Infra-Red Home Scans

If you live in the cold areas of the country there is an easy way to see where the heat is escaping from the home. Having an infra-red (IR)picture taken of the home can tell you more than all the energy experts combined.

Inside the IR camera there is a heat-detecting sensor that is subject to cooling by liquid nitrogen. This increases the accuracy of the scan. By pointing the camera at the exterior of a home all the areas where heat is escaping outside are ablaze in hot white and color. The places where the insulation is done well will be black, blue and violet. And where the heat is escaping the colors will be red, yellow and, for the hottest, white.

The windows will usually show up red - and these are the premium models. (Older ones will be white.) Because even standard two-pane window will only give an insulating value of R-2 when the walls are putting up R-12 to R-20. These will show up as a green color.

The IR scan is a useful tool for new home insulators. By taking an IR picture they will see where their crews have missed some places, like under windows or over headers. In some instances there are whole areas that have been missed. Why? Because impatient drywalls crews couldn't wait for the insulation crews to come back and finish. It happens.

So how do you improve on an IR scan?

1. Cover the windows with plastic sheet for the winter.

2. Caulk around the windows Old caulking shrinks and gaps may appear.

3. Fill gaps in the walls with blown-in insulation.