Reptile & Amphibian Forums

There was a news item here recently. Some people were arrested for growing pot in their basement. They were caught because the electric company turned them in as they were using an unsual amount of electricity (for the grow lamps for the pot plants)

Ok, now, I have 4 heat lamps, 3 UVA/B bulbs, 1 pond heater, 1 electric filter pump and occasionally an space heater running, besides the usual thingies.

I wonder when the electric company will turn me in? Lol!
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

Hmm, that sounds fishy to me. Sometimes, the authorities know what is going on in an area, but they really can't do anything about until they have solid reasons to justify a search warrant. It almost sounds like they just grabbed desperately for some "reasonable suspicion" to document what they already knew.

Granted, really large mercury vapor sun lamps can have massive wattage and use up a significant amount of electricity. However, most bulbs use suprisingly little. You can actually sit down with a paper, pencil, calculator, and your electric bill and figure out almost exactly the percentage of electrical usage from your herp elements. Mine barely registers, and I maintain at least half a dozen clutches of the years' hatchlings indoors at any given time.

Hehehe....I joke with my neighbors about the strange glow emanating from an upstairs room in my house...

I live in a college town and every spring/summer there is an article in the paper from the police asking citizens to watch for unsual behavior with their neighbors-things like carry buckets of water to an outbuilding, lights on even during daylight, bags of mulch carried inside, etc. All my neighbors knows I am caring for my turtles, but someone from the outside might think I was doing something illegal. Actually, one day it may become illegal to own herps.

Hi!

Hehe, as a friend of a chili farmer, who has set his growhouse inside his apartments dressing room, I can say that no way anyone is going to be mistaken about your use of electricity...

That guy uses 400W and 600W spna lamps for his plants, and said those are the same kind of lamps that are used growing pot. Those lamps are on 24/7 for the first months of growth, and then 12h per day for the flowering.
Electric company has never contacted him... Just been sure to get their cash.

For example, normal baking oven takes about 2450W. So none is going to even notice any peak on your electricity usage because of terrariums...

I know of someone who grew . . some kind of plants (violets?) indoors and had the feds bust into his house. I've also heard of a few reef tank keepers who were under suspicion, because the metal halides they have used a lot of electricity and raised concerns I guess.
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aquariphiles.com-where I blog about aquarium stuff

I suspect though, that Kenospher is correct. There probably were other suspicions in this case, but the electrical bill was the concrete evidence they needed for a search warrent!

If I think of it, this summer I'm gonna look and see if my electric bills changes much when I turn off all the heat bulbs, heaters, and brooder bulbs. Course then the ac, fans, etc. come on! lol!
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband