Thermal Imaging - Infrared Camera Inspection

Infrared thermography (IR) has been around for many years, but not until recently has it been readily available to the majority of the general public.  The initial cost of the first few generations of cameras were too costly for most contractors and businesses to justify the investment, but recently these costs have been greatly reduced and many good-quality cameras are now available for less than $10,000. 

The Building Performance Group use Flir and Fluke thermal imaging cameras. They are lightweight, easy to use, powerful tools for discovering a wide array of issues, not only in buildings, but also electrical, mechanical, industrial, equine, and many other applications as well.

We do thermal imaging with infrared cameras in Kentucky, Indiana, and the Midwest primarily to find problems in conditioned buildings that result from heat loss or gain, air infiltration or exfiltration, moisture intrusion through walls and ceilings, and "hot spots" in circuits and electrical distribution systems. 

Thermal imaging is particularly valuable in quickly and cost-effectively locating roof leaks in built-up-roof systems (BURs), or flat roofs in general.  See the Flat-roof leaks section below for more on flat roof leak detection.

Thermal imaging is an extremely cost-effective and non-destructive way of discovering areas in buildings that lack insulation, or a sufficient amount of insulation.  IR scanning of a building's envelope avoids the expensive and time-consuming costs of removing wall and ceiling board to locate problem areas quickly, and very effectively. 

Check out the video below to see an energy audit conducted taking thermal images with an infrared camera!

IR image of air leakage behind walls - Before air-sealing was done.

IR image of the same wall AFTER air-sealing and insulation work was completed.

Watch the video below to see how we use infrared cameras to capture thermal images during home energy audits.