Anyone heard of/used "Block-Infrared" material?

I was talking with a guy at the local grow shop and he showed me a new catalog he got in "custom automated products" and went straight to the back where they had an ad for some clothlike material called Block IR. The material supposedly can block out any infrared light, making helicopter scans a lot less likely to catch you.

My first question is, do the police really utilize things like IR scans? I have seen it in the movies/on tv before but never actually heard of anyone getting busted because of it.

Also, has anyone ever tried this material? I mean it sound great and they have supposed test pictures showing the same IR scan with and without the cloth, but of course it looks great cuz they're trying to sell product.

I'm just curious if you guys think something like this is a practical use for the indoor urban grower? It's kinda pricy at 250$ for 400sq ft, but relatively cheap if it is the real deal and can eliminate one more practical way of getting caught.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

I would think that unless you are a commercial grower, or have individuals coming to your door making deliveries/pickups, you do not need to worry about police helicopters scanning your home for IR signals, lol.

Sounds like an expensive material, haven't heard of it before. But yea, the chances of you getting caught through those means I would say is pretty unrealistic. A door-busting raid is more likely.

mind you, IR scanning does in fact exist, it's just really not utilized unless they need to catch someone/something really bad, i.e. send a helicopter out. Expensive to use, lol.

You cant block heat. Period. I have known a lot of growers. I dont know anyone that has been caught from a helicopter using a FLIR camera. Everyone i know that has gotten caught got ratted on.

They don't just use helicopters. In my area, they just drive down the street in a truck checking out every house they drive by, looking for heat leaks. They showed it on the news one night, let the news crew ride along while they scanned houses. But nonetheless, I've never read one single news story here about someone who was busted using heat scans. So I'm inclined to conclude that it's really not as effective a tool as they'd like us to believe.

Still, if you're worried about it, the safest way to do it is to do your grow in an interior room, a room with no exterior walls whatsoever. And vent your heat up the chimney. They're not looking for the overall temperature of the house, they're looking for hot spots - windows or exterior walls that are much hotter than the rest of the house, suggesting that there's something unusually hot in that particular room. If you're able to mask the radiant heat by burying the heat source deep inside the house, and vent the hot air out the chimney, there won't be any hot spots.

This type of searching requires a warrant. The last time a grow house was busted by a random heat scan the supreme court ruled it was an unlawful search.