It's not a grow op - it's my business - computers! (updated x2)

About 10:30AM today (May 22, 2007) I answered a loud rap on my front door. Turned out to be an RCMP officer and the local head of bylaw inspections for Pitt Meadows. It seems my power consumption is "too high" and they were there to schedule an inspection by their safety inspector for tomorrow.

I invited them in, but they refused to enter. I explained that I was in the computer business and had a number of computers with "eagle video" on them from my work with Hancock Wildlife Foundation and their live eagle cameras

Nope - here's our 24 hour notice that we'll be back at 10:30AM tomorrow with our inspector to check out your house - the amount of electricity you are using may be unsafe... Something about 100KwH or so although the officer didn't say whether this was per day or month or what.

OK - I guess I'll be around at that time tomorrow - but what the heck is this all about and why didn't you look at your business license records and see that I have a legitimate business here, pay my annual license for the past 14 years, etc?

Nope - 10:30 tomorrow, that's it - and the notice says that if I object they'll get a warrent and all costs are on me.

This is the thanks I get for being a "green" home business. I don't commute! We use solar panels to heat the pool. 90%+ of our lights are Compact Fluorescents! There's snow on my roof long after the stuff on many of my neighbours' roofs has gone because we have extra insulation!

Gee, I wonder what the usage would be if we went back to regular bulbs. Of course heating the pool with natural gas wouldn't count against the electricty use, but I guess I could put in an electric heater - and for the hot tub too! That would really get their panties in a knot I bet!

Even most of the computers here are only here for a short time - they normally reside at camera sites collecting video, or at the foundation's offices where DVDs and such are made. Of course "short" is a bit misleading - many of them have been here for several months. I guess it doesn't count that last month most of them were turned off due to the flood we had here.

Now, admitedly our electricty use is maybe a bit over the top. Last month's statement lists it at about 3100 Kilowatt hours - the month before at 3700 KWH (I just put a couple of computers over in Esquimalt where we have an osprey nest - that will about do it)

But the alternative - for me to commute - would cost me much more for gas than the about $200/month the electricity costs - and be far worse for the environment too!

Anyway, let's just call it 3000KWH to make things come out kind of even in the first go around...

3000KWH for 30 days is 100KWH/day

24 hours/day (the computers are on 24 hours/day as they are boiling down motion JPEG into MPEG 4 - lots of CPU processing. When they are not boiling down the raw video they act as a "render farm" for the Cinelerra video editing suite I use. This means that when I finally get the edits just right, I can hand the job of creating the final video to 8 machines and have the job done in 1/8th the time. Saves days in some cases!

So 100KWH/day is about 4 KW/hour or about 40 amps at 110 volts

My house has "100 amp" service which means it can serve a maxiumum  of 100 amps on each side of the incoming single-phase 240volt service - so I'm using about 1/5 of what the whole house can handle on a continuous basis.

Well, in fact by my calculations, only about 35 amps is on continously between the 6 computers in the basement (on 2 circuits) and the 2 in our "plant room" - my wife's and son's, and the 6 in my office (on 2 circuits) as well as the 1HP pool circulation pump. Oh, I forgot the fan in my room that is there to cool it somewhat - it runs continuously too but probably doesn't amount to much.

The rest of the power - about 10KWH/day is likely things like cooking, vacuuming, lights, TV, etc. And of course this is somewhere closer to what the "average" suburbanite likely uses as they are out of the house for large parts of the day and don't leave their computers on all night.

And then there is the case for the fact that, if I were in the least bit interested in actually running a grow op, given that I've identified myself as a computer consultant the likelyhood is that I'm somewhere above average in abilities to hide such a fact. Do they honestly think that I'd allow my electric meter to show my actual consumption?

For that matter, do they honestly think I'd have a grow op in my own home, not a rental, but my home wherein I have lived for the past 14 years to their specific knowledge. Heck, I've even had my picture on the front page of the local paper - taken right outside this house, talking about my work with the eagle cameras. Do they not read?

Far be it from any bureaucrat to do even the mildest "sniff test" of what might actually be legitimate use, - even when offered the opportunity. Nope, our law gives us the right to invade your privacy, screw up your day, give you ulcers - whatever.

Ah well - we'll see what happens tomorrow - stay tuned. Seems about time that the local paper did a follow up on the eagles too...

