Thermal home survey or camera

If a camera can be hired cheaply, gotta be a good start.

Any environmental charities around? Mine lends them out (Scotland)

A FLIR One can be purchased for well under £200 and are excellent, we use them at work with iPads. Work with phones and android too.

Heck, you could buy it 2nd hand, use it and sell it and be pretty much cost neutral.

It's not quite as simple as just pointing it at the windows and doors then clicking a photo*. You'd get better results from a proper survey - assuming the company didn't just send someone round to point it at the windows and doors then click a photo.

Ask what qualifications the thermographer has. I don't know what these would be for home surveys, my background is industrial, but if they told you what it was, presumably you could look that up on the internet and get an idea if it was a genuine comprehensive training course, or just a couple of hours chat with a certificate at the end.

* Inside or outside? I believe it depends what kind of heating you have weather that causes a bit of +ve or -ve pressure in the house. I'd probably do both. Glass causes massive reflections, you might be measuring whatever is being reflected. Reflections move, genuine cold/warm surfaces don't. Cold areas might be drafts or damp. Wind massively impacts survey quality if done outside. IR thermography is surface temp measurements only, you're inferring what goes on where you can't see, it's not x-ray vision.

I've had good results using a thermo camera on my own. I was able to quickly identify where the greatest losses were occurring (patio doors fitted by buffoon, insulation in loft space not meeting edges of ceilings). In our new house it let me work out where the cold was coming from and come up with a plan to address the issues.

I've borrowed a fluke Ti10 from a mate. It's old, but it shows exactly what I need it to. You'll need the fluke connect software to do any analysis, but if you're just after a guide as to where the cold spots are it'll be fine without it.

Here you can see the problem we have in that the hips of the roof have no insulation at all. There's also some thermal bridging, but I don't think that much, in the stud work behind the plaster.

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We got hold of a FLIR One, pointed it at doors and windows and took some pictures. As above it showed where insulation was lacking, where dodgy window seals needed replacing and where we needed more draught proofing. Maybe not a high falutin' survey but we've got some clear areas to target.

Interested in this too as we have a relatively new house that cant hold heat for toffee, although I have tried best there must be some areas of huge loss.

You can hire cameras from Jewson for £80 per 24hrs.

Trouble is, how do you know on the scale of what is acceptable heat loss and whats worth chasing? I have wondered about getting a company in, but it worries me that they are all cowboys and will just want to inject foam everywhere

I would look at getting a FLIR one & reselling when you're done. You probably want to pick a good day for a survey anyway, cold and still outside, heating on for several hours inside. I have access to a Fluke Ti10, so if I remember will have a look next week in the expected cold snap.

Are you with octopus, they lend them out for free. Think it's a £200 refundable deposit

I bought a flir one for £200 a couple of years ago like Steveb suggests above. Haven't got round to selling it yet though because it keeps being useful. Friends and family have borrowed it too. Probably isn't as good as a proper survey from a professional but might be 75% as good for far less cost.

Brilliant advice re octopus I m with them so will ask. I just bought a 4 sensor weather station, put 1 in loft, 1 outside, 2 in different rooms. The poorly insulated loft is actually q effective, in that the heat doesn't seem to be escaping up there.

Only 50 quid from weather station shop online, clearly a camera is much better.

I would advocate doing it on a windy day as well.

Unfortunately Octopus have a very very long queue for the cameras

I don't have an iPhone so I can't use a FLIR one. But there are hand held all in one units for £135. Want to pool resources to get our own and share it?

 But there are hand held all in one units for £135.

Send me a link to those,  because I suspect they'll have nothing like the sensitivity required for the job.  I will advise.

Interested in this too. FLIR ones seem more like £500 though.

I don’t have an iPhone so I can’t use a FLIR one. B

Android version.

https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-gen-3/?model=435-0005-03&vertical=condition+monitoring&segment=solutions

£191.99 posted. Usb-c

Amazon have a very generous returns policy. Just saying. I'd not normally advocate this but, y'know, it's Amazon.