Here is an infrared photo of the radiant pipes heating up in the slab. The temp shows the warmest temperature spot (red) to be just under design temperature (86˚) for the floor at zero outside. This photo was taken before the floor was entirely heated. The design temp keeps us comfortable and cozy inside and in fact the radiant heat works very well. An infrared camera allows you to “see” where the water pipes are located.
Radiant floor–just below design temp for zero degrees
The front door has a great deal of leakage underneath. We usually put a piece of polyiso in front of this door when it gets really cold. It will be replaced by a new ThermaTru-Alpen door in late March.
Cold leakage under the door
Another eye opener in the house was the temperature difference of the unprotected foundation wall on the east side of the master bedroom. This one will have polyiso insulation glued to the inside to eliminate this thermal break in the wall.
Uninsulated foundation wall on east side of Master bedroom.
The Flir iphone applications allows an image to use one of four emissivity settings. Another app records the high and low temps and temps of individual spots on the photo. The temps recorded depend on the accuracy of the setting. In this photo the high and low temps recorded outside are exaggerated with the high emissivity setting.
Exterior Flir Photo
The Flir One is a great tool but not accurate enough for official LEED evaluations. LEED requires not just a level one thermographer but a level two which requires more training. Infrared photos for our LEED evaluation will reveal any issues with the insulation installation that is not fully uncovered in the part of the house that we are not tearing apart entirely. That will determine the number of points that we earn for the thermal envelope. So I’m looking for someone who is a level two thermographer too.