does anyone here know how to deal with heat signature?

Hey everyone, is there any way to lower Þhe IR heat signature from my lamps? I have 2/1000w lamps.

You can make an aparatus similar to a bong but bigger. Bongs are used to cool down the smoke considerably aside from filtering. Use a big drum and fill with water, use a suction tube with an industrial type fan sucking out and connect your light's exaust to the drum. The water and the darkness inside the drum will drop your IR to nothing or next to nothing. Attached is a pic I drew, if it's a good idea, give +rep please, for my time. You can do that by clicking on the scale on the top right of my post.

look around the net for IR BLOCK.... you cover your walls with it... dunno if it really works because no one wants to cough up the money to rent or buy a Ir camera... those things are expensive!!!!

IR-Block definitely works, it was developed by Nasa after all.

Yankdank said:

look around the net for IR BLOCK.... you cover your walls with it... dunno if it really works because no one wants to cough up the money to rent or buy a Ir camera... those things are expensive!!!!

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We are talking about infrared, not xray technology. I don't think that your walls will permiate that much of a signature due to the fiberglass lining in the middle. Your windows on the other hand are thin and can definately show IR if not shielded right. Where they get you is in the exaust. They fly above and scan with their camera and look for heat signatures that are out of place, like heat coming from a trap door that goes to your basement or a hole in the yard that leads to nowhere or simply by the frequency the MH and HPS lights are emmiting.

Xeno420 said:

You can make an aparatus similar to a bong but bigger. Bongs are used to cool down the smoke considerably aside from filtering. Use a big drum and fill with water, use a suction tube with an industrial type fan sucking out and connect your light's exaust to the drum. The water and the darkness inside the drum will drop your IR to nothing or next to nothing. Attached is a pic I drew, if it's a good idea, give +rep please, for my time. You can do that by clicking on the scale on the top right of my post.

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do u have this on your lights

i have a 1000w i and i exhaust it to the rest of the house

southern homegrower said:

do u have this on your lights

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No but it should work in theory. I use fluorescent lighting... it's just an idea.

yes it sounds like it would. i think maybe u would need a defuser to make the bubbles smaller

Xeno420 said:

You can make an aparatus similar to a bong but bigger. Bongs are used to cool down the smoke considerably aside from filtering. Use a big drum and fill with water, use a suction tube with an industrial type fan sucking out and connect your light's exaust to the drum. The water and the darkness inside the drum will drop your IR to nothing or next to nothing. Attached is a pic I drew, if it's a good idea, give +rep please, for my time. You can do that by clicking on the scale on the top right of my post.

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Very cool idea. I'm very small time but I'm always interested in how things work and how to make them better. Here's the thing I think would be the biggest obstacle though: Pushig against the mass of the water is going to slow the exhaust fan significantly and wear em out pretty quick right? But maybe if you put a lid on the top and another exhaust fan sucking air out of the water container...and then when all your crops are done and your about to close shop, connect a giant bowl to it, close the door, and go brain dead lol

I run a 1000W lamp, and i used to worry about the thermal signutare, until i watched Barry Cooper's Video.
Have a look around at some of those little heaters and you will see that they are between 1000W - 2000W.
Also the temp in your grow room is only ever around 24 degrees celcius - bodu heat is more than that at 36 degrees celcius.
As previously stated it picks up heat, n it is not an xray, no idea if its a light, an oven, a heater, a clothes dryer etc.. So venting 2x1000W straight outside is not the best idea as it will give a heat signutare, but as southern homegrower said, exhausting it into the rest of ur house or ur roof is a good idea as it lets the heat disapate and often wont raise ur whole household temp by more than 1 or 2 degrees, which won b picked up by infared.

Hope this Helps - XxNinjaxX

You still have to do something to mask your exhaust air but the following will pretty much keep your grow room from being able to be spotted.


C3 anti-detection film:

A specialized type of mylar that exhibits the same properties as the 2mm thick mylar, but in addition to reflecting approximately 92-97% of the light, it also is 90% infrared proof, making your grow room all but invisible to IR scanning. This can also be attached in the same manner as foylon or mylar, and the same caution should be used to avoid creating hotspots in your room.

venting into the rest of the house works very well.

my lights exhaust does not come from the grow room so i dont have to mask it thank god

groputillor said:

Very cool idea. I'm very small time but I'm always interested in how things work and how to make them better. Here's the thing I think would be the biggest obstacle though: Pushig against the mass of the water is going to slow the exhaust fan significantly and wear em out pretty quick right? But maybe if you put a lid on the top and another exhaust fan sucking air out of the water container...and then when all your crops are done and your about to close shop, connect a giant bowl to it, close the door, and go brain dead lol

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LMMFAO Ha ha crack me up

Things like 2000W heats though do not run during spring, summer, or fall and body heat though a higher peak temperature is putting off far less BTUs and would not influence ambient air temperature nearly as much. So if it's straight piped out the window then this is a legitimate question. It's not practical for a lot of us to vent back into or homes and venting into the attic skips the insulation and can give heat signatures. (Not to mention just not practical again)

Brick Top said:

You still have to do something to mask your exhaust air.

