how many lights per APT ?

how many lights can i run per apartment without raising any flags to the light company for example 3 bedroom 2 bath living room and kitchen ? how many lights can i run in there ??? and a 2 bedroom living room kitchen an bath how many there ??? looking for a estimate to see how many lights i can run at a time in a apartment with out raising flags

 

You should be able to run three 400 watt HID's, or a single 1000 watt, without raising any eyebrows from the Electric Co. But with a grow that size; be sure that you have a good ventilation system and a back-up story in case they have questions about "increased usage". The standard answer is "I have a new room-mate or room-mates - that must be why I'm using more kilo-watts".

 

for a 2 bedroom apt only a single 1000 watt ? wow i thought it was at least 1000 watt per bedroom ???? and its a new construction ??

 

1,000 to 1,200 watts was a fairly conservative figure. Think of it like your driving speed - the faster you drive, the more attention you draw to yourself. You don't want to draw any attention. On the other hand, as a new customer to the electric company you don't have a baseline or average consumption to compare with; so the bar can be set a little higher.

Most home growers get into trouble by a noticable increase in their usual usage. So if you start out with a higher usage it will appear normal.

 

Here's what the utility co's do to determine if your using too much Kw's:
They go by how much the previous residents used, and how much elect is used by similar size residences.
I wouldn't recommend more than 1,000 watts increase for a 2 or 3 br apt., and that's pushing it.
With a house it's a lot easier to get away with more of an increase. I did an increase of 3,200 watts before I got a call from SoCalEd offering a energy audit (they send a guy out to inspect your prop to find out why you're using too much elect; if you refuse they can shut off your elect.). I was able to get by with the "extra roomate's" story because at the time there were four of us living in a 6-br house. At one time there had been as many as 10 people living there. So I told the lady who called that my sister, brother-in-law and their 3 kids moved in.
In an apt. you can't get away with this.

 

2,000 watts may be ok but its pushing the threshold. The worst thing is that if concerns rise the management will have to check the apartment. By law they have to issue a notice prior to doing it but still you will have to remove all plants, etc...which is painful. To be safe I would not go over 600 watt per bedroom. 600 watts should comfortably supply 6 or so plants or maybe more if they are below 6 foot mark when they are fully grown.

 

Six, six-foot plants, indoors, with only 600 watts - pray tell?

 

T.H. Cammo my last 6 plants which were over 7 feet tall indicas were raised under a 600 Watt light (my 1K light had issues and I used this one instead). Check out my albumwith a few pics of the setup and my plants through the life cycle. They turned out quite well although i did use an Intellidrive light mover

 

does a dual 600 hps ballast consume less than 2 ballast ?? in other words which is better ? the dual ballast or 2 ballast ? which consumes lesssss ????

 

Twin output ballast will comsume less but it will be fractional comparing to the actual bulb power consumption.

 

That's a very impressive production - my hat is off to you!!! Congradulations!

 

thanks...its very flattering