Old house thermal imaging

[ColdNH]

+1 When we were thinking about exterior colors last year we gave serious thought to doing a red like that... But where afraid of making our small house look downright tiny! Very nice place ColdNH.

I say go for it, I would never have the cajones to paint a house with these colors, i would just be thinking of Christmas as i was doing it, we bought it like this and absolutely love it! shed and detached garage match as well.

 

[ColdNH]

Yeah. I like that quite a bit. One of the few things I like about New England is that most homes have a bit of character and history to them. This one definitely has character....maybe history, but I can't presume on that one. Much better than the cookie cutter housing I grew around in the south.

Thanks, we were definitly looking for a house with some charachter (well I was) wife would have been happy with a cookie cutter...

Not much history though, house was built in the mid 80s, but the previous owner was pretty good about matching the colonial cape cod style. even the shed has a salt box shape to it and the detached garage looks like barn.

Sorry for thread hy-jacking

 

[Ashful]

Sorry for thread hy-jacking

No problem... throw up some thermal images, and it's not a hijack!

New wood storm windows arriving today for those four offending windows shown in the first group of thermal images. Went with mahogany frames and two solid glass panels glazed into each. If this goes well with the install of these four, we'll pulling all the old triple-track storms and ordering or building 26 more wood storms!

 

[jharkin]

No problem... throw up some thermal images, and it's not a hijack!

New wood storm windows arriving today for those four offending windows shown in the first group of thermal images. Went with mahogany frames and two solid glass panels glazed into each. If this goes well with the install of these four, we'll pulling all the old triple-track storms and ordering or building 26 more wood storms!

What are you doing for screens? I'm looking at replacing my old triple tracks starting this summer but so far had been primarily considering just a new set of aluminum storms (Larson Gold or Harvey Tru-Channel) due to cost and utility.

 

[mfglickman]

+1 When we were thinking about exterior colors last year we gave serious thought to doing a red like that... But where afraid of making our small house look downright tiny! Very nice place ColdNH.

I like the red too. There's a red antique cape just up the road from us, though, so I'm thinking maybe Marigold with a Barn Red door...gotta get some color!

 

[mfglickman]

What are you doing for screens? I'm looking at replacing my old triple tracks starting this summer but so far had been primarily considering just a new set of aluminum storms (Larson Gold or Harvey Tru-Channel) due to cost and utility.

We put a set of flange-less triple tracks on our first house, a Victorian with single pane wavy glass windows, and they were frankly brilliant. Could not beat them for the utility, cost, and lack of impediment of the view both ways...

 

[Ashful]

What are you doing for screens? I'm looking at replacing my old triple tracks starting this summer but so far had been primarily considering just a new set of aluminum storms (Larson Gold or Harvey Tru-Channel) due to cost and utility.

I'm actually buying separate traditional wood screens for the few windows where I actually want to switch to screens in summer. The company that made these does offer wood frames with aluminum-framed storms and screens that can be interchanged from the inside, which has a lower overall cost, if you actually want screens for all your windows. However, with a rabbet to hold the aluminum-framed screen or storm panel, rather than traditional glazing, I anticipate more maintenance issues with those. Moisture will tend to get trapped in that groove, causing paint failure, and eventually rot. They also have a system where you have completely separate upper and lower storms, so you can just change the lower for a screen, but then you have to look at a larger center bar.

http://www.adamsarch.com/storm-screen-window

 

[logger6644]

Sorry for the low resolution, but that's what this FLIR can do. Outside temperature was 16F at time of photos.

Image of the front of the house. Oldest part is on left, 1894 kitchen addition in the middle (right under cross-hairs), and 1994 addition to the right of that. The big hot spot between the 1894 and 1994 additions is the front entrance, which I can now see radiates quite a bit of heat!

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Closer-up on left (older) half of house. Note I am currently missing storms on the two third floor windows and one second-floor window. I bet you can guess which by the temperature color! All of the stonework is warm, indicating thermal transfer thru the walls, but only around 20 - 22F... which ain't bad on a 16F night. Heck, the soil might keep it almost that warm without me doing any heating inside. The kitchen addition is suprisingly "cool" in color. Thinking about this for the first time now, I don't have an insulation problem there... I just have too many leaks! That kitchen is very drafty.

The other thing that surprised me is how much heat is trapped below the porch roof on the old part of the house. There are no lights or sources of heat in that roof, so it's all natural to the structure. I wonder if folks knew something about this in the 1700's, which we've forgotten today.

View attachment 90947

End of house, or actually the original front of the house. Again, note the way the porch roof above the first floor (and the porch floor above the basement walk-out), really holds in the heat. I'm missing one storm on the second floor on this side as well... guess which!

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Back of the old part, showing pretty clearly where one of my woodstoves sits, in this case 3" from the other side of that wall. Outside of the wall in this area is 38F, according to the camera, which I hope might be set up at least half right. The two windows radiating like hell on the far left edge of this photo (just above the FLIR logo) are in the newest addition, and are better than average modern double-pane, but with no storm windows.

View attachment 90949

Photo of the rear of the middle (1894) kitchen addition. The hot chimney is our oil-fired boiler, and that glass door with sidelights that's radiating like hell is a high quality but somewhat worn-out double-pane, ca.1990. The wing on the right is the 1773 part of the house.

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Photo of the same courtyard, but this time showing the new wing. The hot chimney hiding under the "32.1" on the thermometer is the same oil-fired boiler. The hot fireplace and chimney in the middle of the photo is the old Jotul F12, sitting about 12" from the inside of the stone fireplace wall. Note the new double-pane windows in this addition seem to radiate hotter than the 1773 windows with storms.
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Photo of more glass work on the new wing.

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Photo of my crappy, poorly insulated, garage doors. That garage is likely only 50F inside, if not cooler. The thing that really caught my eye was the hot spots at the bottom of the walls, likely concrete block under the stucco.

View attachment 90950

Looking at these photos, I do not see any major insulation problems. After reviewing them, I think my troubles are more related to drafts than conduction. I'll get some indoor photos to try and prove that.

Great pictures, love the house. What kind of infrared camera is it, and where can I get one? Can you rent them?

 

[Ashful]

FLIR T250, $12,499. Someone said you can rent something similar at Home Depot. All info included in page 1 of this thread. Good luck!