posted on March 29, 2004 06:08:56 PM
$300.00 monthly electric bill brings them. Expecting drug growing equipment they find large family with alot of appliances and many computers all set on E bay....Stem how much you sell,Don't exceed your power seller min.,,,,knock, knock,,,E bay Police!!!!! Open UP!!!!
posted on March 29, 2004 06:29:43 PM
hahahahhaa, like I said,,,,,,,hahahaha....BUT,,,,you just KNOW the electric company TURNED them in,,,,Why? This is SOOOOOOOO stupid,,,,guns drawn and terrified a law abiding family! Talk about the Nazis are coming.....No pre investigation,,,,just kick in the front door.....This kind of thing is out of hand......
posted on March 29, 2004 06:41:56 PM
When you think about it with the amount of drug houses, grow operations these days this does not surprise me one bit.
posted on March 29, 2004 07:06:37 PM
Our (PG&E) rep caught 2 or 3 of those places out in Los Osos. Not because of high usage - because of no usage. They were bypassing the meters...
posted on March 29, 2004 07:21:41 PM
7 years,,,,No electric bill,,,City dropped by twice and chatted with me,,,How?(they were think'n , this guy is stealin') How? Solar panels,,,,and wind generators! hahahaha,,,,then,,,I got on the computer,,,,I got serious,,,Oh,,,,solar would STILL work but not as reliable as the juice from the City.....Don't want No down time with these,,,,,,where's my item types....With the Millions I am makin' on e bay who cares about the price of juice.....
posted on March 29, 2004 07:38:04 PM
PG&E turned them in for a $300 bill??? I live in the Central Valley and from March to September our electric bill is anywhere from $400 to $600 due to the air purifier and air conditioning! I would welcome a $300 electric bill! I almost passed out when I opened my bill last July and it was $684...
posted on March 29, 2004 07:48:52 PM
PG&E doesn't serve Carlsbad, the service area ends at roughly Gaviota Pass, which is north of Santa Barbara. Carlsbad is likely Southern California Edison or maybe the San Diego utility.
Minnie, PG&E can put you on a balanced payment plan, which will eliminate big swings in your payments by averaging your energy costs over the year. The phone number to call is: (800) 743-5000.
posted on March 29, 2004 07:49:14 PM
Minniestuff...I live in the central valley also. Let's go Carlsbad and see how this guy can get away with only $300.00 per month to Edison. He must know something we don't
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 29, 2004 08:21:44 PM
High electric usage without something else will not support a warrant.
The utility company requires a warrant to provide the police with usage records. So first the police must see the judge with some probable cause just to see the utility bills. A recent court case allowed an infared scan of the drug house as probable cause.
I my youth I was a meter reader for the utility company. The things we used to see !!! A lot of marijuana growing inside and outside, I have walked in on people cutting drugs on the kitchen table. We had one meter reader who thought it was his "duty" to inform law enforcement. We had an after hours meeting with him and convinced him otherwise.
We informed him that he would get us killed if it got out that we were turning people in. And before we would allow that he would get his a$$ kicked on a regular basis by all of us.
posted on March 29, 2004 08:37:16 PM
Reamond...Not so in California. The Public Utilities Commission can examine the records of any utility in the state at any time. The Utility must provide the requested documentatuion on demand or face severe administrative sanctions. The real kicker is that the compliance investigators for the PUC were given the power of peace officers about 12 years ago. It's a simple mater of an AOA request for the police department to get that information. And it has passed muster before the state supreme court.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 29, 2004 08:54:09 PM
Carlsbad is servviced by SDG&E and the story makes absolutely no sense. There was a grower house bust here in the county last week. Authorities were tipped to the house by the utility company who reported their $7000 a month power bill.
$300 is a drop in the bucket and a large family with many appliances is probably, just as minnie statd, praying for a $300 bill
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on March 29, 2004 09:02:47 PM
This is so interesting! We just had huge solar panels installed on our roof, got all the inspections and permits, including Edison's, and as of this week we're on solar mostly for all our electrical needs. It is a real upper to see our electric meter running backwards during the day. Then at night we use some solar power from storage, and some Edison, but very little. One day, while testing the equipment, we had exactly 1 KG of Edison's power used.
It was either that or a generator, and we hate generators. We got sick of the power outages up here in the So. Calif. mountains. Every time the Santa Anas blow sustained at 25 mph or more AND the humidity is under 15% (which it frequently is here!), Edison turns off the power so that downed trees (you know, the pine bark beetle's work!) falling on power lines don't cause forest fires. We appreciate that, but it's pretty inconvenient when you have ice cream in the freezer and you're selling on Ebay.
___________________________________
Gardening Rule:
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it was a valuable plant.
posted on March 29, 2004 09:11:49 PM
Expensive,,,,,,solars panels are NOT cheap......Search solar panels on e bay,,,,,REAL panels,,,,many show TOYS,,,,,,,3.5 and above amps....are real,,,,,,
posted on March 29, 2004 09:22:29 PM
Replay: For real, technical answers, I'd have to turn this over to my husband. It was his baby, he wanted it more than I did, and he oversaw everything.
