Compensating Energy Consumption
Many people often wonder about how much power usage a marijuana grow room will consume and if that will attract the attention of law enforcement. If you would rather not worry about it, then you can follow a few simple steps to offset the usage by changing a couple things around your home. A slight change in power usage is not going to attract anyone’s attention, and that is well known. However, if you would rather have the peace of mind of knowing that you won’t jump up your power consumption, then we can offer you some simple and inexpensive ideas that will help keep everyone in the dark about your crops, but you. These steps are actually a good idea to do whether you are slightly worried about this situation or just want to conserve some energy and lower your monthly bills. The most expensive part about growing marijuana is how much power it can consume, but if you look around your home, you can often conserve just as much power as the grow room would consume. These tips should help you severely decrease the impact that a grow room would have on your energy consumption, if not completely negate the costs altogether.
Decrease energy consumption and save costs
Replacing any incandescent bulbs within your home with the compact fluorescent style of bulb will use about 75% less energy and give off 90% less heat while still leaving you with the same amount of light. Compact fluorescent bulbs will also use just a fraction of the wattage of incandescent bulbs.
Make sure that lights are not left on when you’re not in the room. It may sound quite parental, but when you look at a bill after one month of religiously turning off these lights, you will see a huge difference. For example, most kitchens use nearly 440 watts when all of the lights are on, so that is quite an impact when it is accidentally left on for just an hour a day for a month.
Check out hot water heater timers at your local home-improvement store and install one. If you do not want to do it yourself, most electricians will do this for you as they regularly hear this request.
Keep your water heater set at a normal level for heating the water of your home, because most factory settings leave your water heater set at a potentially dangerous level when not changed upon installation.
Insulating your water heater and hot water pipes can significantly lower your bills, and the ‘blankets’ used for hot water heaters are readily available at most home-improvement stores.
Make sure the caulking on your windows is solid because leaks in old windows can significantly increase both heating and cooling costs. If it is within your current budget, you may even want to consider replacing old, drafty windows with newer, more efficient models.
If you live where it is relatively warm year round, then you may want to look into window tinting to keep some of the excess heat out of your home. Even installing inexpensive blinds and keeping them closed can help cut down your cooling costs.
Weather stripping on exterior doors is another common place to find leaks, so make sure that all of these strips are in good condition and replaced as necessary.
Attic fans may seem simple, but their effect can be quite immense. If your house has an attic, then make sure you have a functional attic fan installed and turned on. It will significantly cut down your cooling costs all summer long, and very quickly pay for itself if you have to buy a new one to have installed.
Put a programmable thermostat in your house to keep your house comfortable during all parts of the day, and to help keep costs down when no one is at home.
Add ceiling fans to rooms where none currently exist because this will help keep room temperatures more comfortable and cooler during the summer without the need for air conditioning.