Electricity bill too high?

ok tell me please what is a machine shop and how did you get a 800 - 1000 bill. What were you running there?

For around a year he did that? What happened after? Did he pay in advance or didnā€™t he pay at all?

I was thinking if you only do it for a year you probably will not get busted, you could conceal it. You could only inform the provider at the end of that year of your high consumption. Just a thoughtā€¦

It all kinda of depends as much as ya want probably they set us up to produce as much as 20% over normal usage the solar is tied into the grid so it actual rolls the meter backwards in a way there are two meters one the solar keeps track and it is hooked into the one they read off of usage there is no battery back up nowadays with these types of systems in residential settings. Weā€™ve finally gotten AC HAD been here for 12 years never had it before it was rolled into the deal with the panels havenā€™t had to make a payment to the electric company yet and probably wonā€™t itā€™s nice to have the offset when they started charging 3X the normal rate during peak hours this year! They company change out every light in the house to high efficiency led and new smart thermostat as well .

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they come to you and change out the bulbs??? Are you renting? You generate up to 30kwh per day?
How much you had to pay for the cofiguration?

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Yep, ithink he was doing it for about 2 years. he decided to quit growing for a while. The electricity was on auto pay so it always got paid.

Yup they changed the bulbs ā€¦ we have a mortgage we have 15 panels on the roof iv seen over 20 on some houses , the wife says our monthly payment is just over 100$ /month probably for the next 15-20 years or so. Panels from what Iv gathered will last close to 25 years think iv heard .

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Iā€™d say it averages about 25 kWh sometimes a bit more some a bit less when skies are overcast

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Iā€™d go with a propane generator personally. Solar panels are very obvious. Feel like seeing them on a non residential building. Would make people question things more than a high bill in of itself. You can get those 5 foot propane bottles and would probably last a month. Yet still cut your bill in half. Also didnā€™t see what kind of lightā€™s youā€™re using an upgrade could also cut your bill alot too.

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Here in Colorado where Iā€™m at it seems to be where itā€™s going more and more houses around here seem to have been getting them put in the new triple rate increase on peak hours was pretty much a no brainer for me.

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@SamandMax if your thinking about alternatives for electric have some one come out and do an free estimate for ya itā€™s a very detailed layed out plan and based off of usage the way the sun strikes them now as to this coming fall when leaves start falling and such and the arc of the sun my guess Iā€™ll be generating more this fall yes daylight hours will be less but the sun on the panels will be more direct Iā€™m guessing do to southerly facing panels.

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A propane generator. I could put that in the grow room. The exhaust would take the excess co2 and water from combustion outside. But I guess if my exhaust ventilation would fail then everybody entering that room would die? :smiley: Hopefully these things have a safety switch which is coupled to co2 concentration of the air.

But are you sure about 5 foot bottles lasting a month? How many lbs of gas do the bottles contain?

Here some calculations that I found on Propane-Powered Generators, are They the Best Choice?

   How much propane will my generator burn per hour?

    It requires 2 horsepower to produce 1000 watts of energy per hour under load
    Under load each horsepower consumes 10000 BTU per hour
    Propane contains 92,000 BTU per gallon
    Propane weights 4.2 pounds per gallon

    Using these factors how long can a 5000-watt generator run on a 500 gallon propane tank at 50    capacity.

    10 horse power at 50% would use 5 HP to generate 2500 watts of electricity
    5HP X 10,000 BTU would consume 50,000 BTU per hour
    500 gallons X 92,000 = 46,000,000 BTU of energy in a full 500 gallon tank
    46,000,000 BTU divided by 50,000 BTU = 920
    A 500-gallon tank that is full would run a 5000-watt generator at Ā½ capacity for 920 hours._

That would mean, a 500 gallon tank would provide 2500 watts for around 38 days at 24 hours per day. Or for 19 day at 12 hours per day.

500 gallons is around 1900 liters. That is far out of the range of bottle sizes???

