Advice Needed

[Sciferazor]

If I filled a well made grow tent with LED,s in a English house which could average a temperature of 15 Degrees Celsius. What's the chances I would need cooling? I assume the tent would be the temperature of the house without lights etc so if you add lights that operate at room temperature will I need cooling?

Sciferazor Reviewed by Sciferazor on 06-03-2013. Advice Needed If I filled a well made grow tent with LED,s in a English house which could average a temperature of 15 Degrees Celsius. What's the chances I would need cooling? I assume the tent would be the temperature of the house without lights etc so if you add lights that operate at room temperature will I need cooling? Rating: 5

[Weezard]

If you find lights that work at room temperature, yer a better man than I and I.

Seriously, you won't get useful replies until you re-phrase the question.
If I understand what you are asking. (Need I worry about FLIR?)

The FLIR aware folks would need to know;

The wattage of the led array.
Size of the tent that it's in.
The cfm airflow.
The size of the room it's in.
Row house? Townhouse? Ranch house, roofing composition, blah, blah, blah.

As a general guess though any <200W light in a tent, in a house should be safe from FLIR.
Otherwise room heaters would flag them.
They look for multi-kilowatt grows for the most part.

There is one thing you can do.
The CCD sensors in phone cameras are quite sensitive to near IR.
If your neighborhood is dark enough and you can get a multiple house wide shot.
Give it a try.
Just let you eyes get adjusted and look at your viewfinder.
Does your house stand out?
Probably not.

I put a 400Watt light in a metal shed once and sealed it up.
Went out at night with my video cam.
That thin metal was like glass to the IR.
Shed stood out like a turd in a punchbowl!
They don't use FLIR here, and I'm a legit MMJ user, but rippers carry smartphones too, so that project was cancelled.

However, because it's LED light, you should be concerned about the visible spectrum.

My neighbor has a greenhouse with a tent in it.
He thinks he's pretty stealthy.
When he unzips that tent after dark, the Purple glow can be seen for miles.
I'm thinking of taping a note to it that says; "Stealth! You're doing it wrong!"

Hope my ramblings help.
I do suggest that you polish the question a bit, and see if you can get a mo betta reply.

Aloha,
Weezard

[Weezard]

Oops! just re-read that.
You just wanted to know if you needed AC, yah?

Probably not if you are under 200 Watt.

Aloha,
Weeze

[Sciferazor]

Oops! just re-read that.
You just wanted to know if you needed AC, yah?

Probably not if you are under 200 Watt.

Aloha,
Weeze

So lets say a 9 x 9 x 6 insulated tent with about 2000 watts of LEDs, this is in a detached house by the way. What do you suggest, a intake and outtake inside the house with carbon filter so the 15 degrees cool down the grow room. I could use split air conditioner but might look a bit suspicious to FLIR, what's your ideas?

[Token LaRoche]

So lets say a 9 x 9 x 6 insulated tent with about 2000 watts of LEDs, this is in a detached house by the way. What do you suggest, a intake and outtake inside the house with carbon filter so the 15 degrees cool down the grow room. I could use split air conditioner but might look a bit suspicious to FLIR, what's your ideas?

I'm running a 1:10 scale model of what you describe, but with T5 fluorescents instead of LED. Tent's 3x3x6 with 200 watts of tubes. I just wanted to address the venting. I've got my tent set up in a closet. Intake is the room where the closet is and outtake is the next room over. I'm basically moving air from one room to another, but through the tent in the closet -- no reason this wouldn't scale to a bigger tent. Everything is piped between the tent and walls, so the closet itself gets no airflow -- just the tent. Charcoal filter inside the tent and one fan on the outtake side. No problems with smell. So far the only complaint I have is the fan noise. It's not horrible or anything, but it's noticeable. Fan's a 4" CanFan -- it moves a lot of air. If you run a 9x9x6 tent, it's going to take a lot of air!

[Sciferazor]

I'm running a 1:10 scale model of what you describe, but with T5 fluorescents instead of LED. Tent's 3x3x6 with 200 watts of tubes. I just wanted to address the venting. I've got my tent set up in a closet. Intake is the room where the closet is and outtake is the next room over. I'm basically moving air from one room to another, but through the tent in the closet -- no reason this wouldn't scale to a bigger tent. Everything is piped between the tent and walls, so the closet itself gets no airflow -- just the tent. Charcoal filter inside the tent and one fan on the outtake side. No problems with smell. So far the only complaint I have is the fan noise. It's not horrible or anything, but it's noticeable. Fan's a 4" CanFan -- it moves a lot of air. If you run a 9x9x6 tent, it's going to take a lot of air!

Hi there I don't know where you live but I live in a reasonable cold climate in which they use FLIR often. I could do the same setup as you suggest obviously in a room instead of a closet, do you not suggest having the intake and exhaust in the same room 10ft or so apart. I think with lights like metal halide the following method might cause problems as it might heat certain rooms much more than others with could stand out under FLIR. I believe with the right LED's the heat would just dissipate in the house and not raise any temperatures more than others in rooms. As a safety measure, a method of blowing the heat thoroughly or keeping the intake and exhaust as far away from each other as you can might help. A partial reason why some grow rooms are discovered is lots of super hot lights in a room with no air circulation (and smell). I am probably going on a bit but any advice or comments on my ideas, ive also considered using a split air con but a bit suspect for 15 degrees Celsius or so, any ideas?