I recently
got a chance to use a thermal imaging camera and wanted to share some of the results. I'll try to explain some of the finding, but please feel free add your own comments and your own pics.
First, the front door. From the inside, it's cold:
but hot on the outside:
And this is
after adding weather stripping!!
What else can be done, apart from replacing the whole door and frame? We are considering building an addition on this side of the house, so we would not want to waste money on a door which will be thrown out in 2-3 years.
Below is the front of the house. You can see that the windows are not much better than the door. These 2 small windows are double-pane argon filled, not openable (so the frame is solid - no hinges or seams). There is a thermal bridge where the top of the wall (insulated with 5cm-thick styrofoam) meets the uninsulated balcony. Also, it seems like a lot of heat is being lost through the basement wall - not something I expected as the basement is not really heated, so its temp is much lower. There is no window where the basement is losing heat on this picture, though there is also no insulation on this basement wall.
The building on the left is my neighbor's garage - unheated and uninsulated.
More thermal bridging at the top of the wall. And of course the balcony door is losing heat. The glass of the balcony door appears to be cool, but it is just reflecting the shy - I noticed that depending on the angle of the picture, glass will either emit heat or reflect it.