IR home leak imaging

Jul 04, 2010 5 Replies
V

I knew someone who got some used fancy oilfield devices and imaged houses to find leaks using not only infrared but some pretty fancy math to compare how the images changed as the temperature changed during the day to night cycle. I gotta wonder if this has advanced much in the decade since.



I have some siding, poynting and roof leaks, whose repair would be a lot less costly if I could get a cheap imaging analysis.


- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

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---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]


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R

Well, the cost of the imagers has come down. The Extech/FLIR line has one below $2K now. I keep trying to come up with a good enough excuse to get one ...

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V

What about a dye that is colorful when wet and white when dry, so it could detect leaks in wallks and even grout because the leak stays wet longer than the rest?

That cool IR cam Rich posted really got my engineering interest alerted!

PS, water keeps a leak damp and has a different temperature signature than the rest of the wall. But that is why a day and night IR picture helps track the different temperature changes.

In by Rich Webb on Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:18:56 -0400 we perused:

*+-*+-> *+->I knew someone who got some used fancy oilfield devices and imaged *+->houses to find leaks using not only infrared but some pretty fancy *+->math to compare how the images changed as the temperature changed *+->during the day to night cycle. I gotta wonder if this has advanced *+->much in the decade since.

*+-Well, the cost of the imagers has come down. The Extech/FLIR line has

*+-one below $2K now. I keep trying to come up with a good enough excuse to *+-get one ...

*+-

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- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
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---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

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H

If you want to experiment with it yourself, consider an appropriate infared filter for your camera.

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D

Photographic film and silicon image sensors do not respond to low temperature thermal infrared. Usually over 99.98% of that is of wavelengths longer than 3,000 namometers. Film that responds much past

1,000 nanometers is about as common as hairy eggs. Silicon image sensors only go out to about 1100 nm, faintly to maybe 1300 nm.
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