First Fire With Thermal Imaging

[Floydian]

I've been holding out on firing due to feeling a little thin on firewood for this season but with the colder weather coming it was time.

A couple months ago I bought the Flir One so this was my first chance to see my system in whole new light.

The Flir One slides onto the iPhone 5. (Doesn't fit the 6)


Here is the boiler during the burn:



And the radiant floor heating up:



Can't really compare this to a pro IR camera but for $350 it does a pretty good job. Biggest complaint is no temperature scale but hopefully Flir will make that possible with an app update soon.

Noah

 

[maple1]

Nice!

 

[tom in maine]

This is on my bucket list. Well, maybe just my Christmas list. Have an iPhone 5 that works with my carrier on the way.
Amazing cost considering some of the thermal cameras I have had and then sold over the years.

Then there is this one for $199:
(broken link removed to http://www.geek.com/chips/seek-thermal-a-199-thermal-cam-add-on-for-ios-and-android-1605350/)

Thermal images, Tunes and a phone. Not even Star Trek was doing that!

 

[Floydian]

Hey Tom,

That Seek Thermal cam looks pretty slick! Much bigger temp range than the Flir One. It does look quite vulnerable sticking off the phone like that though. The Flir one offers a lot more protection as well as it's own battery. I have only charged mine once since mid September.

The biggest pain for me is that I use a Lifeproof case and it a small hassle to take it out to be able to use the Flir One but it's not like I am taking thermal images all the time.

Noah

 

[Floydian]

I already knew from experience that the Varm doesn't lose a lot of heat and the boiler image really shows this. That little section of single wall pipe is ~200.

Pretty neat seeing the loading unit working as well. What is not so nice to see is how cold the slab edge is. Gotta pick your battles with an older house. Dealing with this is on the to do list but it is pretty far down.

And a shameless plug for the Varm: I looked at A LOT of boilers before buying and I really couldn't be any happier. My wife fires the boiler probably 75% of the time and she loves it as much as I do. She calls it our little Swedish blow torch.

Noah

 

[Coal Reaper]

Little swedish blow torch. Lol
Some awesome shots. Some i tell dont believe me when i state how cool to the touch the whole boiler is besides the single wall.
Is the radiant picture taken from the top or underneath the floor looking up? Looks like its doing the job real nice.

 

[tom in maine]

Just ordered this one.
(broken link removed to http://thermal.com/see_the_unseen.html)

Merry Christmas to me...
Will post when I get it. They are on backorder.

We all need one of either of these units.

 

[Coal Reaper]

Just ordered this one.
(broken link removed to http://thermal.com/see_the_unseen.html)

Merry Christmas to me...
Will post when I get it. They are on backorder.

We all need one of either of these units.

Well tom that didnt take long. Lol. Good on yah!

 

[huffdawg]

That's awesome .... you can tell where exactly your pex tubing is in your concrete... I need to bolt a drill press down in my shop....

 

[JTWALL]

I've been holding out on firing due to feeling a little thin on firewood for this season but with the colder weather coming it was time.

A couple months ago I bought the Flir One so this was my first chance to see my system in whole new light.

The Flir One slides onto the iPhone 5. (Doesn't fit the 6)
View attachment 144214

Here is the boiler during the burn:

View attachment 144216

And the radiant floor heating up:

View attachment 144219

Can't really compare this to a pro IR camera but for $350 it does a pretty good job. Biggest complaint is no temperature scale but hopefully Flir will make that possible with an app update soon.

Noah

Should be useful for locating heat-loss areas on the outside of the house!

 

[Floydian]

Is the radiant picture taken from the top or underneath the floor looking up?

you can tell where exactly your pex tubing is in your concrete...

That pic is taken from above. I did a tube and plate install on top of the subfloor.

Should be useful for locating heat-loss areas on the outside of the house!

That is a big reason I wanted affordable thermal imaging. I am a builder and this thing comes in very handy! I don't use it enough to justify spending $3K but at 1/10th the cost it was a must for me.

 

[Floydian]

I finally got some time to play with the "Flir Tools" app a little and I am more and more impressed. Now I can import an image and see the temp scale as well as do up to eight point measurements on a single image. Also has a few more contrasts to play with and a few other temp measuring capabilities.

