There is an old adage: ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. That saying was never more true than in the world of infrared imaging.

These 2 images show the same roof in visible light and with an infrared imager.  The blower door had identified high leakage and the owner was quite sure that it was due  to an old door that would need to be replaced for about $500. It turned out that most of the infiltration was through the ceiling of a sun room addition. The door actually sealed pretty well. The sun room sealing problem was repaired by the owner in a few hours with two tubes of silicon sealant. That sure beat $500 for a door!

Another example is with insulation. Insulation can fall down inside the walls if it isn’t fastened in place.   It can also get wet if there have been leaks. Infrared provides a means of quickly finding problems such as these without drilling inspection holes.

Can you tell that the insulation behind this wall has fallen down? Infrared imaging can.

What about the other old adage?  “You can only do infrared inspections in the winter.”

In the old days, leak detection and poor insulation had to be identified by holding your hand in front of the leak or feeling the wall.  Modern standards recognize that infrared instruments are much more sensitive than your hand.  Therefore, infrared inspections can be done for leak detection with as little as a 3 degree temperature difference between the inside and outside of the house.  Insulation inspection requires 18 degrees difference for 4 hours before the test to allow the wall temperatures to stabilize.  In most houses this can be done with the heating or air conditioning systems.  In other words, infrared scanning of building enclosures is a year round business.

INFRARED IMAGING

Phone: 215-793-9783

Fax: 215-793-9784

E-mail: dougsmithman@gmail.com

Copyright ã 2010 by Douglas K. Smithman, P.E.  All rights reserved.  Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without prior written permission of Douglas K. Smithman.

Old Chinese proverb:

No single raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood.

 

Green living begins at home

 

215-793-9783