This image is an indoor view of the front door. Outside the door, I do have a storm door, with glass panes. This does slow down infiltration, but has very little effect on radiant losses.
The deep blue panel is plywood, probably about 1/4" thick, and the heat loss through it is astounding. I have been trying to balance energy efficiency, while retaining some of the flavor of a house built in 1892. The way this door is constructed is not the way to go.
I can fasten some 1/2" Poly-Iso now, but as a summer project, I should try to construct a more efficient door that could have some of the older design elements.
The results of this image were both expected and unexpected...
This is my quad-core video editing computer, and I fully expected to see heat coming from it. However, the deep blue underneath was a shock. Close examination showed it to be a heating duct. I am ripping out my accursed central heating system, and this duct had escaped my attention. I jumped on that one right away!
As an interesting side note, I read a report from a British effort to reduce heat losses on a national scale...the program included upgrading windows, insulation, install forced air central heating, etc. The net result was that the houses consumed MORE heat because of the inefficiencies and losses of forced air central heating.
This is an image of the xmas lights I use to illuminate the stairs to the second floor in my house. They are all on, providing sufficient light to navigate.
The "brightest" light is not a light at all, but is the plug terminal at the end of the strand that contains the current-limiting resistor that is radiating far more wasted heat energy than the entire strand of lights.
Amazing!
This is the bottom of the back door, which also has a storm door...
The leak under the door is mighty bad!
This shot is of the corner of my heavily insulated kitchen, I made efforts to reduce the "cold corner" effect of standard building practices. So, I was able to greatly reduce, but not entirely eliminate the cold corner.
And finally... this is a "Thermal Selfie" that I shot while siting near a sheet of EPS insulating foam that has a thin layer of reflective mylar on the surface.
If anyone doubts that the reflective layer has any effect, please tell them to look at this image.
My conclusions are that renting a thermal imaging camera is a 'quantum leap' kind of experience, in that it can give you information that was not otherwise apparent, it also changes the way you think. If you followed this thread, you got some useful information, but it can not have the same impact as actually viewing your own personal thermal environment.
In my opinion, it is not worth it to try to DIY a thermal imager. The cost is too high, the results are too vague, the scan time is way too long, and the DIY time is just too much.
It is probably not worth it to buy a thermal imager at current prices, unless you know that you can make money back by selling your imaging services to others.
There are some add-on imagers available for smart phones... they may be game changers.
In the meantime, if your local "Big Box" building supply store does not have a Flir to rent, ask them why... if they say there is no demand, call
ALL YOUR FRIENDS and tell them to do the same thing. Those Big Box guys are in business to make money, and if they know that they can break even by renting ($1,995.00/$45) = 44 rents, and that everything after that is pure gravy
PLUS they will sell more energy saving building supplies, they will finally cave.
Best,
-AC_Hacker