Thermal detection 400 watt or 600 watt hps lamp

Hi, i was wandering how much risk do you have of getting caught due thermal detection (so called FLIR technique) with a 250w, 400w or 600 watt lamp.

As far as I know the light / heat coming out of these lamps are the following:

250 HPS = 28.500 lumen / 70 F / 21 C
400 HPS = 50.000 lumen / 99 F / 37.5 C
600 HPS = 95.000 lumen / 159 F / 71 C

The formula is taken of the net suggesting that each 1000 lumens creates a temp increase of 0,75 Celcius.

I have read stories of people telling not to worry about thermal detection if you ain't using above 2000 watt lightning. But if I look at 1 hps lamp of 600 watt I get a lit affraid of the amount of energy it produces. And realy turning into a hotspot. As for the 250 HPS I am totally not afraid.

Can somebody give me a clue if I'm worried too much or not.

"fuck tha police"

Thermal imagery can only tell you the surface temperature of something, so unless your heating the wall and or roof to an excessive degree its useless. You should be controling your grow room temps to parimeters required by plants so your room wont be 75 degrees will it.

Get used to the paranoia. It sucks, but will keep you safe. Where I live, a thermal scan is considered an invasion of privacy. Just like a phone tap, law enforcement has to obtain a warrant from a judge in order to utilize such measures. In order for a judge to issue a warrant, there has to be "probable cause". So if law enforcement is using a thermal scan specifically on your property, they already have other evidence against you. For law enforcement to potentially violate your civil rights, they need lots of evidence to support probable cause. Violations of civil rights is "fortunately" the biggest obstacle for law enforcement.
When you see the helicopters on TV showing the thermal scans, you are witnessing a high degree of propaganda. Even if discovered with a "fly-by" scan, they cant just knock on your door and ask to inspect your home.
PLEASE PLEASE understand. I am referring to your average home grower. Not the idiot that rents a house out to convert every room for growing. 20,000W of HPS lights burning in a house will attract a lot of attention. You guys are just asking for trouble!!
Keep it simple, be careful and think about what you're doing, and you'll be fine. If you don't act like you're doing anything wrong, no one pays attention.

If you're really worried about it, simply run your lights during the day. Even on a cloudy day, the roof gets hot enough to block any kind of thermal scan from above. I run my flowering room from 7AM to 7PM. 2 x 1000W HPS

Seriously man, my ceiling fan holds 5 bulbs.
If I am running 5 100 watt bulbs in my ceiling fan do you honestly think the police would come charging in due to "thermal detection"?

Now if you are running several 1000 watt bulbs and blowing off 100+ degree exhaust showing some major blimp on the screen, then you might have an issue.

Its not the bulbs you have to worry about.
The FLIR dosn't really look for the bulbs. because they can only read surface outside temps.

What you really need to be careful of, is your exhaust vent.
That's what they are looking for.
a exhaust vent glows white hot, on their FLIR.

So don't exhaust out a window.
and DON'T exhaust out a vent on the roof.

Well the answers did not help me out in my choice of picking which bulb to use.

Will the temperature drop beneath 70 F if i would use a 250 HPS lamp with G-tools exhaust fan of 360 m3 with an ambient room temp of 70 F. My grow room is 300 m3.

* for the thermal question i think i go with some isolation , mylar and a wet towel now and then on the outside exhaust fan on the roof (which is simple to access).

if you insulate your grow area then ventilate a sealed area on the outside, i was considering the application of a vented tent covering a celotex room with cool tubes. then cover with an IR proof covering, if you have anymore applications please let me know.

best venting is either the sewers, (be carefull of where your drains are outside...) and chimney (the smell is over head and difficult to pinpoint) but you cant take out bricks from a chimney however you like.

where do you blow your exhaust then if not into the ceilig? i thought it wuld be a decent idea to allow it to run into the attick and spread out in my attic space to avoid detection.v

newbie4485 like already pointed out its the amount of heat that gives people away not light. if youre just using the one 600w then scrubb and blow into loft bt be carefull of it starting to make loft damp cos of warm air hitting cold! the usual percy grower doing a cupple plants and a 600 is realy unlikely to be detected besides his own mouth!

flir cameras are available at rental stores everywhere , one night shut everything down , take some scans then fire it up and run that camera again. you will know what you can run as far as watts

Rhyspect said:

best venting is either the sewers, (be carefull of where your drains are outside...) and chimney (the smell is over head and difficult to pinpoint) but you cant take out bricks from a chimney however you like.

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Sorry, bad advise. No domestic heating system / fire vents hot air at 500-700cfm up your chimney. The heat signature will be obvious to the copters. As much as possible circulate back into your house, recycle and use the same air from your house to cool your lighting. If you dont recirculate and recycle, you will have hot plumes pouring out of every window in your house. If you pulling 500-700 cfm of cool fresh air into your house then 500-700 cfm will be pushed out again, none of your neighbours will have the same signature and you will be pure bait mate.

Get it wrong at your peril. Heat is the key to not getting caught, amongst other things.

pagger said:

newbie4485 like already pointed out its the amount of heat that gives people away not light. if youre just using the one 600w then scrubb and blow into loft bt be carefull of it starting to make loft damp cos of warm air hitting cold! the usual percy grower doing a cupple plants and a 600 is realy unlikely to be detected besides his own mouth!

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aappreciate the reply. Im well aware you cant see a light through a freaking wall. And i know the trick is to spread the heat out. so it doesnt stick out, which is better, uder the house or into the loft?

I vent into the attic but I also only run LED's and 6 plants. Your biggest concern should be scrubbing. Carbon filtration. Smell will give you away before heat. Vent into attic, crawlspace ect. Where ever heat would spread out most. You could even vent into another room of the house during winter and help save on heating costs by recycling the energy your using/creating.

but like said a few posts ago. Moisture is a concern when venting into those areas as it could lead to mold. I for one am going into foreclosure so I don't really care.

Sealed rooms don't need to vent anywhere!

My blower raised my 6x8' closet by 10 degrees forcing me to vent. It WAS sealed until I added the filter and blower.

D3monic said:

I vent into the attic but I also only run LED's and 6 plants. Your biggest concern should be scrubbing. Carbon filtration. Smell will give you away before heat. Vent into attic, crawlspace ect. Where ever heat would spread out most. You could even vent into another room of the house during winter and help save on heating costs by recycling the energy your using/creating.

but like said a few posts ago. Moisture is a concern when venting into those areas as it could lead to mold. I for one am going into foreclosure so I don't really care.

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This is a very good way of heating colder parts of your house... I will be doing this in the basement so that it will keep the basement warm... or out into my garage keeping that nice and warm. Some space heaters will put out about as much heat as a 400 watt, ones you do not want to touch. So I am sure that my 600 watt hps will keep the basement nice and toasty.. also allowing heat to rise and warm the bottom of the floor up too.. I have a DE-humidifier for the summer that just may come in handy this winter (will check with the meter once it is up and running.. not to mention that the basement get's very dry during the winter so this may be a ++).

D3monic said:

but like said a few posts ago. Moisture is a concern when venting into those areas as it could lead to mold. I for one am going into foreclosure so I don't really care.

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this fucking sucks sorry to hear this , think about turning every spare sq inch into grow room , walk away with lbs

newbie4485 said:

where do you blow your exhaust then if not into the ceilig? i thought it wuld be a decent idea to allow it to run into the attick and spread out in my attic space to avoid detection.v

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Exhausting anything into the ceiling is a recipe for home disaster. You are exhausting heat and moisture, and you can develop mold.