We have 16 150-pound batteries in the basement, I think 6 BIG panels on the roof. We have run the solar power exclusively until the batteries needed recharging, with everything in the house powered by solar, and it took 5.5 days to run the batteries down (this was just a test; someday we may need it if wind or fire cause huge problems up here). The solar energy is fed from the roof panels to the batteries, and there is an inverter next to the batteries (huge thing on the wall) that does its job, whatever it is (I cannot describe it in words; my eyes glaze over when people talk about how it really works). Edison has to buy back the power we generate but don't use, within certain limitations.
It was about $12,000 including labor, but we got a $2500 rebate from the state of CA.
Our power bill was only about $70 a month (we have gas stove and furnace) to begin with, but we are two of those pinko commie environmentalists people talk about, and we feel good doing our part for the environment.
I've probably left something out here. Ask more questions if you want. My husband will be happy to answer them LOL.
___________________________________
Gardening Rule:
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it was a valuable plant.
posted on March 29, 2004 09:42:46 PM
Thanks for posting the link, Kiara. I'm on AOL and have trouble w/links to stuff in their news area. Was just finishing a copy/paste when I saw your post.
posted on March 29, 2004 09:47:44 PM
OMG!!! I don't know how I could live with a $300.00 utility bill . Last month my gas bill was $32.00 & my electric bill was $29.00, total was about $60.00. But then, I live in Paradise, AKA as the Central Coast of CA!!!!!!!! It was rerally a scorcher yesterday, 86 degrees!!
posted on March 29, 2004 09:49:06 PM
Roadsmith...Ironically, it's easier to get a permit to possess a 30 caliber machine gun than it is to get a permit to cut down those dead trees that threaten the power lines. 12 grand is not bad for a solar system and the rebate is frosting on the cake. Don't dismiss the residual income you'll get from selling the excess to edison. Several of my ham radio friends have solar systems to power up their stations. I'm hopeing to construct one myself in the near future. The big trick, like Jack says, is getting good cells. NASA gets the highest efficient solar cells, followed by the Military and the Fed Govt. The good one's that make it to the civilian market are hard to find and expensive when you do. Tell your husband to take a very close look at those batteries and make note of their capacities. When it comes time to replace them, chances are deep cycle golf cart batteries will meet those specs at about half the price.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 30, 2004 03:14:46 AM
Interesting Thread. We here in the heartland really don't know or understand how you live out there. It has to be terrifying when the fires start.
Rather tame here compared to you. Summers are beautiful, Winters haven't been bad. We really haven't had any major storms.
The only time we have a problem is the tornado season and since we live so close to Lake Michigan they are very rare. A couple of times we have had to head to the basement.
posted on March 30, 2004 05:07:21 AM
Our electric bill runs about $70 in the winter and about $25 in the summer even with three computers and three TV's going most of the time. Cheap? By what I've been reading, yes. However, our gas bill is $900. We have not been able to pay the full bill all winter so now we owe $900. Our biggest bill was $500 for one month. Dominion East Ohio is a highway robber, IMO. These bills were despite the fact that the thermostat is kept between 66 and 68. I freeze all winter and pay for it. Go figure.
posted on March 30, 2004 09:36:32 AM
minniestuff -- How in the world do you get an electric bill for $684. Do you live in a 10,000 sq. ft house in Death Valley or what?
posted on March 30, 2004 11:13:19 AM
Perlorus, we have an access fee of $89 right off the bat, 17 days over 100 degrees that month and our house is about 3,000 square feet with vaulted aka volume ceilings (some ceilings are over 16 feet high in places) along with a teenager home from college who thought 62 degrees was comfortable. We used to live in Santa Clara and the electicity never got over $150 with the air on so when we moved here a year and a half ago, we were quite shocked at the bills.
posted on March 30, 2004 11:26:24 AM
Those high ceilings will get you every time! Minnie, you have a big house to heat, cool, and take care of.
My sister-in-law and husband moved into a huge mansion-type house in the gold country, high ceilings and all, and they have a pool which they keep heated (outdoor, too). The pool alone is costing about $700 a month to heat. They have plenty of money, but still they worry about the power costs for house and pool, which are astronomical.
___________________________________
Gardening Rule:
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it was a valuable plant.
posted on March 30, 2004 12:16:34 PM
And to think that I was upset because mine was $60.00 last month. I will be glad when its $30.00 again though. It doesn't cost me as much to run air conditioning as is does the heat.
posted on March 30, 2004 12:20:24 PM
IMHO, they probably meant $2500-3000 per month. THAT would draw attention. Cops probably missed the spamming operation in the secret room in the basement.
I live in the Central Valley and consider a summer PG&E bill of $300 a darn good job. PG&E has the highest rates on the North American continent (barring any recent changes) and is called 'Power to Gouge Everybody' for a very good reason. How can you go bankrupt selling the drug that powers our society? That is rhetorical, I know the answer. 'Course the feds did manage to go bankrupt with the Mustang Ranch. And the state of California is begging on street corners. Haha, will tax or borrow for food.
