"Using Infrared to Stamp Out Grow-Ops”

By Brian Jastrow, CET, LEVEL III CERTIFIED THERMOGRAPHER

President, InfraRed Imaging Solutions Inc. (IRIS)

The risks are low; the potential profits are mind boggling.

These are the two factors that are fueling the grow ops industry in the GTA. Toronto police say that because the city's vacancy rate is near an all time high, apartment buildings have become a preferred location for marijuana growers.

"The trend we are seeing is that they are using apartment buildings because of extremely high vacancy rates and availability" says Det. Sgt. Dave Malcon of the Toronto Police Service Drug Squad. The average vacancy rate in 2005 was 3.7 percent in Toronto, according to CMHC.

One of the larger advantages for growers is that many apartment buildings have a single hydro meter for the entire building, enabling extraordinary electricity consumption without being detected by Toronto Hydro. Not only do these grow operations pose a serious fire and health risk to neighbors unknowingly forced to breathe in potentially harmful mould spores and spores from the fertilizer used to grow the plants, some are heavily guarded by booby traps and armed gang members.

Growers beware… infrared thermography can detect your high electricity use by thermally inspecting the hallway electrical distribution panels. Basically an average size unit will be equipped with an 80 Amp or 100 Amp double pole circuit breaker. When the growers are unplugging the 220 Volt stove outlet and running their 1000 Watt lighting systems for long periods of time this will be detected as a thermally anomaly on the individual circuit breaker due to the fact that these lights will create excessive amp loading which should not exceed 80% of the circuit capacity. For example, an 80 Amp double pole circuit breaker should not have more than 64 Amps maximum load. High end thermal imagers will detect this thermal pattern and transpose it into a thermograph, basically a digital image of the hot breaker.

If building owners and managers want an upper hand in fighting this situation, they should invest in hiring a certified Thermographer.