FLIR - Chimney vent

can someone clear up for me exactly what choppers can see?

I was always under the impression that they can only see surface temps but I've been reading some posts where people say they can see plumes coming out vents?

All those people doing loft grows with high powered fans shooting out the chimney must be so obvious to flir if that was the case

So can choppers see the speed at which the heat leaves a vent/chimney or will they just see a warm surface chimney stack?

A chimney with heat coming out of it on a flir camera doesn't stand out as anything odd.
I'm also under the impression that flir only reads surface temp not air temps.
But even if it did, a fan pushing out warm air, which lets face it isn't really hot , coming from a chimney could just be a fire on embers. The speed of air on an open fire is vastly more than an extraction fan.

Why hot air cant be seen by FLIR

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=8030#8030

Was your first video supposed to be a video of flir seeing hot air??

George2324 said:

Was your first video supposed to be a video of flir seeing hot air??

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no it says in the description the air is 450 degrees and its not until they put a sheet of paper in front of the air that anything can be seen. So the hot air itself is invisible until there is something for it to heat up which is solid.
Obviously you would see a warm chimney pot, but not a plume of air.

Ive been venting out of chimneys for the last 9 years now and had many a chopper over..

coreywebster said:

no it says in the description the air is 450 degrees and its not until they put a sheet of paper in front of the air that anything can be seen.

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Ah right I can't see the description.

Sounds safe to shoot air out the chimney like a rocket then

It's probably better to shoot it out the chimney as fast as possible as less likely to heat up the stack.

Do you reckon next door can hear the sound of the air shooting up the chimney from the loft? In one of the setups I've seen they can hear the air shooting out the chimney from the fire place downstairs even tho no air comes out down stairs.

Venting out of a chimney is actually a tremendously brilliant idea if you live in an area susceptible to FLIR detection fly overs...

It would appear to be totally normal, they would cruise right past it.

Fake clothes dryer vent...

A hot chimney looks funny in summer.

I can't really vent out of a fake clothes dryer vent when I grow in a loft. A clothes dryer vent sticking out the roof would look very odd.

Plus most people here don't even have dyer vents.

My clothes dryer doesn't have a vent, it condenses the water into liquid and pumps out drain. I think most dryers work that way here

What part of the world do you live in George?

Currently UK.

George2324 said:

Currently UK.

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Yeah I thought you must be.

Easy to say and hard to do, but try not to worry about the choppers. They don't have the funds or inclination to chase down small time growers thee days. Most folks that get busted are for either been obvious, neighbours knowing and reporting it, telling people like friends, or just been stupid like getting caught drunk driving with half a pound in the car.
Remember loose lips sink ships, stay friendly with your neighbours and be as discreet as possible.
I know a few folk who have been busted, all of them could of avoided it and non of them was anything to do with Flir.

Happy growing.

There was a news article a few months ago about some woman in a new build who got raided as her house lit up like a Christmas tree on flir.

She was aparinately a pcso but it was due to bad insulation.

You reckon that was just a scare story?

Either way I still have the issue of being able to vent all the heat properly as temps seem to keep rising. I might have to go sealed with Co2 burner and get some portable AC units.

I was thinking of getting 3 12000 btu ac units with dual hose.

All the hoses will be jammed into the chimney so I'll add booster fans to the intake hose to help with efficiency.

I'll then also get a large evaporative cooler to raise my humidty and provide extra cooling as my humidity is always around 40% I don't have any problems with mood as I use ozone.

Hopefully that will be a lot quieter than my 4000m3 exhaust whistling up the chimney and provide enough cooling.

What do you recon?

My lighting is probably way over the top but between me and family I grow for we smoke a shit ton.

In the loft I have a 4800w flower room and a 600w veg room, 300w clone room and a 600w mother room.

Total around 7000w with extra pumps and stuff.

7kw x 4000 btu

28000 btu required just for cooling the lights.

Due to being a loft it's like an oven in summer so I'm not sure how much extra I need so hopefully the evap cooler will provide the extra bit.