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Joe Blake
29th January 2007, 22:23
Just for general interest,

Yesterday I purchased an infrared "non-contact" thermometer with laser spotter.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/45bec76106cc5ee42741c0a87f9c0739/Product/View/Q1371

Don't know about availability around the rest of the world, but freely available for Australia.

Don't know how I've lived 57 years without one. (Well, probably because they weren't invented until this century, but I digress.)

I can measure "hot spots" in the ceiling that indicate where the insulation is leaking heat through from the roof space. I don't even need to leave my computer station. The temperature of the ceiling varies from 29 to 33 degrees Centigrade. The internal air temperature at my seated head level is 28 C.

Walking around the outside of the house, from ground level I have determined that the underside temperature of the roofing tiles is 55 degrees C in some places, and under the solar hot water system collector panel it's only 33 degrees on the tiles.

My bedroom is about 1.5 degrees cooler (air temperature) but the ceiling temperature is about 28-30 degrees. I put this down the "heat sink" effect of having a double-size water bed in the small room. The temperature on the floor under the bed is 24 degrees.

Anyway, back to playing with me new toy.

Joe

Rob Beckers
31st January 2007, 12:21
That's actually a very good idea Joe...
I know I have leaks in my house. Using an infrared thermometer might help me locate and plug them. A little search on the Internet shows they go for around 30 or 35 bucks, so it's not a great cost. There's a store here in town that just might have one of those at a discount price. I have to keep an eye out next time I'm there.

Just for kicks: Once upon a time I was involved in a research project where we had a real infrared camera. Very expensive, on loan from the manufacturer. The picture it produced showed temperature as color. The lenses it had looked like mirrors, visible light didn't pass through, and it had its own build-in fridge to cool the sensors. My job at the time was to write software to do something useful with the images. I spent many happy hours fiddling with it. :)

-Rob-