How to cover up heat signature?

[Sir_Syzurp]

I am currently setting up a new house, 4 br 3 bath 2400 sq ft. There will be 6kw of light per room. My question is, are there any known methods for hiding your heat sig or reducing it a reasonable amount.

We have police choppers in the air all day every day in the city I live in, and for all I know they run their heat scanner all day so I am trying to follow the path of caution. An owner of the hydro shop I go to says there is a material I can line my walls and ceiling with before I put up my panda paper, he said "I don't have any in the store now, but I can order some for you, but alas I am skeptical by nature and don't want to throw away precious money, SO I am turning to the community to help call bullshit or let me know if this stuff is real and works. Sorry I don't have the name my short term memory is shot... if he even told me the name of the product.

 

[gonzo`]

there are two issues to think about:

1. your hot air exhaust, this creates a heat signature from the exit point
2. the room you grow in being hotter relative to other rooms in your house

so to mitigate these:

You can either exhaust into the rest of your house or a lung room... or you can use A/C within the room to keep it cool...

Then for the room.. a lot of people build a room within a room which is insulated and either cool the room down...

 

[Mr frost]

i have heard that mylar works to block the heat scanners im sure you could find more info on the net
let me know if this info is correct
good luck

 

[Snow1]

There's heat mats for the blockbusters that are supposed to reduce the heat that radiates from them but I don't think that is going to get rid of all of it

 

[supermanlives]

tek foil from farmtek or reflectix . tek foil can be bought in 6 ft tall rolls and thicker than reflectix if wanted. grow store wont have anything better. follow other advise

 

[grow_right]

easiest way to block the heat signature is to use led grow lamps.

 

[Iron_Lion]

With that much wattage that house is going to be glowing like a christmas tree. An op that big is going to require some serious construction, HVAC work and enough foil to cover the whole house.

 

[homebaked]

I have IR blocking film that you can buy at most online hydro stores. I cannot verifiy that i works due to not having the equipment to test. Its basically two metallic paper sheets with bubble wrap in between,

I first made sure the rooms were sealed, and then put this on all sides and ceiling. My exhaust runs into another room that i covered the ceiling with IR blocker. prolly overkill but peace of mind was worth it.

stay baked...hb

 

[Sir_Syzurp]

The majority of the rooms in the house are odd sized but the smallest room is 16x17 which we were going to build a 15x15 room inside each room the goal is to build faux insulated walls on jerry-rigged versions of frames supported by little kick posts so it can be easily torn down when its time to clean up and move on. We will have the ballasts mounted to the exterior of the wall, the interior walls IF there truely is a material that can deflect the heat scan, will be first insulated and then lined with the deflecting material, then will have a layer of thin wall board nailed up, then will be coated over with panda paper. We are planning on keeping the houses air vents shooting in to the 15x15 boxes as well as 1 blowing and 1 exhaust fan per room not including the can fans for the lights. We are planning on removing the main room doors, hanging black thick visqueen for the doors and running the exhausts in to the hallways, would this be adequate in spreading the left over heat around? This is an unoccupied home owned by my investor so theres no excess power for washer/dryer, tvs, computers etc. but the investor, my partner, and my schedules have been made to camo to the neighborhood. Now its just a matter of puting our building plans in to action and building these rooms right so we aren't shut down right out of the gate (this happened to my investor on his last house 35,000 put in and shut down within 6 months) he is the reason I am trying to find a way to mitigate as much trace as possible, odor is taken care of inside and out, there will be no exterior light leaks for neighbors to see, only the 3 of us will EVER have access to this house which will be monitored and taped on a camera system, now we just need to take care of that damned heat sig.

 

[Sir_Syzurp]

reflectix I think THIS is the the product the guy at the hydro store spoke of

 

[Sir_Syzurp]

Oh and I forgot to mention we have 2 200 amp boxes already on the house, YAY!!! One is pretty much designated for the 4 AC units he has on the side of the house with a couple open slots on the board. He had this many AC units for the house and the 1800 sq ft garage/indoor rv storage, which down the line may have a use of its own if he moves the RV out one day.

