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Bridgeburner
Not spiritual at all.




Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 20,010
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Police cut power to fight dope
#7505055 - 10/10/07 12:14 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22562120-5005361,00.html
IT'S not hard for police to identify the pot growers in the western Canadian town of Surrey: they merely scan residents' power bills to determine who is using a lot more power than the average homeowner.
Armed with that information, local authorities cut the power to the home of the suspected offender, often leaving scores of pot growers without the artifical light and water needed to cultivate their home-grown cash crop.
British Columbia, with a population of four million, has an estimated 20,000 inhabitants who raise a potent local marijuana known as BC Bud.
The plants, collectively worth nearly $C7 billion ($9.06 billion) each year, account for a whopping 6 per cent of the province's power consumption.
The labour-intensive crop is an energy sponge thanks in large part to the 1000-watt halogen lights, fans, irrigation pumps and other equipment needed for their cultivation. As a result, the pot growers' energy bills are about three times that of the average consumer.
Those energy consumption patterns drew the notice of authorities, however.
Armed with a list of likely offenders, a team of inspectors - including a firefighter, an electrician, an admistrative employee and two policmen - is dispatched to each suspect residence.
"We inspect between 70 and 80 homes a month," said Len Garis, head of firefighters in Surrey, near Vancouver.
According to the city, pot growers' homes have a 24 times greater chance that the average home of catching fire and burning down.
In the event of electrical problems, the current to the home is cut and cannot be re-established until repairs are made.
The inspection team rarely sees the real target of the operation - the pot plants - because authorities are obliged by law to notify residents at least 48 hours prior to an inspection.
The early tip usually gives the home pot grower more that adequate time to stow the illicit crop.
"It's not about a criminal operation, but simply a means of insuring security for the people,'' said Joel Giebelhaus, an aide to Surrey's mayor.
Since the beginning of inspections in 2006, the number of home cannabis plantations has dropped 65 per cent in Surrey and 14 other towns in the province participating in the power-cutoff approach to the war on drugs.
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kidaihuan
First Growery Ban



Registered: 07/25/07
Posts: 3,173
Loc: Shanghai, China
Last seen: 13 years, 3 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: Bridgeburner]
#7505086 - 10/10/07 12:20 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Is the number really lower or are they simply getting a lower number because they've been warning people ahead of time?
Anyone from Surrey that can answer that one?
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Quake3
Total Carbohydrate




Registered: 08/31/06
Posts: 924
Loc: Relatively New York
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: kidaihuan]
#7505233 - 10/10/07 12:57 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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They're probably lower because either people became afraid that their own friend's home was inspected and decided to stop, or they decided to hide their power consumption by switching to fluorescents, using a lower wattage light, growing outdoors or stealing power by diverting unused watts to their own home, or however they hack the power lines.
I hope this news gets the work on making LED-grow lights feasible and affordable to speed up. I was keeping up with this about two years back. People were posting their LED trials on one of the cannabis cultivation newsgroups. Some people claimed to have some success (proof of which was never posted), but the LEDs were not affordable as they had to be specially made and imported here - and some argued that because LEDs flicker (I think?), they won't be feasible for grow-ops. I'm no engineer, so hopefully one can drop by this thread and enlighten us.
Advantages of LED would be: Very low heat output
Very low power consumption
Ability to make the ballast digital because the LEDs would only need to be on a circuit (as far as I know) - which means I can control them via software (USB grow-op, baby).
Ability to select specific waves of light by mixing LEDs. No need to waste power and space on light your plant is reflecting back.
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Army of None
Lt. Nothing.

Registered: 08/30/07
Posts: 451
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: Quake3]
#7505347 - 10/10/07 01:21 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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That's fucking fantastic cutting the power. What if it's just a normal family with a son or a girl that just got a new 62" High Def LCD TV with a 360 and PS2 and it' summer so they run the AC nearly 24 hours a day?
Sorry kids your assed out. Oh good, gangbusters has just broken down our door.
I hate cops.
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oso
man


Registered: 09/27/06
Posts: 158
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: Army of None]
#7505978 - 10/10/07 03:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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worth nearly $C7 billion ($9.06 billion) Is that backwards, or has the usd lost to the canadian?
-------------------- "When tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign foe." James Madison
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MFGFA37
Me For God ForAll



Registered: 09/08/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Cheese and Beer
Last seen: 12 years, 1 month
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: oso]
#7506150 - 10/10/07 04:34 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Who the hell grows with halogen? No one!!! That would be the hottest, most ridiculously inefficient grow ever. Cops=Retard.
-------------------- There is no try, only do. -Yoda- Take no thought for tomorrow, tomorrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient for one day are the thoughts/worries for that day. Any thought past this is useless. -Ole Jesus-
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Skeeblix
Dave Thomas



Registered: 01/28/07
Posts: 1,745
Loc: Wendy's
Last seen: 8 years, 3 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: oso]
#7506340 - 10/10/07 05:24 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
oso said: worth nearly $C7 billion ($9.06 billion) Is that backwards, or has the usd lost to the canadian?
Canadian monies and USD are pretty much neck and neck in value nowadays.
-------------------- This post approved by:
Premedman1 said:
I just shat my pants.
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rawtoxic
Stranger
Registered: 10/06/02
Posts: 2,097
Loc: smokey mountains
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: Army of None]
#7507652 - 10/11/07 01:05 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Army of None said: That's fucking fantastic cutting the power. What if it's just a normal family with a son or a girl that just got a new 62" High Def LCD TV with a 360 and PS2 and it' summer so they run the AC nearly 24 hours a day?
From what I understand some of these power companies will track usage at times so if you just had one big room on a 12/12 or a 18/6 or whatever you use, the power company would see the spike and that would be a red flag for dope growing.
Many growers arrange light cycles of their rooms to overlap or to run the same wattage continously. A switcher type wiring that shares ballasts between hoods is a nice for this too and lowers overall room costs.
And all those family appliances you listed won't pull near what 6 x 1000w would pull.
Edited by rawtoxic (10/11/07 01:07 AM)
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Walter1496211
Window Washer



Registered: 09/09/07
Posts: 639
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: rawtoxic]
#7507662 - 10/11/07 01:09 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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That kind of home invation seriously pisses me off.
-------------------- you see the world through the window of your experience
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TurntableJunky
Ethno Grower



Registered: 04/26/07
Posts: 4,742
Loc: Sydney
Last seen: 15 years, 9 months
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Re: Police cut power to fight dope [Re: MFGFA37]
#7507728 - 10/11/07 01:44 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
MFGFA37 said: Who the hell grows with halogen? No one!!! That would be the hottest, most ridiculously inefficient grow ever. Cops=Retard.
you beat me to it.
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