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It will not need masking if it is spread out throughout ur roof as it will just become still air.

i m only running a 1000w.and am fine and it is very hot here but i think i would run into problems if i fired one more up

XxNinjaxX said:

It will not need masking if it is spread out throughout ur roof as it will just become still air.

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That is correct if it is spread at least half evenly throughout the entire attic space. Unfortunately if a home is older or just not well designed many attics are under ventilated and a single exhaust line running to an attic can create one area that will show much more heat than the rest.

In a snowy area where snow builds up on the roof if one area is always melted and bare that can be reason for someone to wonder.
　
In the past I have said if someone has a PVC stack pipe or stack pipes for their toilet or toilets and they are half handy they can cut out a section and replace it with a ‘Y’ connection and then connect their exhaust line to the ‘Y’ connection and exhaust through their stack pipe. The same can be done if you have bathroom exhaust fan vents in your roof, and it is simpler to do.
　
If someone had a large vent, a ridge vent or a an attic exhaust fan running the exhaust line directly to it will allow most to all of the hot air to escape quickly.
　
If inadequate attic ventilation may be a problem there would be a need to spread out the warm air as much as possible to keep any certain area from being warmer, or much warmer than the rest.

You can run a long exhaust line snaking it across the attic from end to end. You block off/close/seal the end that normally would exhaust the warm air and then you poke/cut/drill a series of small holes along the entire length of the exhaust line.

The warm air will then exhaust through all the small holes spreading it around so the attic is pretty much equally heated from one end to another and it will make for a more normal heat signature. At the most it might appear the home has inadequate attic insulation rather than something that might be heating the heck out of one part of the attic space.

Another option if is someone lives in a home without a basement and they have a crawl space under their home exhausting down into the crawl space will work too. It will be cooler there and it will help to cool down the warm exhaust air and a heat signature under a home is more difficult to spot than one in an attic or even in a room.
　
The problems that can come from that are if someone has something like a heat pump heat exchange unit under their home and a service person may have to make visits now and then it could be a bit of a risk. With a carbon filter the odor would not be a problem but some curious service person might wonder why a vent line is coming down where it is and who knows from there.

The other problem is one that is shared with attic exhausting and that is moisture buildup from the warm moist exhausted air. Under a home it can cause mold problems and can work upward.

The same can happen in an attic if it is under ventilated, though the warm moist mold producing air will not work downward but over time it can cause problems in the attic. It would not happen fast but it can happen over time.
　
Depending on how creative someone is, how much time and effort they are willing to put into something and to what expense they are willing to accept there is always an answer to be found.
　
Many years ago I saw an episode of "This Old House" where a builder who specialized in energy efficient homes came up with a unique way to cool his homes. He dug a trench in the yard that was deep enough so the temperature was always the same year-round and installed a large plastic tube/pipe.

It went to a unit with a fan that connected to the home’s ductwork and had a thermostat like any normal cooling system. When the home became warm the fan turned on and the air in the home circulated through the underground pipe and when it came back into the home it was something like 58 degrees. As soon as the system ran long enough to cool the home to what the thermostat was set at the fan turned off.
　
An adaptation to that was a fan-less system that did not circulate the air.

Again a trench was dug but it had an above ground screened/filtered air entrance and on the top of the home in the attic was an exhaust setup with a damper vent to open and close the system.

Again there was a thermostat and when the home became to warm the damper would open and the natural air movement of heated air/convection drew the hot air up and out of the attic exhaust and that drew in fresh air from outside that by the time it got to the house had cooled to the again roughly 58 degrees and like the other system once the home was cooled the thermostat would send a signal and that would close the damper.
　
Why did I bother to mention all that?

I told a friend about the unique cooling system and he make a crude form of it for his grow room using the second design. He had a landscaping business so he had the equipment on hand to use and even though he was a landscaper he was not into golf course-like looking yards so he only had a small yard and then the rest of his property was more or less like a field that was only mowed a few times per summer.
　
He installed a plastic pipe/tube and was able to run an exhaust line up from his basement through the first floor, floor through a closet and into the attic. He did not use a thermostat but he did have a damper in the line.

It took him a little while to figure it out and make it work correctly but he was able to set the damper position so there was a constant slow flow of fresh air running through the underground pipe/tube and it was drawn in and would rise and exit due to the natural convective current of the heated air in his grow room.

By keeping the flow slow instead of totally open he could keep the temperatures from getting to low and also from getting to high.
　
Most of us would never go to such an extent, unless we were builders or something or having a home built and made up some plausible excuse for wanting or needing such a system included in the plans and construction but the point is there is more than one way to skin a cat.

It all comes down to how inventive or creative someone is and to what lengths they can go to or are willing to go to.

The bong idea presented before combined with a chiller element from say a used water cooler seems like it could then be connected back into the air intake. Meaning not only would the water cool the exit air, but the intake air would be at least somewhat chilled. Could allow for lights to be lowered slightly in some situations im sure.