how many watt can i use in my grow room without getting busted?

[just wondering]

hello fellow stoners ive currently finished a grow with two 600watt and one 400 watt light so a total of 1600 watts but now i want to do a bigger grow my plans were to put 6 x 600watt (3600watts) lights in my room, but then i thought thats a hell of a lot of watts pumping out of that room so i thought id ask here to see what you guys think about it lol so my question basicily is when does eletricity usage start to become an issue when growing? do you think i would have any problems with this amount of lights? i would be very greatfull of any advise you can give
thanx in advance

 

[mak]

well,what you have to do is calculate how much amps all of your equipment is using,then see how many amps your breakers support.

open your breaker box up and see what breakers go to what outlets.

i believe each 1k is about 9.5 amps..not too sure of 400s or 600s

and commonly,household rooms support 15 or 20 amps.

 

[stonerman]

A lot of these growers with the big grow ops get busted because their stealing electricity. A couple thousand watts is almost nothing to pick up. Those little electric space heaters usually put off about 1500 watts alone. Fridges, deep freezes put off big wattage also. 3600 watts inst very much. Maybe If you start running 20-50 thousand watts all of a sudden, the power company might notice something lol.

 

[Bayou bud]

Honestly, its not just the watt count, but the times of the usage. If you got a few extra thousand watts running at your place, no big deal. But if they see the power goes way up for 12/12, they aren't going to skip over that one. Good luck man. Respect the first two rules of fight club n with those number you'll be straight.

 

[ZeeBuds]

i dunno if i'd push it up more than 2000 watts, that would start making me paranoid as hell...

Maybe scrog your next grow? i've seen and heard of people doing it, and--if done correctly-- it improves your yield substantually(varies with strain of course)

 

[autobahn101]

Whenever in doubt - come up with a better plan. Otherwise go for it.

 

[mak]

Honestly, its not just the watt count, but the times of the usage. If you got a few extra thousand watts running at your place, no big deal. But if they see the power goes way up for 12/12, they aren't going to skip over that one. Good luck man. Respect the first two rules of fight club n with those number you'll be straight.

everyone on this forum has power that goes up for 12/12...lol

 

[jondamon]

People tend to forget one major thing when dealing with power companies.

Their product!!! Electricity. Their customer!! You.

They aren't gonna shop you to 5-0 if you're paying for what you use. They may offer you help to conserve electricity but at the end of the day for all they know you've got a small welding kit. Tig mig or arc welders use a lot of power can't remember which. Lol.



J

 

[Bayou bud]

mak- what I am saying is that the wattage isn't as much of a factor as increased wattage with the 12/12 as well. But in all honesty I agree with jondamon, unless your skimping on your bills, you are a highly valued customer to these companies. If you are worrying about wattage because your running a ton of lamps, then the 12/12, at the same time every day would be a quick blip on the radar to the power companies, if that is something you were worrying about. That kind of shit doesn't matter till the cops are already looking into you, and if they are looking into you, the large scale 12/12 electricity jump is one of the first things that they look for. It's easy info that the police can get a hold of if you already are under surveillance. If you want to have a large grow and peace of mind, have 2-4 different flowering tents, each having different day/night cycles starting at different times to show varied wattage usage over the day, not a stark night/day.

 

[just wondering]

cheers for all the great advise guys and if your wondering yes im going for it lol im picking up the kit tomorow morning lol
um i did have another quick question if anyone can help me um basicly im looking at using the 600 watt adjust a wing shades, i have used these before but anyway i was looking at the spec of the shade and it said that it can cover 2.36 m2 1.75m x 1.35m which with my previous experience with these shades this doesnt seem to be the case i find that it only covers about 1.45 x 1.20 well so what the hell are they on about they also say that with a 600 watt light that we should expect around a kilo of dry herbs well in my opinion i think theve been having a few too many dry herbs themself's lol but has anyone used these lights before? if so what space would you recomend for me
thanx in adavance

 

[jondamon]

If you're using a 600w you don't Want a bigger footprint than about 3.5x3.5ft.

If you're planning on running 3600w of lighting then you are gonna need some serious ventilation/AC to keep everything cool.


I use a 600w lumatek with SUNMASTER DUAL SPEC lamp in a SUNLIGHT SUPPLY BLOCKBUSTER air cooled hood over a standard WILMA4 pot. I'm using it in a 1mX1m floor area.

 

[Bayou bud]

Two words IMO. Parabolic Scrog. Make a flat canopy under the lamp directly, and the ones that appear to get less light, allow them to grow up taller to get extra light, the ones on the outside are away from the heat source so they can grow higher up without heat stress. Big healthy Colas

 

[rollinbud]

The power company wants you to use lots of power, they could care less what you do with it! Running 100-2000watts of lighting isnt gonna be that big a deal, especially if you have electric heat or ac running anyway. Id be more worried about letting your buddies know you are growing, thats the quick way to get busted..

 

[mrmadcow]

4000 watts of light plus fans,ac, ect would be a big deal in a small studio apartment but 25,000 watts would not be noticed in a 9000 sq ft mansion. my bill dropped $75 a month when my oldest daughter moved out. that's about what adding 2 600 watt lights would run in my area.

like said above, pay your bills, keep your mouth shut & dont do anything stupid & you should be ok. & make sure you don't overload your wiring! I would be more worried about that then having the power co narc on you.