Hand held IR thermometer - useful for quick check instead of IR camera?

[David]

If you want to check the side of the house for areas of heat loss you use a special camera.

How effective would spot readings with a hand held IR thermometer be for a quick and dirty check before hiring a camera (or instead of hiring a camera)?

Cheers

Dave R

[Brian]

I have an, admittedly cheap, hand held one which I bought originally for use in electronics ( checking ICs etc).

I tried it around our windows, which are pretty good and a couple my daughter had which were less so - you could feel the draught. I could see the warm ‘air escaping’ in some cases on hers but not consistently, looking for cool spots inside gave better results. On ours, I see a no real variation.

I’ve not checked her replacement windows. She seems happy with them.

Certainly better than nothing, a bit more exact than feeling for a draught, but I’m sure a proper camera would be better - and much more expensive.

Mine was about £15 from Aldi.

[Theo]

I think the problem with a spot thermometer is you have to know where to point it. The camera will show you heat loss from places you didn't expect to look.

For example last week when it was frosty I pointed my camera at the outside of my roof and noticed a hot spot above the central heating pipes in the loft. Obviously the insulation on the pipes must be leaking. I wouldn't have thought to look there.

The other problem is that the temperatures depend on the emissivity of the surfaces and don't mean a great deal as an absolute number - you're interested in the temperature differences, which are much easier to see on a heatmap picture than a spot measurement.

Theo

[alan_m]

The spot diameter can also be a lot larger than you think, and it thermal capture diameter will not be the same as the laser dot on the spot meters that have this laser function.