To get a comprehensive idea of the condition of a home, its thorough inspection is a must. However, you’ll find insulation, walls, and flooring always hiding a major portion of a home and the equipment inside it. In such a scenario, where you can’t see the ducts, electrical, or plumbing, how do you know if they aren’t working well enough?
It’s thermal imaging that helps find issues in a home that may need urgent attention to prevent a costly repair at a later stage. With building codes changing, thermal imaging can give one an insight into the attention that a certain issue may need to keep the home compliant with the codes. It helps form a complete picture of the condition that the home is in. We give you the major benefits of thermal imaging in the inspection of a home.
1) Locating any Hidden Moisture
Thermal imaging proves very effective in identifying damage caused by water to walls, floors, and ceilings. Thermal imaging cameras reveal the temperature difference between the wet areas on a surface and the dry areas. The images show the wet areas in a separate color which helps locate the spots where the leakages are occurring. Detection of such moisture issues would not have been possible otherwise if a limited home inspection were carried out.
2) Locating Electrical Hot Spots
Thermal imaging also helps locate hot spots in the electrical system of a home. If there’s any erosion in a wire, it causes heat at the points of connection which can be detected through thermal imaging. This again is located by a difference in temperature. A spot with an electrical leakage will have a higher temperature which can be easily spotted with thermal imaging. Thermal imaging cameras will again show those zones in a different color. The early location of electrical leakages caused by corrosion is vital as failing to do so may cause fatal injuries. It also helps prevent fires.
3) Loss of Heat
The monthly utility bills are a major expense for a homeowner. With the temperature falling to sub-zero levels every winter, every home runs its furnace more often and for longer durations too. If the rooms in your home lack efficient heating, you could end up with an inflated heating bill. Thermal imaging can help detect areas that see major heat loss in your home like the doors and windows. Once the areas of heat loss are located, timely repairs can be made. Such repairs or replacements of equipment can help a homeowner make a saving of as much as 10-15% on their energy bills every month.
4) Helps Detect Structural Defects
Thermal imaging while scanning walls, floors, and ceilings can identify temperature differences and conductivity issues. It helps locate missing structural components and any damage that may exist in those components. Thermal imaging, by detecting the difference in temperature caused by leakages can locate cracks in a structure. Thermal imaging can help detect structural defects in time that greatly help in making timely repairs and prevent serious accidents. Such inspection is especially useful in locating structural issues that may exist in high-rise buildings.
Other Advantages
Thermal imaging also helps you detect defects in insulation or if there’s any small animal nest anywhere in your house. Thermal imaging can help articulate issues in your home that you would never be able to describe well enough. Graphic representation of money being wasted through leakages can influence the house owners to make urgent repairs. Such a representation of issues in a home always has a stronger impact on the owners of a house. Urgent repairs, of course, help prevent serious accidents that may occur due to negligence.
When you’re able to see the difference in temperatures you have the necessary evidence to carry out effective repairs. That’s because thermal imaging shows you the exact spots where repairs might be needed. That helps prevent things from getting unmanageable. You can help prevent fires and power outages.
Thermal imaging also helps significantly in operations and facility management saves considerable money. That’s because you’ll be able to gauge how efficiently the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems are performing. Imagine the extra work you can avoid and the savings in cost you can make if you had only a certain portion of the roof to repair instead of having to replace it completely.
Thermal imaging can help technicians and engineers in detecting electrical defects that maybe there on printed circuit boards. It may also reveal which circuits are consuming most power on a switchboard. Thermal imaging can also help detect imbalances in phase supply that cause variations in electrical load. This technology can also help detect defects in underfloor heating hampering optimum performance.
Thermal imaging can also detect overheated motors in pumps and prevent a burn-out. The source of water leaks is not obvious at all times. It may need expensive and destructive testing to locate such leakages. Thermal imaging can help in such situations too by detecting the difference in surface temperatures between the dry and wet areas.
Thermal imaging can also detect how effective restorations and repairs have been. There’s no need for any destructive testing. Thermal imaging is a very effective non-invasive technique to check how well the repairs and restorations have been done.
Conclusion
Thermal imaging, therefore, helps detect problems that may be hidden in a home and are not easy to locate. Thermal imaging allows non-invasive and non-destructive inspection of issues in insulation, moisture issues, and leakage problems. This article tells you how the advantages of thermal inspection of your home can help you save many headaches. It helps those looking to sell their home as well as those who are looking for more efficiency in their home’s power and heat usage. Despite the inherent advantages of thermal inspection, visual inspection shouldn’t be completely done away with. However, fully exploiting the advantages of thermal inspection helps in cost saving by alerting you to timely repairs.
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