Visit from the power company

J05H · 09-12-2007, 12:10 PM

I came home from work and their was a note on my door. It said the power company wants to come in and install a load management device. What is that? Could I just tell them no thanks?

snwbrdr · 09-12-2007, 12:19 PM

hey mate i don't know much about that but from the little I have been reading on google i think this is very very bad news for a MJ grower.......

I think this means you are using TONS of energy or electricity and the power company has noticed this and wants to help you save energy(or maybe they have other intentions too)

from what I can tell if your "energy load" is large some power companies will make you install a load management device to help cut down on power usage.........

I think that means they just need to install a different meter for the house, but still in my mind that means they know your using alot of juice, and probably more than anyone in your area, thus the new device

Quote:

Get Help With...Saving Energy

Load Management

If you're a Penn Power residential customer and you normally use more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, you might be able to save money by taking advantage of our load management rate.

An electric load is the amount of electricity that flows into your home at any one time. Management of this load means spreading out the use of your major electric appliances, rather than using them at the same time.

With load management, your monthly bill is based on measurements of both your total consumption of electricity and the peak demand, or the greatest amount of power used, over any 30-minute period.

For example, let's say your home includes an electric water heater, an electric clothes dryer, and an electric range with self-cleaning oven among other appliances. Look at the load over a 30-minute period when all these appliances run simultaneously, compared with the load when use of the dryer and self-cleaning oven is delayed until later:

Without Load Management With Load Management
Device Load Device Load
Water heater (ON) 3.0 kilowatts Water heater (ON) 3.0 kilowatts
Clothes dryer (ON) 5.0 kilowatts Clothes dryer (OFF)
Oven (self-cleaning ON) 4.0 kilowatts Oven (self-cleaning OFF)
Other appliances (ON) 3.0 kilowatts Other appliances (ON) 3.0 kilowatts
Total load 15.0 kilowatts 6.0 kilowatts

Limiting the total load is important, because it affects how your bill is calculated. When we figure your bill, your peak demand for the month is multiplied by a factor of 125. This amount is billed at the standard residential rate. Any remaining kilowatt-hours are billed at the load management rate, which is lower. Thus if your highest 30-minute load for the month was 6.0 kilowatts as above, 750 kilowatt-hours would be billed at the standard rate. And the remaining 250+ kilowatt-hours would cost less.

If you can spread out your use of major electric appliances, you can save money on your electric bill through load management.

When you sign up for the load management rate, we'll install a load meter in place of your normal electric meter free of charge. Your monthly bill will include slightly higher charges, because of expenses associated with the load meter. Once you sign up for load management, it will remain in effect for at least 12 months. At the end of that time, we'll analyze your bills and notify you if a change in your use of electricity has made standard residential rates more economical. For Penn Power customers, when your electric usage warrants, a load meter will be installed.

Other options

Electric clothes dryers, water heaters, and heating systems are among the largest users of power in your home. Fortunately, these appliances can be controlled through automatic load control to reduce demand. An automatic load control device is programmed to automatically shut off one or more of the appliances it controls to keep your peak demand low.

hope you can hide all your grow shit from the power company cuz if penn power is your power company when your electric usage warrants, a load meter will be installed.

J05H · 09-12-2007, 12:29 PM

I googled. And called the power company, they said it helps lower my electrical usage. I still don't understand what it is.

I'm only running a 400 Watt light and 2 fans.

snwbrdr · 09-12-2007, 01:06 PM

Quote:

I googled. And called the power company, they said it helps lower my electrical usage. I still don't understand what it is.

I'm only running a 400 Watt light and 2 fans.

hmm yeah not alot of juice.....

have you had a AC running tons this summer? those things use alot of electricity......they might be really coming out for a legit issue

the device is like a new meter or goes in your outlet, it will basically regulate all the things that use a lot of power in your house. and allow only certain things to run at certain times. or at least thats how I understand it. hopefully Im getting some of this right and not just blowing some steam

**GreenDragon2k** · 09-12-2007, 01:26 PM

I dunno but I'm running a helluva lot more than 400 watts and aint no power company come nockin on my door to install some load management device. I'd call em up and tell em to shove it up their arse!

haha jk... No but seriously. I think you could decline... but either way for a 400 watt grow I dont think it'd matter much

except they'd have to install the thing, whatever that entails... might mean them hooking something up to your water heater I dunno

BigBuds101 · 09-12-2007, 01:53 PM

Im not sure if this helps or not but at my house they installed new meters called smart meters, which basicly has a timer and tells them when and how much elec your using in a day, so if your using alot of power during the peek time they will know and charge you more. Maybe it is something like that. Anywhoo good luck hopefully its nothing serious.

scooterpie · 09-12-2007, 01:53 PM

Probably a standard upgrade and your is meter up! Probably try'in to meet a Go Green standard to suck on that ol'goverment hind tit of subsidies..I have many recreational electric devices that consume twice as much as that. I would take necessary precautions to conceil my grow and shut off power while the are work'in.
I do not see this in ANY way a intrusion generated by your grow..

pi

AzAdvocate413 · 09-13-2007, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J05H

I googled. And called the power company, they said it helps lower my electrical usage. I still don't understand what it is.

I'm only running a 400 Watt light and 2 fans.

I'm assuming you have everything on one timer. Maybe putting the fans on a 2nd timer and stagger the startup times to even out the spikes.

And I have to agree with Scooterpie. From what I read, it's a device to help conserve power usage during peak times for the electric company.
Ever think about running/starting the light/fans during later evening hours or during off-peak hours?

tenmiletom · 09-15-2007, 11:15 AM

I would tell them no tanks I'm converting to gas.it might bye you some time.and then maybe try lights on at night.

MrHydro · 09-17-2007, 12:14 PM

Do you live in an old neighborhood? Do you know any neighbors? Maybe you can ask around if they are doing it all over the place? Normally they would send info in the electric bill letting you know they are upgrading the area, why, etc.

If you are the only one.. that's a problem.

Peace

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