4 ms·

How did you find the leaks ?

zdragnar 4y ago
If there is a thermal difference (cold outside and furnace is running, or hot and AC is running) a cheap thermal camera can find them fairly quickly. In the US at least, where building codes favor air sealed construction, door blower tests are fairly accessible: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/blower-door-tests https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/blower-door-tests
- kolinko 4y ago
  How did you use the thermal camera exactly? Any tutorials on that? I have a garage, and I had issues with using the thermal camera - if the building materials were not uniform they reflected/radiated IR unevenly. It could show a piece of uninsulated area as hot and very well insulated as cold.
  - namibj 4y ago
    Get some wash-off spray-on chalk (essentially spraypaint that won't survive the next rain, because it's made to disappear when hit with rain/a hose). That should give you sufficiently uniform surface emmissivity to deal with those problem spots.
    - kolinko 4y ago
      Thanks! Do I do the measurements from the outside then, not the inside? Seems difficult in some cases unless I have a drone (roof, other hard to reach areas). Do you know if i can find a tutorial anywhere? I tried googling, but couldn't find anything easy to understand.
IanOzsvald 4y ago
I use a FLIR One on Android. I've charted internal leaks (where cold air blows in through cracks) and external (where heat escapes through eg old windows). Wait for a cold day (eg 0C), heat the house, investigate everything you can. My 1930s London house has SO many leaks, I've spent 3 years slowly fixing them. I have a talk I should give on using 12 Govee hygrometers to back-calculate moisture (absolute humidity) coherent per room, as I was charting moisture loss to trace air leaks.
- ahaucnx 4y ago
  Yes we also used thermal cameras for leak detection. Quite effective.
HybridCurve 4y ago
Industry standard in HVAC is to use a door blower to provide positive static pressure and then use a fogger. It works quite well since you have a direct visual indication and are not deriving loss from a secondary observation (temp/humidity).

If there is a thermal difference (cold outside and furnace is running, or hot and AC is running) a cheap thermal camera can find them fairly quickly. In the US at least, where building codes favor air sealed construction, door blower tests are fairly accessible: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/blower-door-tests https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/blower-door-tests

kolinko 4y ago
How did you use the thermal camera exactly? Any tutorials on that? I have a garage, and I had issues with using the thermal camera - if the building materials were not uniform they reflected/radiated IR unevenly. It could show a piece of uninsulated area as hot and very well insulated as cold.
- namibj 4y ago
  Get some wash-off spray-on chalk (essentially spraypaint that won't survive the next rain, because it's made to disappear when hit with rain/a hose). That should give you sufficiently uniform surface emmissivity to deal with those problem spots.
  - kolinko 4y ago
    Thanks! Do I do the measurements from the outside then, not the inside? Seems difficult in some cases unless I have a drone (roof, other hard to reach areas). Do you know if i can find a tutorial anywhere? I tried googling, but couldn't find anything easy to understand.

IanOzsvald 4y ago

I use a FLIR One on Android. I've charted internal leaks (where cold air blows in through cracks) and external (where heat escapes through eg old windows). Wait for a cold day (eg 0C), heat the house, investigate everything you can. My 1930s London house has SO many leaks, I've spent 3 years slowly fixing them. I have a talk I should give on using 12 Govee hygrometers to back-calculate moisture (absolute humidity) coherent per room, as I was charting moisture loss to trace air leaks.

ahaucnx 4y ago
Yes we also used thermal cameras for leak detection. Quite effective.

HybridCurve 4y ago

Industry standard in HVAC is to use a door blower to provide positive static pressure and then use a fogger. It works quite well since you have a direct visual indication and are not deriving loss from a secondary observation (temp/humidity).