Post
by Cod » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:26 pm
..as to the IR cam, I've seen consultants flick images up on the screen during a sales pitch but I've never been in a company that actually asked for one to be used.
I think the answer is fairly simple, in that it just tells you what you already know.
If you can't simply guess where you are losing heat, ie by touch and draught you could just use an electronic ear thermometre (no I'm not kidding) to measure internal surface temperatures of your rooms. I used this on our home recently, surface temp's of around 20 degrees on all walls, 18 degrees on the windows. Now, an IR image would only have confirmed that. If we were losing heat via a single section of wall having no insulation, tell tale signs such as condensation and cold-to-touch is probably enough to tell you something is missing.
A well insulated house will not have cold internal surfaces. In Finland, it's even simpler to crack this, since its very very cold, and heat loss from a very warm room is much easier to track, than say Cornwall which is a tad more mild. When sitting it the room, you will feel 'radiation draught' which is the opposite of sitting in front of a fire, it's like sitting in front of an open freezer - it's not the air coming over the skin that feels cold, its the rapid loss of thermal radiant heat from your face and hands which is not complimented by radiant heat from the cold surface. In a nut shell, just sitting in a room, and using your senses, you can figure out alot in terms of it's thermal performance - although, I'll admit, it really helps if the whole house isn't a complete write-off and you can move from warm room to cold room - rather than draughty room , to cold room to wet room etc. The senses get confused.
? Is it worth switching to?