And then the lights went off...
see the "read more" for the next part
I'm sure it was a cooincidence - but about an hour and a half after the inspection team left, the power went off. I actually went to the front window to check if there was someone out there at the pole but no... the whole block was off as far as I could see. About a minute later the power came back on.

I had been sitting at the kitchen table with David Ingram having a last bit of a chat with him before he and Mitchel, his son, went back home to North Vancouver. It was David who had been talking on the phone with one of the Global TV reporters (doing her tax return) last night when he read my e-mail, then my blog and said to her "you'll be interested in this..." - and that was why the Global TV people came about 10AM.

David and Mitchel showed up about the same time in one of David's multitude of Cadillacs - this one the white convertable.

Shortly afterward, the photographer from the Maple Ridge News showed up too - the one who took the original last year of the picture that has been morphed into me with a beak on. We chatted and while the Global cameraman wired me, she got some photos of my office and various computers.
Finally, Monisha, the reporter from the News, got here just before 10:30.

The Global cameraman went out to remove the logo from his window - just in case the inspectors might catch on and not come in.

10:30 came and went and just before 11AM Shirley phoned the inspection office to see where everyone was. No answer - seems they were all out of the office.

Finally, just after 11AM, first the Pitt Meadows bylaw vehicle, then 2 RCMP cars and finally what appeared to be the local fire chief's vehicle pulled up and parked. Today they used the door bell.

I met them at the door, where the same RCMP officer from yesterday asked if I would allow them in for the inspection. I said yes, at which point she asked that we all leave the house. I said I wanted to remain with the inspectors due to the nature of my business and that I had sensitive data on some of the computers that I didn't feel comfortable leaving alone with them. I was told that no, this was not acceptable - they (the RCMP) had to clear the house and ensure nobody was there before the rest went in, and that nobody but the inspection team was to be in the house during the inspection.

At this point I said fine, give me a couple of minutes to remove two computers - was this OK? Her (RCMP) answer was they were not interested in the contents of the computers so fine.

I went back into the office and shut down my two main workstations - and with Mitchel's help, carried them out to the driveway. Everyone else - news crew, Shirley, David, Mitchel were out, so I opened up the garage door with "you'll want to look in here too" and they trooped into the house.

About 10 minutes later one of the other officers came out and asked me to come inside - and said Shirley could come too. I asked what for and was told that the bylaw officer wanted to talk to me. We went inside and the bylaw officer started to go over her report, at which point I asked that she do so outside where all could hear. One of the RCMP officers interjected that "I will listen to the bylaw officer here!" at which point we kind of entered a stalemate.

Shirley and I went back out to the driveway - and the inspection team came out one by one - with the bylaw officer finally saying that she would prepare a report and mail it to me. I asked if there were any safety concerns as I wanted to ensure they were fixed, and she said that there were no electrical safety issues. To that I asked about the fire safety and she replied there were no fire safety issues either - they would have told me if there were. So it seems that our home/office passed with flying colours.

I don't know how much of this will be on the news tonight (BCTV - GLobal) but I'm sure that the inspection team was not happy. It turns out that Monisha has been asking to come on one of these inspections for some time now - and has been turned down consistently. Being local, she knew all of the inspection team.

Anyway, the inspection team all left and David spent time giving all the news people Canada/US flags and pens - and talking about what had happened. The news people left and I invited David and Mitchel back in for a final cup of coffee before they headed out.

Then as noted above, the lights went out.

Maybe it was cooincidence - but who knows...

Follow up... I've now received the "report" from Leslie Elchuk - "Public Safety Insepction Team Coordinator" - from Pitt Meadows. It contains nothing in the way of hard information - only that they didn't find "any specific safety items requiring correction..." and finishes off with "Due to the amount of power consumed you may wish to contact the customer services section of BC Hydro to assist you in evaluating your property with respect to energy efficiency."

This has to be a form letter - no appology for wasting my time. No recognition that my power use was completely legitimate (and not something that Hydro can help alleviate - it is 95% "industrial" use that can't be changed) and certainly doesn't contain a copy of their checklist that I saw in her hands when she called me into my home after they had finished - and that she refused to go over with me on camera. Certainly no note that it was good that I have 6 fire extinguishers sprinkled throughout the house - kitchen and every work room that has computers or equipment in it.

I haven't decided if I'll follow up with this to council or anywhere else - but I'll keep you informed if anything else happens.