In a thermal image, cold surfaces are shown darker than light, warm surfaces.

I got a call for a cold top floor apartment in a building with a functioning heating system. I took this thermal image and revealed what looks like a past roof leak had compromised the insulation at the ceiling level and the wall below (shown in blue).

How important is insulation? This apartment is about 8 degrees cooler than the one next to it.


Comments

  1. Master P,

    Very fn cool! Wow, that is like HVAC porn!

    By the looks of it I would have to agree with the hidden chimney theory. Stupid question, have you had anyone up on the roof to see where a chimney may have been? Any current holes in the coping at the roof? Loose stones? Etc?

    -Steam Man

  2. All,
    As Denton said, this is taken with my handheld thermal imaging camera. It eliminates a lot of guesswork when determining how heat moves, where it goes, what works and doesn’t, where heat is lost and gained, and much more.
    I will concede that there may be a chimney in that wall, but a thermal survey of the rest of that ceiling exposed many other spots that were very likely water damage. Water meeting insulation often irreversibly alters its density and it shows as being inconsistent with the unaffected materials. Keep in mind there is framing in that cold wall too, that will direct and contain a water leak.

    Fun stuff, right?!

  3. tsa et al, this is taken by a thermal imaging camera, all those guys that do energy audits have them. flir.com. I believe the cost is down to around 5k.

1 2