I was wrong, the single wall pipe was 270 on the surface while reading 390 in the center of the pipe.

This contrast shows the hottest and coldest temps:

Another nice thing is the Flir Tools app shows a much bigger temp range than the camera itself, which on goes up to 212 or so.

Noah

 

[tom in maine]

This is really a great first step to what could be an energy revolution.

I have owned about a half dozen thermal imaging units over the years. I have always felt that the investment was a burden and sold them off.
This is a lot like the first affordable computers for home use. A lot will change in our energy world.

I suspect that at some time in the not too distant future, thermal imaging will show up as an app for smartphones without adding on these add-on bits.
When that happens, if it happens, regular folks, not just us energy wonks, will be able to see what is wrong with their homes, cars (to some degree) and
electrical systems.

 

[laynes69]

I want the seek thermal cam for my smart phone. Over the years, I've done numerous energy upgrades with insulation, airsealing, etc. We have a large old victorian that after 10 years of living here, I finally feel we are getting somewhere. Having some sort of thermal imaging will allow me to find the problem areas I can't track down. For only 200 dollars, it will pay for itself right away. People at work think I'm nuts, but I want comfort and to reduce the amount of fuel needed.

 

[maple1]

Hey Floydian, can you snap one of the outside of your house for us? Just to get an idea of how well it does that?

This might be enough to push me to finally swapping out my old dumb phone for a smart one. This is way cool. Er, hot?

 

[Floydian]

Hey Floydian, can you snap one of the outside of your house for us?

Hello maple1, I'll try to take some pics this morning. Haven't done it yet because it hasn't been that cold but it's 16 this morning and the house is nice and warm so we should see all the shortcomings. I'll also post pics from the inside for comparison.

Noah

 

[tom in maine]

I can see it now, house thermal-selfies!
That could be a whole new Forum.

 

[Floydian]

Well I took some images of the outside of the house but it was a little disappointing. The cameras operating range is between 32*f and 95*f. I was trying to take images at 16*f and the camera seemed confused.
Temp scale is all wrong.

The warm area is my kitchen. Above that is a room we heat to about 65*f. This part of the house is 2x4 walls with 1" of foam outside of the sheathing. None of the other outside pics are worth posting.

Images from the inside seem far more telling.

Here you can see the studs as well as the trusses above. Some nice cold spots there!


Here you see the inside of the window. Obviously pretty cold surfaces inside. The radiant heat really helps the comfort level with all these cool surfaces I have. This is with an indoor air temp of ~70*f.

Now let's look inside the super insulated house I built for my folks.

The inside of the exterior walls are significantly warmer than my fairly standard walls.


This is a triple pane fiberglass window. Again much warmer interior surfaces.

This 1100 Sq Ft main level is heated by a single point source mini split heat pump. The images taken are on the opposite end of the house from the MSHP and the interior temps are 5+ degrees warmer than my walls in rooms with radiant heat.

This is why most builders doing super insulated homes skip the radiant heat and focus on the enclosure, with good reason.

Noah

 

[Coal Reaper]

and thats why i am reluctant to get one of those things. i will be ripping my whole house apart!

 

[Coal Reaper]

the glass on the secondary door is showing 265*. any way to get a reading on the refractory surface?

 

[tom in maine]

The Seek Thermal camera for iPhones has been waiting certification (from who I am not sure, probably FCC).
Just got an email that it is ready to go.

In case you are looking for one, here is the link

(broken link removed to http://thermal.com/see_the_unseen.html)

Just in time for Christmas.
Standby for some pics from Searsport....

 

[Clarkbug]

the glass on the secondary door is showing 265*. any way to get a reading on the refractory surface?

I dont think there will be a way to do that without pulling the draft door. Better to use a thermocouple attached to the refractory, assuming you can get one with a valid temp range...

 

[Clarkbug]

Well I took some images of the outside of the house but it was a little disappointing. The cameras operating range is between 32*f and 95*f. I was trying to take images at 16*f and the camera seemed confused.
Temp scale is all wrong.
[

I think Flir tools let's you adjust the ambient temps and whatnot as well... Might be able to adjust your scale there and get some good data out of it.

If you can't tell from the avatar, I get to play with the thermal stuff from time to time