Thermography for Home Inspections…
December 12, 2008 by Lisa Cooper
Here is an article by Jim Reppond, a Coldwell Banker Agent in Seattle, covering Thermography
meters for use in water damage. Interesting enough, this digital technology is also in use for early detection of cancer. A friend of mine was kind enough to show me the images from her recent exam, and the images had significant clarity and detail advantages over previous analog technology. Here’s the article, link to the original above and view the associated video.
Thermography for Home Inspections…
It use to be difficult to detect water intrusion in the walls of homes. To really tell if there was an issue you often had to drill holes into the walls. And Sellers were loathe to allow buyers do such an invasive testing when they might just walk away from the transaction if they found something they didn’t like. These days some inspectors are carrying expensive, but very accurate, thermography meters to check for water intrusion.
These sophisticated devices use high definition thermal imaging for finding hidden water issues as well as discovering details about the heating systems. And it’s all done without any damage to the home. The main company that manufacturers these thermal imaging cameras is called FLIR Systems. There are many other applications for these devices, and they sell them to a number of other industries, including the food industry, law enforcement, marine surveyors, just to name a few. They often cost from $15,000 up to around $60,000. So not many inspectors carry them. I suspect some inspectors may try to charge a premium to test with them. But at least one inspector here in the Seattle area uses them regularly without charging extra.
Thanks for the shout-out, Lisa!
Great Article by Jim Reppond. Thanks so much for showing us.
Well, there are some demerits of Thermography as well. First of all, its highly expensive (already mentioned in the article) and out of reach for every home seeker/ buyer/ inspector. Secondly, accurate temperature measurements are actually being hampered by differing emissivities and reflections from other surfaces. So, conventional Thermographic methods for leak testing are not always perfect and lack in accuracy somehow. Most Thermographic cameras have ±2% accuracy or worse and are not as accurate as contact methods and are only able to directly detect surface temperatures. Thirdly… Thermography is a powerful but intricate technology… Thermographers must also understand common error sources that can influence observed thermal data. Great article by the way.