Grow room setup. Power usage worries

[VinDeezle]

In general it cracks me up how paranoid people get about power use without really thinking about it. I've got a mate who has a heated pool, multiple welders, plasma cutters, five fridges AC/heating and more. Absolute power glutton. He gets $1500-$2000 bills but has this hangup about being caught using a 200w light due to "excess power consumption" and "police thermal cameras" and he's been procrastinating for two years with the light still in the box.

I swear the reality of their paranoia will never hit them.

 

[bushbob]

I think my entire grow uses as much power as my 2kW sandwich press, vacuum cleaner or an electric bar heater.
As you say, with that dudes existing power usage, plugging in a tiny 200W light is nothing. Thats about as much as leaving a computer running 24/7.

 

[VinDeezle]

I think my entire grow uses as much power as my 2kW sandwich press, vacuum cleaner or an electric bar heater.
As you say, with that dudes existing power usage, plugging in a tiny 200W light is nothing. Thats about as much as leaving a computer running 24/7.

I love how he assumes the thermal cameras will only pick up the grow light.

And completely ignore the illegitimate hardfacing business in his shed spewing out heat under the books lol.

 

[bushbob]

I love how he assumes the thermal cameras will only pick up the grow light.

And completely ignore the illegitimate hardfacing business in his shed spewing out heat under the books lol.

Yeah I don't think the heat from 200W is what the FLIR is picking up. Those are only going to be interested in hot spots that indicate in big operations.
I've seen some good ways to disguise exhausted heat too. Pumping it into an under house crawl space, tapping into the ducting in the kitchen range hood or bathroom exhaust. Could run AC to cool the room and the heat from AC is inconspicuous and easily explained.

 

[Stiritup420]

Seems i am 3 months late here.. The OP does not seem to have experience or knowledge to pull off 3600w of HID. FLIR will pick up walls and roofs that are heated differently than surrounding rooms or buildings.. Big task if you ask me. OP wants 8lb + but it sounds like a first grow and he wants to make about $25k on the side

4 x 800W LED bar light @ 3200w could yield anywhere from 8 to 10 LB even for an amateur like me. Much less suspect and easier to manage. still plenty of heat so would need a very big space and AC

I find the power bill thing is not an issue up to a point but the price is crazy. When i moved in here 10 years ago most of my bills were around $280 mark not growing, now days its more like $8-1000 I'm paying peek rates 24/7 and i run about 1500w of LED but don't use them all all of the time, Last 2 months probably only been running 800w in 12/12 and 250w in 18/6 and have not used AC. Seems like im paying at least $500+ per grow now days. Time to consider getting solar before Kw/ph + daily supply = 1LB per quarter lol That day will come.