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In this game there are risks. The point is to minimize your risks. Like people said above:

  1. Pay your bill on time every month (300 isnt really that much)
  2. Check yourself (paranoid)
  3. DTA Loose lips sink ships
  4. Jealous lovers have sank more than one person
  5. No one knows what your doing
  6. If they want you that bad they will make shit up so be chill

I was growing in this house one time and needed the AC recharged. So i called the AC guy in to fix it. The plants were in veg this was BC (before charcoal) I took them out and put them in a deep freeze. It sealed up nice no smell. The guy showed up and had to get in the basement cause thatā€™s where the furnace was. We went up stairs and his van was in the driveway and right there parked in front of my house was LEO. I damn near shit my pants. My heart started racing and i got real sweaty. After the guy left i went downstairs and set everything back up. Why you ask? Because they would not be parked outside my house if they wanted meā€¦thats why! They would have been crashing through my door. Also i never locked my doorā€¦why? Bad guys will pepper spray or bear spray your dog cops will kick the door. Paranoia will destroy yaā€¦no one knows start acting that way. Finally odor controlā€¦big time! Act normalā€¦haha

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Iā€™m watching it for the ā€œfull autonomous baseā€ concept. Hydrogen can be found everywhere for cheap, and in last resort can be self-produced without having to open a factory or to be ā€œin the gridā€. With an hydrogen car it become sexy twice.

You have to store it yes, but generally there is tank inside the fuel cell generators. It donā€™t eat gasoline volumes like a classic motor, itā€™s a kind of direct generator and itā€™s what it give valor in my eyes.

To set it in an autonomous structure permit to reduce and eventually avoid the problematic of batteries in mixed sources of generations : wind, solar, water current. Iā€™m from the clan than is thinking than in the absolute, storing energy is kind of counter productive. And thatā€™s the next step of evolution of our 20th century industries also ^^

Prices are not standardized from one company to another, but the average price is around 15Kā‚¬ for a decent 6-8KW unit.

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Hey @SamandMax here is some live time data at the box taken minutes ago! For this month Iā€™m averaging just over 22kwh/day recently have had some cloudy days , since install 1.6MWH !

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15k for 6-8kw unit. Thats o k I guessā€¦ how much hydrogen does it consume? what is the price for hydrogen?

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15Kā‚¬/6-8Kw is not the cheaper but the general price of reliable unit in this range (letā€™s say the non-chrysler Mercedes models panel to make an analogy with cars).

Hydrogen is around 10ā‚¬ per kilogrammer for the most expensive, the problematic being the high pressure container. Hydrogen is like rats, they pass everywhere lol If you produce it we will talk more about the ROI of the hydrogen generator, it only require electricity and is do able with solar panels. The most expensive being the ducts and ā€œbuffer storageā€ before entering in your car or you electricity generator.

It eat around 60-70 grammers of hydrogen per KW/hour. Not cheap, but the goal is to be autonomous and not competitive with petroleum (nothing can beat it, for now).

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Ya Iā€™ve never used em for anything but heat just guessed. But thatā€™s a fuck ton of propane.

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do you have these machines already?

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Not for now, itā€™s over what i can put on the table atm. Still watching the evolution of the tech and visiting companies using it as backup/complementary (not a single grow op for the moment).

The problematic being not the hydrogen generator / electric generator combo but everything around. As i said previously, i consider than storing energy is counterproductive and donā€™t change any paradigm in term of energy. With this philosophy, you have to build the whole loop from scratch (add water management, geothermy and a lot of collateral efforts to do).

By example, I rather prefer to use the extra power to produce hydrogen, then use the whole hydrogen circuit ā€œas the batteryā€. Itā€™s a bit more complicated than that, and mean a ā€œfull spectrumā€ generation : wind, water currents, solar, hydrogen ā€¦ but thatā€™s the spirit : perpetual production and no storage, just the use and the units than can be tailored in accordance with the real time weather (and its planification) and needs (you use more water the summer by example). This kind of freedom in the planification and ā€œtailored activityā€ permit a stupid thing : reducing the maintenance and the work it involve on spare parts. By example, using the wind is not something you can avoid. You have to keep a versatile mix, but itā€™s also very expensive in term of maintenance as soon than a 6Kw/h rate. If there is a lot of wind but on other side you have your hydrogen generator than is rushing like crazy with solar/water current, you can shut down the wind generation. Etc ā€¦ the goal is to be as ā€œadaptiveā€ than you can, without returning to prehistoric ages ^^

All of that to present in which context iā€™m considering hydrogen. And most globally any source of energy production.

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I guess it more depends on your area. I know that here they keep track of the power running through the distribution centers as well as the legal meters themselves. If it doesnā€™t match up for a period of time they start sending techs out to check the ā€œdisconnectedā€ meters. Itā€™s a simple matter to turn them on so it happens quite frequently, typically just poor folks who are hot in the summer and cant afford their bill. Simply cut the clip (like 14 guage wire) holding the box closed and turn the breaker over. When you get caught theres a $500 fine plus a premium on the amount of electricity you stole (even the stolen electricity goes through the meter). Its getting harder though. Many grids are switching to digital meters and breakers that can be controlled remotely.

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