Thermal Camera Imaging
A thermal imaging camera provides a way to visualise where your home is losing heat. The camera can take images of both normal visible light and infrared light (i.e. heat) and superimpose the two images on top of each other. In a domestic situation, the camera is ideally used with a large temperature difference between the inside and outside of the house i.e. in winter with the house space heating on, and shows hot and cold spots as different colours on a heat map. Imaging from inside and outside provides different views of heat loss ‐ from the inside you are looking for cold spots, whereas from the outside you are concerned with hot spots where heat is leaving the house. LEP has two cameras available for villagers to borrow. Here are some examples of imaging in the village.
This is an interior view of a Littlebury thatched cottage showing the effect of closing blinds. There are two windows, one with the blind open giving the blue (cold) colour, while the other to the right of the table lamp has the blind closed and is warm (yellow/orange).
The second image is an example from the interior of another Listed timber framed house showing the insulating effect of secondary double glazing. The window has the secondary glazing half open giving a cold (blue) image on the left.
The next image shows windows with and without secondary double glazing, this time from the outside so that the poorly insulated window on the ground floor is seen as yellow/orange (warm) as heat is lost more rapidly.
The next image shows heat being lost (blue collar) through a sloping ceilings on the first floor of a house. Note that the roof joists are clearly visible as a warmer colour through the camera as they lose heat at a different rate.
Finally this is an image showing an uninsulated patch on the front elevation of a house in Littlebury as a warm coloured spot from the exterior.
If you would like to borrow the thermal cameras, please via contact@lep.org.uk