Am I being paranoid?

C

Closet Grower

New Member
Hi,
Had abit of a strange one last night.

I have just started my first grow with a 250w light, 2 plants, in a growtent in my attic bedroom.

I have ducting venting out through the wall into my chimney with a small 10cm fan.

Last night I heard a helicopter outside my window, had a look outside and it looking like it was circling the area.

Now I live just outside a city but helicopters are not a regular occurance and I got myself majorly paranoid into thinking they were looking for me :S

Now, my question is, would a 250w MH light give off enough heat to be picked up by a chopper? The fan is sucking the air through a carbon filter, then through about 2m of ducting straight into my chimney.

The plants are still seedlings at the moment, but I need to know if I should take action and get rid :S

Thanks
 
Dude I hope not, I was majorly freaking out :S

Outside was quite cold last night, so Im thinking of switching to a 18/6 cycle so i wont be venting any air between 12pm-6am.
 
I doubt they fired up the helicopter to investigate your 250 watt grow lol. What a waste of money that would be. Not that hunting grows is not a waste of money to begin with.. different arguement for different thread. I think the street lights are brighter then that. Don't sweat it. If you are really paranoid look into thermal protection with products like Block IR.

But on a side not I dont run my lights at night for that reason. Bright lights giving off heat in the middle of the night is not the best thing IMO. They look for that especially in warmer climates since growers take advantage of cooler nights to cut back on temp issues and expensive A/C.
 
I just checked this forum because I had a similar incident to the one that began this thread. It was just freaky because they dont come around her, ever! :whoa:

Anyways just wanted to thank everyone for the reassurance. I have a few cfl's and I kinda figured I was cool but had to be sure. I will check the news in the am
 
Remember...the "pucker facter" increases 10 fold when we start growing weed...we see things we did not bother to notice before starting to grow...
 
Just remember you have rights and as long as you only know about the grow, there is no possible way for you to get busted unless you invite a cop in you're house.
 
Look at it this way, yer coffee maker uses 1500 watts, old incandescent light bulbs are anywhere from 40 to 150 watts, put that into perspective with a 250 watt whateverlight. Now let's get a little analytical, say you are only doin' a little bitty personal garden, 400 watt HPS covers 3' x 3'. That should provide more than enough med's to go from harvest to harvest if you do everything else right. So should I be worried about extra 400 watts goin' 12 hours a day?
Well let's just offset that power. A 100 watt cfl that is 2700K uses 23 watts, the 100 watt cfl that gives out 6500K uses 26 watts. Let's make the math easy, just say a 100 watt cfl uses 25 watts. SO, if you replace one regular light bulb with cfl you saved 75 watts. Do that with six lights in your house and you saved 450 watts which offset your 400 watt HPS. Use the mix of cfl's to germ/clone/veg. As for the heat goin' up a chimney, well THAT is where I would expect to see some heat comin' from if it is cool outside. :smokin:
 
I see where you coming from skycowboy but I am not asking about a power bill and how much energy I'm using, I understand that. I want to know what size bulb it takes to create enough IR to raise suspicion during a fly over. I know they will see any heat regardless, but how much is too much?
 
hi man iv been having the same paranoia you have, my grow is a 600wat hps its in the upstairs of home against an outside wall in a large built in cupboard and i was scared that the 18hours worth of warmth against that outside wall was enough for the police to pik up a hot spot on the side wall of my house, i thought long and hard and realized that the actual heat against that wall felt less than if there was a radiator on that wall, so now im a little more laid bak, i realy wouldnt worry about your 250watts, iv read up quite a lot about this block-ir product and amazing as it is the most of the articles iv seen seem to lean towards..... unless your running upwards of 2000watts hps you need not worry about blocking your heat signiture as under that would not atract unwanted attention as it could be general household things for example radiators, a gas boiler electric heaters, gas/elec fire so on, hope that may put your mind at ease somewat? the police copter is a regular thing were i live lol
 
a little paranoia isnt a bad thing it might just keep you from becoming complacent and end up getting busted that being said chances are verry small they were looking for your grow tgood luck man peace
 

Similar threads

S
Inline ozone generator questions
Replies
2
Views
2K
TorturedSoul
TorturedSoul
T
Where to Vent?
Replies
4
Views
2K
Muttt
Muttt
T
Am I just being paranoid?
Replies
6
Views
6K
weedosfarms
weedosfarms
J
Venting Issues
Replies
7
Views
1K
dr.h00k
dr.h00k
Grandma Weedstein
Am I being paranoid?
Replies
5
Views
564
Grandma Weedstein
Grandma Weedstein
Back
Top Bottom