 

[OldSSSCGuy]

I have not had luck hiding heat signature with Mylar. Great for reflecting light but doesn't really block heat radiation for me.

I line the rooms with 3/4"-1" expanded polystyrene insulated sheathing. Floors, walls and ceilings. Real light weight, real cheep, brilliant white reflectivity. Excellent for basement walls and windows too and stops the heat sig that basement windows glow with. Then I do just as Gonzo said - exhaust the lights into the house during cold weather, out a dryer exhaust vent during hot weather. I have heard of others venting the lights into their furnace/AC return duct so it defuses it into the hole house.

 

[qupee]

Am I reading your original post right? 6kw per room? Per bedroom for 24kw total or did you mean just 6kw total?

Cause 24kw in a 2400 sq ft foot house I don't think there's any hiding that amount of heat man. And it sounds like it's not your house? 24kw is likely to destroy it in short order.

 

[Bud buster]

You can vent into your sewer system it would be the best for removing heat and putting it underground to diffuse thru manhole covers. In the basement you should have a 4 inch cleanout you can remove the cover and vent thru that.

 

[twelsch24]

You can vent into your sewer system it would be the best for removing heat and putting it underground to diffuse thru manhole covers. In the basement you should have a 4 inch cleanout you can remove the cover and vent thru that.

I don't think this works like you'd expect.

All sewer's have a vent that goes to your roof too. If you're pumping air into your 'cleanout' cover then you're likely sending the hot air through your roof vent and not 'underground.' Pressurized air will follow the path-of-least-resistance.

T

 

[OldSSSCGuy]

If you vent into a sewer line you also run the very real risk of public sewage backing up into your home. If that happens I think your heat signature would be the least of your problems.

 

[Sir_Syzurp]

I have heard of others venting the lights into their furnace/AC return duct so it defuses it into the hole house.

This is actually an idea I was running through my head, but being as I have 0 duct working experience I fear I may just mess things up worse for the house lol.

Cause 24kw in a 2400 sq ft foot house I don't think there's any hiding that amount of heat man. And it sounds like it's not your house? 24kw is likely to destroy it in short order.

Yes you heard right, its actually roughly 6.4k per room, we are still working on the layouts so we have maneuver rooms to inspect the plants and do hand work. I am leaning towards home made smart pots with either subs SS mix or Revs TLO mix (Ive run the TLO before with good results) with blumats for daily water maintenance and hand watering for the innoculant teas and ferting.

As far as destroying the house I do not know what you mean other than the basic construction which he wants done, it was the investors idea that my partner and I use HIS personal house that he and his family just moved out of since its still 1/2 of its value and he also doesn't want it just sitting as this town is notorious for squatters. He wants to upgrade the house before he sells it, so our ultimate goal as a team is going to be use this house for 2 yrs, fix it up with him and sell it. He said he will even give us a cut of the sales price for helping him fix it up to sell quality.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Looks like you've got the amperage capacity.

You're over 100a in lighting alone @240v.. that is not include the cooling power you'll need to cool and veg with.


There will be no simple way of eliminating that heat signature such as any type of film or sheeting. IR block and the a like are pointless really... you've still got to send that heat somewhere..thus a signature. I guess if everything is ran sealed you'd only have the hit signatures at the ACs..which is normal I suppose.

Pulling 25k + cooling and veg wattage in a residential is asking for trouble... unless you live in a area where this is acceptable/normal.

Post pictures! Good luck.

 

[cody2white]

You can go to home depot and rent one of those heat scanners! Piece of mind.

Also you can run extra long ducting in the attic to help disperse the heat. Works great that way.I would be scared of mold if i exhausted into a existing bedroom. But hey it isn't my house lol.

Just remember they dont have x ray. So if you can keep 6k in the 70's they wont be able to see any heat.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

They'll still be able to see the signature of that 1000 degree lamp itself...even if the room is kept 70. (sorry mis-info - see my later post https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5375131&postcount=22)

I guess if you're running sealed environments your best bet would be to use IR block reflectix on the ceilings/walls... and use those IR blocker material "covers" for your reflectors.

But sealing your grow room in IR block and then venting your heat into the attic is going to achieve nothing.


This investor must have one massive budget in mind.