they use choppers to find big outdoor grows, 100 plus plant plots.. the police really dont give a shit about the people getting high, but rather the people making the money off of getting people high. its all about the money, and the goverment wants yours.

Good link, +rep

Bobandtom I didnt say they couldnt come up with a reason. But they'd have to have that reason first before obtaining a surveillance warrant then search warrant. The Supreme Court already held up that it is a violation of privacy to use a heat gun on a house without prior suspiscion and conviction. Therefore as long as you keep your nose clean and your business your business its all good.

the police can normally catch ppl from nothing more than there own stupidity.

i mean for example if you live in a street which is for exampled a terraced street with house,s all in a row and you decide to do grow in your loft and your house is the only one showing in up bright red on thermal image.. Hmm i think they might suspect - that person would of spent his cash on all his lighting and equipment but not realised that your actual roof is pretty thin!! that which y have insulatin material in ya roof space to keep heat in... so thats not down to police lookin but that person might as well put flashing light on his roof with arrow sayin weed grow here.

And at end of day i agree cops dont give a shit about billy nobody grown a couple of plant its mr big with 100,s of plant in rented propertys etc

so i,d not worry about it dudes

and remember infra red can only take surface readings, it can't look inside your house, it can read off your roof or exterior walls, and maybe read through an unobstructed window into your house but thats it. Keep the heat in the middle of your house and your fine....Good luck JR

Usually for indoor grows this is not a concern. Thermal imaging detects heat not light and heat is the byproduct of the electricity. It is relative to the insulation and materials such as metals in your home as well as the structural integrity of the roof itself.

Thermal Infrared cameras(FLIR) are quite expensive usually upwards for 2k for basic ones and go much higher from there. Ones mounted on helis/planes are several times that making it cost prohibitive to police forces for SMALL grows.

Unless you're using about 6000+ watts of lighting you really shouldn't have anything to worry about. Space heaters use around 2.5k-3k watts of electricity and like the previous poster said using it in the middle of your house is a great idea. The more barriers(walls, insulation, piping, wiring) in between you and the camera the lighter the footprint and the more likely it would be dismissed.

Now, I really don't know how nosy power companies get but it would stand to reason they use the "don't ask- don't tell" philosophy considering the more power they get out of you the more money they make.

That said for the paranoid and EXTREME diy'er:

1. .Build a faraday cage to lessen the heat signatures. Given the high frequency of heat ~300ghz a mesh isn't going to cut it but one to two layers of galvanized steel most likely would do the trick. Here is a link that demonstrates the concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t23iXhEiQUc

2. Take your grow off the grid...
Purchase the diesel generator(or build, but I won't get into this- in this post) sized to your operation then build a biodiesel processor: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make...sel-Processor/
Essentially what this does is it converts used vegetable oil(usually obtained for free from a restaurant) into Biodiesel which is MORE EFFICIENT, less emissive and overall better quality than standard diesel. Some ingredients include sodium hydroxide(lye) and methanol. But when done you can have your own biodiesel fuel that will operate your diesel generator MORE EFFICIENTLY than standard diesel for anywhere between .50 - $1 per gallon.
Keep in mind gasoline engines CAN be converted, however diesel requires no conversion due to the variable compression rates between to the two systems.


Remember I said EXTREME DIY'er lol...



-potlike

please remember they cant just turn it on and start flying over neighborhoods. Do they? yes. It is illegal though and wouldn't be submissable evidence in court (unless a warrant had been issued prior). With that being said, if the county, DEA, even Feds, had a warrant, most times they won't even do a fly over especially if it is a house in a residential area. Its just cheaper for them to post two shmucks up the street with binoculars..

It would also be easier to obtain a 'Power Company' Customer Energy Consumption Report and see what kind of power a place may use per hour, per day, per month, even peak times.

first thing you have to do, is realize that these guys do this for a living. they know what they are looking for, even without FLIR.
Big plots, are easy to see. why you ask , well, alot of busts on big plots were set up for ease of tending, very unnatural lay outs. plants dont grow in perfect lines. be sporradic.
Ganja gives off a higher level heat signature than say, a pine tree. ganja is a seasonal plant, same with numerous small shrubs, bushes, and especially berry bushes or any flowering plants.
Before you decide to plant anything, big or small, survey the area. i am talking like a mile either way. get to know what is growing, how tall , reaserch it if you are unaware of the local veg chracteristics. what looses its leaves in the fall, what keeps its leave untill late in the season.
once fall hits, and your babies are still going strong, you had better hope you picked a damn good spot. thats when they light up on FLIR. buuuuut......if they are nice and spread out, kept low as possible, looks like stuff if just there on the ground.....no plots, no underground water res, give them as little to work with as possible. get to know your area. i suggest scoping for a good year before deciding on a garden. the best soloution, is prevention. best of luck brother.

my 2 cents(what i have been told): Helicopters can pick up on the unique thermo signature of MJ, in the wild the signature is easly seen where groupings of more than three plants are found togather, IE one plant in a field probably will go unnoticed (by imagining) while it could and probably will be seen by the naked eye(brown field with a green bush in the center...pretty easy to see) now one plant in a heavly wooded area is probabl safe. second as metioined above if they aint got a warrent the cant/wont do a fly by of your place(why waste the money) if they pick up you CFLs remember they will also pick up every other light in your home also heat traped in the attic should produce a nice heat blanket and will mask over head viewing. the area's you should wory about are the windows, thin glass will allow for a great thermo picture of whats going on inside. i saw news footage of a bust, when they did an over head look it was consistantly 85-90degrees F but when they scaned the grow room window (covered with blinds, drapes, and what looked like a blanket) it lit up like a jack-o-lantern comparied to the other windows, i believe the high power bill was the tip off in this case

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