Thermal imaging camera to detect cold spots in the home

[dr_bogenbroom]

I’d like to find out cold spots in my new house and I’ve read thermal cameras are good for detecting these. The issue I have is there are so many on the market I don’t know which would be good for this task alone without spending a small fortune.

FLIR seem to be the top in the industry and do camera attachments for phones however these also vary. Can anyone suggest any?

Thanks

 

[RandomGrinch]

You may try hiring, or borrowing one first.
Some local authorities and a few energy suppliers i.e. Octopus, have them available to borrow.
If you want to buy, Flir are the industry leaders, but are expensive.
A Flir One is a USB-C camera that can plug into the base of a phone. It's cheaper at @£140, but the resolution is quite low.
Other brands are available from the likes of Amazon, but you take your chances with off-brands.

If you're not familiar with IR cameras, the results can take a little interpretation - getting a professional in to do a proper a heat loss survey, may not cost too much more than buying a good quality camera.

 

[foxhole]

I’d like to find out cold spots in my new house and I’ve read thermal cameras are good for detecting these. The issue I have is there are so many on the market I don’t know which would be good for this task alone without spending a small fortune.

FLIR seem to be the top in the industry and do camera attachments for phones however these also vary. Can anyone suggest any?

Thanks

What makes you think you may have cold spots.

 

[dr_bogenbroom]

House doesn’t heat up well at all so when I say cold spots, I mean places where heat is leaking the most.

 

[morqthana]

I always thought FLIR was an acronym for Forward Looking Infra Red.

If you get one you can also use it outside to look for warm spots.

 

[nero44]

If you are with Octopus energy they have a free loan scheme. I used that a few months ago and FLR is really good. But to be honest, all the cold spots were were I expected them to be and I did not find any unexpected odd gaps (hopefully it means insulation is decent). I have found them super useful for a secondary use, I could see exactly where my central heating pipes are running under the floor w/out opening anything. So I took note of that for future reference.

 

[RandomGrinch]

always thought FLIR was an acronym for Forward Looking Infra Red.

Correct, the company was originally called FLIR Systems, and now Teledyne FLIR. FLIR has always been capitalised and I shouldn't have been so sloppy!

 

[morqthana]

Didn't think you were - I just didn't know it was or had ever been anything other than a technology acronym.

 

[hllns]

I have a tiny cheap one that connects to my phone, the CPUs in phones are so powerful and the screens so good that it does make some sense to offload that bit of the device, the one issue is that you occasionally have compatibility issues (my older phone didn't work).

If you can make use of a really cold day to give a decent indoor/outdoor temperature gradient it works fairly well and spotting insulation gaps isn't too tricky.

 

[dr_bogenbroom]

I have a tiny cheap one that connects to my phone, the CPUs in phones are so powerful and the screens so good that it does make some sense to offload that bit of the device, the one issue is that you occasionally have compatibility issues (my older phone didn't work).

If you can make use of a really cold day to give a decent indoor/outdoor temperature gradient it works fairly well and spotting insulation gaps isn't too tricky.

What price range are you talking?