This is a post about the benefits of owning a thermal camera if you are a homeowner or contractor doing some light energy efficiency work. The following is what I observed when using a Flir i5 here at the office.

The first thing you notice out of the box is that this camera is sturdy and built more like a tool than a sensitive camera. Now you can’t go tossing it around willy-nilly but it wouldn’t be out of place in a tool bag. So after you boot it up, your thermal image shows up right onscreen; and with the focus free lens you can begin scanning your environment. The first thing I noticed here at the office is that our insulation at some of the joints in the rafters is less than ideal. The joints at the rafter and the wall showed up red and in some cases white while the surrounding areas where blue or green, which in my selected color palette meant they were running extra hot. Also running hot were the sockets for the overhead lights and a particular corner of an adjacent room. What this means for you as a homeowner or contractor is that the Flir i5 and other Flir cameras can be used to quickly find problems wit the energy efficiency of a building and take steps to correct these problems. I can’t think of a faster way to get a job like this done. You can pull it out of the box and find your problems literally minutes later. The Flir i5 can also be used for finding electrical issues but we’ll leave that for another day.

Until the next time…