What IR camera do I need for house elevations?

[Ken Neal]

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<div dir=”auto”>Can anyone give any advice on an IR camera for a local environmental group to purchase for heat loss surveys on houses and for locating draughts?</div>
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<div dir=”auto”>A quick internet search has come up with this one for £540 with 60 x 80 pixels https://www.test-meter.co.uk/flir-c2-compact-thermal…/</div>
<div dir=”auto”>or this one for £705 with 120 x 160 pixels</div>
<div dir=”auto”>https://www.test-meter.co.uk/flir-c5-compact-thermal-camera/</div>
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<div dir=”auto”>Any thoughts would be gratefully received.</div>
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[David Cronin]

The most affordable thermal imaging cameras are mobile phone attachments, costing around £227. Flir do some good ones, see https://www.flir.co.uk/browse/home-amp-outdoor/mobile-accessories/. I bought one for my own use, it gives fascinating insights.

It is very effective to show up areas of heat loss, thermal bridging etc. It also has an optical imaging lens to identify the outline of objects to match the warm/cold areas. However it does not have perfect alignment, but the optical lens still helps nonetheless.

The Flir model you found would be more robust for lending out to multiple people if your group intends to do that. But the Flir mobile phone attachment works well enough.

 

[Jon Hand]

For folk curious about IR cameras, what the do well (and caveats) and what it is like to use them in low energy building projects – this is a link to a video I created a few weeks ago….  -Jon Hand, PH trainer Glasgow.

 

[X Wookey]

The flir camera-attachment device (flir one/Flir one pro) is very low-res (80×60 or 160×120) and has a slow refresh rate (9hz) limited by US export regs. The equivalent Topdon model is a much better camera for the same money (256×192, 25Hz). Topdon001 (Android) and Topdon002(iOS).
There is also the Infiray P2 Pro. Again. Way better than the Flir One. (And has a macro lens so useful for electronics as well as houses).
So if buying a plug-in-the-phone camera I’d try one of these. Currently about £200.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/21200/infiray-p2-pro-and-topdon-tc001-thermal-cameras-capsule-review

Various comparisons on youtube too.

 

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