Renting infrared camera (Flir) in Michigan?
 

Trying to find a place to rent an infrared camera in Michigan. Was looking at Flir brand but I don't know enough about them to stick to that brand. Anyone have a story about how you got to use/rent one from somewhere? :thumbup:

Home Depot rental departments have the Flir i7.

Check to see if your local store has one that they rent out
FLIR Infrared Camera Rental at The Home Depot | FLIR Systems, Inc.

My local store rents them out for $45 for 4 hours and $75 for 24 hours.

I had an energy audit done and I know the places I want to check after completing my air sealing and fixing the gaps in insulation that were found. I plan to use 4 box fans in two windows blowing out to make a mock blower door to do the job. This will provide all the answers that I would get with a follow up energy audit but I'd be able to take my time with the camera. I won't have a final CFM number but the reality is that if I find more air leaks or ones that weren't solved, I will fix them and even though I'm curious, the CFM will likely be improved but I don't really need to quantify it because I know the house is as good as I could get it.

I have another friend who is interested in doing the same thing after he had his energy audit early this winter. My brother isn't convinced that he needs an energy audit so I'll be bringing the camera to his house and doing the same thing. I should be able to cover all 3 houses on the 4 hour rental if I can move at a decent pace and split the $45 cost.

That makes me second guess my approach. I was going to try to cover a couple houses in the rental period too. But I wasn't going to do the blower deal. I was assuming that heat would just be flowing freely out because of how cold it is out. Maybe I was wrong on that. Do I need a blower to pressurize my home?

Also, Michigan isn't in that list of Home Depots with the Flir. :(

Sorry to hear that they don't have the Flir.
You actually would depressurize the house with the fans blowing out because this causes air to get sucked in through the gaps making them more visible because the air flow will travel over the surfaces the air is coming in through. The fans I'm going to use are standard 2 foot by 2 foot(roughly) box fans. I have slider windows so I open the window to the width of the fan and use cheap painters plastic sheeting(cardboard or most other solid things that can be cut to size work too) and tape to seal the gap at the top. You could probably manage to get enough air flow with 2 box fans in place into whatever window(s) that you can fit them into the easiest.

This is great for after you get the place but it still helps you to use a thermal camera even if you don't have the ability to depressurize the house because you will still be able to see large voids where insulation should be because they will show up as colder spots.

Good luck.

You can rent them online, although the price is a bit more...
Thermal Camera Rental

Another option is to purchase an infrared "laser" thermometer. Although not quite as simple to operate as a flir camera, they provide the same information. And you can't beat the price: many are under $50. Once you buy one, you will love it!

My favorites, in order, are:

Black & Decker TLD100

Kintrex IRT0421

Mastercool MSC52224A

I went cheap but it works good.
I got black Friday $19.99
get a 20% or 25% off coupon.
Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer with Laser Targeting

No need to add fans. Just turn on all the bathroom exhaust fans and that would probably do the trick. Or if the HVAC system is in the attic or garage, pull the evaporator cover (good time to inspect and clean the coil) and turn on the fan.

Check this out:

The hottest thing at CES is the FLIR thermal imaging iPhone case : TreeHugger

Heat vision by phone

FLIR ONE™ personal thermal imager by FLIR® - See the Heat

what will they think of next?

I like this but we use Androids. GS4

IR-Blue for android and iphone.

I want one of these!