ok guys after some research ive read all about indoor and flir, from what i have read, anything under 1000 watts dosent show up on their radar/FLIR systems. SO that brings me to my question. so say im running 2 400 watt hps = 800 side by side in one spot. if we are using more than 200 watts in other parts of the house, does it show up, or is directed to a single spot of 1000 basically if it never goes above 800 watts or near 1000. could i spread it out. perhaps 800 in the basement, 800 in a spare room upstairs on the other end of the house. hopefully im making this clear but basically what shoes up on their radar, total usage? 1000 watts coming from one spot?
bump and to answer your question no i dont think anyone monitors how much power you use, accept the power company itself, but that would have to be a jurastic change in power. so thats not really what im worried about what i THINK is they can see 1000 watts in one spot anything lower, dosent show up but the question at hand here is can i spread the wattage across the house, and have say 1600 untraceable watts. hope i answered your question right, now if we can get someone to answer mine!
IMO I think that u could spread it out and be fine. heat disepates over an area so I think u d b ok...
Its not like your whole house lights up when they do FLIR on you. They can pinpoint where the 1000 watt light is. They can't however, pinpoint two 800 watt lights unless they are extremely close to eachother.
and one more thing about the power company... they dont care how much power you use on 2 conditions... 1. you pay for it 2. you have a good excuse for it both could be done easily. Also... if you had a 200 watts going in one spot and 800 in another I dont think it would equal a 1000 in one spot like you think. You would technically just have 2 weak light sources. I dont know for sure and i'd hate give you false info, but thats what I think. I'll check google and see if I find anything.
I personally dont think 1000 w is enough to raise suspicion. Here's a suggestion to test the chopper radars. Grow a legal plant, like tomatoes, under your lighting. The choppers can see the lights, not the plants. So, if it really were to raise suspicion, you get raided over fucking tomatoes. I figure you probably won't do this, as it would be a waste of your time, but it would end your concerns, I'm sure.
FLIR, or FORWARD LOOKING INFRA RED is just a camera that captures light in spectrum we dont see (infra red) if you have a huge hot spot in your house (1000w HID is a huge hot spot ) they will see basicaly where it is in your house. here's a good demo of an IR camera system i've used.. http://imagingsystems.icxt.com/virtual-infrared-camera.html click the demo.. see if you can find the guy in the bushes with out IR or IR overlay its not somemagical xray, but it does see abnormal heat sourses. (relative to the heat of objects around them) if your parinoid.. this works as a great building material for grow rooms, insulates heat, moisture (when taped up right) and sound! hell i bet it even keeps you save from governtment mind control waves, no more tinfoil beanie!!! http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
dude insulate the fuck out of your attic, in fact insulate your entire house to cut down on heating/cooling costs and the power companies wont notice as much of an increase in consumption from your grow lights ya got there.
thanks for everyone replies, yeah im pretty informed about the whole infra red. i know there is no xray vision, it shows up on heat spectrum, just the main question at hand i guess was how far apart do the lights need to be to not be considered a bunch of wattage coming from one spot. a few feet away across the basement. upstairs on the other end of the house etc.. im definatly less worried about it, and once again thanks for the help also does anyone know how to find out if my town has an FLIR eqipped plane/chopper i live out in the sticks small town etc.. ive read those planes are pretty expencive. is it a big city thing?