How to make the most of thermographic camera?
Yesterday I found out from my brother-in-law that his workplace has a higher-end thermographic camera, and that he may be able to borrow it, free of charge!!
I begged him to do so, but I would like to make the most of this chance to see how leaky our house is. So what should I pay attention to when taking a thermo-pic of the house?
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When the energy auditor came over for a door test, he used a scanning device around the house to check for leaks. He called a day before and asked us to move all the furniture away from the exterior walls, for the scan.
When he was here, he found most of the leaks on the top of each door frame inside the house and of coarse on the exterior walls. He said that he hasn't been inside a home yet that seals that part up well enough. Some of the doors with adjustable sill plates were leaking until I raised them up. He did find one wall between the garage and the house that had missing insulation when he scanned it. Do you have a crawl space? I would love to see how much heat is lost from the floor. |
No crawlspace - unheated basement + garage under the house.
No attic either, so I would love to get a picture of the roof. I've wanted to add some additional insulation to it for years, but Dad-in-law (who built the house almost 50 years ago) says that the roof is not leaking heat. I guess that taking a pic of the roof while standing on it may effect the quality? I'd see how much we're losing through the hatch and especially through the ventilation chimneys. |
If it were me, I would take pictures of everything...
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A good related post on another site I frequent.
Thermal Imaging to Help be Green | Hearth.com Forums Home |
Turn all your exhaust fans on to put a negative pressure on the house. You'll see any cold air leaks very easily with the camera. No need to bump the heat up.
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Measure everything.
The more inside/outside differential temperature,
the more resolution you get. I'd measure both inside and outside. Otherwise, you have to guess the leakage path. Windy day can give you even more info. I had my house weatherized. Then I went around with a caulking gun. The "after" blower door test determined that the ventilation was below standard for the structure. I live alone and don't cook much, so it's not unsafe, but it does get stuffy enough in mid winter that I built a heat-recovery ventilator and stuck it in a window. Makes a big difference in the stuffiness. I second the turning on the vent fans while leak testing. The vent over my stove can pull a 5 Pascal vacuum at the other end of the house. If it's winter, I'd suggest turning the heat up to high, wait a couple of minutes, then see what heats up. Crawl around in the basement with the camera. Might show leaks in the air handler. |
I just found out that this weekend I'll be able to borrow the thermographic camera, and luckily the forecast shows colder weather then, so here is my plan:
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Quote:
Sounds like a great plan! Please share your photos. -AC |
1 Attachment(s)
So I got the camera from my brother-in-law on Friday evening, but some things changed: I had to give it back on Saturday, as his company needed it before Sunday. Also, the cold spell turned into snow, and falling snow will skew the outdoor images. I had to wait for the snow to cease. Instead of temps of -15C we had -3C, and we had a black-out at night, so the heating system did not turn on and the house started to cool down. The result is that instead of a temperature difference of over 30C, as planned, I had less than 20C. Also, the snow cover made it pointless to go on the roof. With the black-out I could not turn the kitchen fan on.
Still, any thermal images are better than none, and I learned a lot from what I got. I even made a trip to get pics of my Grandma's house before returning the camera. I've started a new thread with the results, so that this one doesn't go OT. But here's a spoiler: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1453008434 |
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