Local stories from local people: Ali's experience with our thermal imaging camera

I borrowed our SO FLIR thermal imaging camera a few years ago to see where heat was leaking from my house. My home is very old – pre 1900, with solid walls, and a small extension that is more modern, so it can get quite cold.

How and when to use the camera

To use the camera to its best advantage, you need to do this when it’s dark and not raining or windy. You can use it both outside and inside the house – making sure that your heating has been on for about an hour beforehand. You can also take images on the camera. I’m not a very technical person, but I found the instructions easy to follow – you just plug in the little unit to the bottom of your phone, download the free app, and off you go.

Thermal image of Ali's house

What was immediately apparent was that the thermal properties of the more modern extension, that has cavity walls, was much better than the older solid walls, as you can see from the picture, the extension walls are showing blue, whereas the solid walls are showing yellow. I could also see that while the main roof was well insulated, but there was insufficient insulation in the smaller roof, which is showing red.

Homemade thermal curtains

The doors are old, wooden, and had massive leaks around the edges. As we didn’t want to replace these, this was easily solved by making a thick curtain which I made with thermal lining, and lined it with an old duvet.

Thermal curtain for the front door

I also made 2 draft excluders with leftover fabric. These are useful in the summer, as they keep out the sun which keeps the house nice and cool. This did pose a slight problem for our cats, as they needed to access the catflap, so I put a couple of buttons on the bottom of the curtain, so that we can raise it enough for them to get out, while still retaining some heat in the house.

Cat friendly curtains

Loft hatch

Inside the house our loft hatch needed insulating, which we did with some of the multifoil type insulation and a staple gun.

Loft hatch insulation

Radiators

It was also useful looking at the radiators, as we could see those that needed

bleeding or where there was a build up of gunk in the bottom of the radiators,

indicating that the heating system needed flushing. We have made sure that all our radiators are fitted with TRVs, so we can control the temperature better. Sometimes pipes have been installed without sufficient insulation. It’s also quite fun to do.

Recommendation

I would recommend borrowing the FLIR camera if you are interested in the energy efficiency of your home, or looking at any specific areas that you feel are cold spots.