat sensors etc are no longer legel (I live in Denver and know a ton of mj growers) so I believe it to be correct, though I would not be surprised if the illegal searching was still going on.

The power companies do monitor things pretty closely. However they really only monitor for huge spikes from the 12 hour light cycles (day/night) so I think if you have a server farm on 24/7 it's a lot less suspicious. I also imagine you would have to be doing like 16,000 watts or more for someone to take interest...

They really only bust the large growers who net $100k+. Like every other business in the world they only care about profit. Not because you are growing an illegal substance.


/end of lie
 
pjkenned said:
So some background is in order here. BC has a huge issue with these organizations tapping power upstream from power meters and siphoning "free" electricity. As utilities with this issue install both metrology instruments at the distribution center and at the premises endpoints they are finding very big operations.

One may think that investigations like this are a waste of taxpayer money. On the other hand, utilities still pay for the siphoned power, which gets passed though rates to ratepayers. Most taxpayers also consume electricity (I have no support for this, but I would guess the overlap is something like 99.999%) It may seem unreasonable at first, but those operations cost everyone a lot more over time.
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I hear what you're saying but it doesn't mention any meter discrepancies. So, busting on the premise of electricity theft is right out here. They took data from private and legitimate power use in order to bust them for... nothing. The upshot is they still get paid for the "bust" despite nothing being done wrong.
 
Cops came to my door once but not because of increased electricity or roflcopters.

Back in 1999, I was living in an old, small, cottage on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. The cottage was probably only 640 sq. feet but I had a very large reef aquarium lit by 4 x 400W metal halide lamps at 20,000 kelvin (very blue look to them). At night the whole cottage glowed out of every small crack in the cottage. It was quite the sight.

Anyway, one evening a local constable came up to my door and politely asked me why my house was always glowing blue. He told me it was more personal curiosity and he wasn't there on "official business". I invited him in and he sat there starting at the aquarium for a good hour til dispatch squawked out on his walkie-talkie for his location. heh.
 
Tobit said:
Cops came to my door once but not because of increased electricity or roflcopters.

Back in 1999, I was living in an old, small, cottage on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. The cottage was probably only 640 sq. feet but I had a very large reef aquarium lit by 4 x 400W metal halide lamps at 20,000 kelvin (very blue look to them). At night the whole cottage glowed out of every small crack in the cottage. It was quite the sight.

Anyway, one evening a local constable came up to my door and politely asked me why my house was always glowing blue. He told me it was more personal curiosity and he wasn't there on "official business". I invited him in and he sat there starting at the aquarium for a good hour til dispatch squawked out on his walkie-talkie for his location. heh.
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Tobit, you sound like an interesting fellow. Keep up the shenanigans!
 
I would purposely use enough power so they come by, that way I can be taken off the list, then it's safe to start a grow op. :D j/k
 
Call my a cynic but I wonder if this is a real rule in that area of Canada. I also wonder if this actually happened. The article is very skimp on details since it all came from an IRC chat. If true it certainly does suck but the amount they determined to be useful seems odd. 93kwh is a lot but it would not be that hard with a good number of systems.
 
Since a lot of people in California do "indoor gardening" (nudge nudge ;);) you know what I mean) I do not expect such a thing to happen to me.

No I don't have an indoor garden btw.
 
Elledan said:
*pets Tobit* :3
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*pets the kitteh*

tjmagneto said:
Since a lot of people in California do "indoor gardening" (nudge nudge ;);) you know what I mean) I do not expect such a thing to happen to me.

No I don't have an indoor garden btw.
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Yeah, but you live over in the central valley area. Don't most of the wierdos live along the SoCal coast area?
 
Syndicated_Death said:
Being American I don't know what our policy is in respect to this. But, having someone come in to my house with guns drawn and tossing it for doing a good deed is unsettling.
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well in this case it's bitcoin, so it's not a good deed.
See kids, this is where bitcoin will lead ya ;), fold on instead!
 
tjmagneto said:
Since a lot of people in California do "indoor gardening" (nudge nudge ;);) you know what I mean) I do not expect such a thing to happen to me.

No I don't have an indoor garden btw.
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Hey, I live about 80 miles north of you! Where I live there is a lot of indoor/outdoor gardening.

amdgamer said:
*pets the kitteh*



Yeah, but you live over in the central valley area. Don't most of the wierdos live along the SoCal coast area?
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There are wierdos everywhere. Especially in the mountains around the town I live in.
 
I've been burning through kwh for years without issue. I'm using around 70 kwh per month right now.
 
amdgamer said:
Yeah, but you live over in the central valley area. Don't most of the wierdos live along the SoCal coast area?
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Most of them do congregate around the SF bay and LA. Also there are aging hippies and New Agers inhabiting the Sierra Nevada mountains here and there.

Untitledone said:
Hey, I live about 80 miles north of you!
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Wow, a [H]orde member nearby. What town if you don't mind me asking
 
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Tobit said:
Cops came to my door once but not because of increased electricity or roflcopters.

Back in 1999, I was living in an old, small, cottage on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. The cottage was probably only 640 sq. feet but I had a very large reef aquarium lit by 4 x 400W metal halide lamps at 20,000 kelvin (very blue look to them). At night the whole cottage glowed out of every small crack in the cottage. It was quite the sight.

Anyway, one evening a local constable came up to my door and politely asked me why my house was always glowing blue. He told me it was more personal curiosity and he wasn't there on "official business". I invited him in and he sat there starting at the aquarium for a good hour til dispatch squawked out on his walkie-talkie for his location. heh.
Click to expand...
I had the same thing happen, I had a bunch of Halides over a 125 gal tank and because my wife and I carry security clearances the ATF and FBI came by with questions one day. So they took a look in and left.
 
tjmagneto said:
Wow, a [H]orde member nearby. What town if you don't mind me asking
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Coarsegold, CA 93614. Its a small town about 30 miles north of fresno, and about 30 miles south of yosemite national park.

My bother's EX-wife lives in visalia, and he has to meet her half way every other weekend to pickup his kid. Thats why I immediately knew where you were haha.
 
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