Just Scrape and Paint…or Not!

ITC instructor Ron Lucier is back with another great post, one that I can certainly relate to having recently moved from an old house that once had similar moisture issues.  Yes, they can be fun to renovate, but older homes are not for everyone, especially when a lot a scraping and painting (or worse) is involved.  Here’s Ron’s take on something that he recently dealt with at his house which also includes a couple of infrared images and some thermal science that our building thermographers should enjoy:

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Renovating older homes can be fun. Or not. One thing for sure is they are full of surprises and expensive!

I own a horse farm and the house was built in 1910. Not sure when the porch was added but I noticed the other day that it is the only section of the house that doesn’t have rain gutters (ugh!). I also noticed that one section has paint that was peeling while the other areas of the fascia did not.

An inspection with my T650sc was in order. Yes, I am hung up on the grey scale and in the first image I used a blue interval isotherm. I have water damage:

Looking under the soffit…

The Basics of Heat Capacitance (Video)

Matt Schwoegler, Infrared Training Center

Heat capacitance, the ability of a material to store thermal energy, often affects what we see with an infrared camera.  While this property of matter is what makes some IR applications possible, it can also hide more critical issues that a thermographer may dismiss, or simply miss, if they don't understand the science behind what is happening.

Online Thermography Basics Course Updated

Description

This course is a more advanced introductory course in thermography and serves as an excellent, and recommended, addition to the infrared camera basics and infrared basics courses. Thermography involves more than just learning how to use an infrared camera. IR science, heat transfer, thermal tuning, and application knowledge are all essential subjects a thermographer must understand in order to properly interpret an image.

This course will give the learner the basic information to understand these concepts.
Accreditation: 2.5 ITC Certification Renewal Credits, 2 RCI Continuing Educational Hours (CEHs)
Note: You can stop the course and re-enter exactly where you left off at a later time or day, you don't have to complete the course in one sitting.


Link to the course

Live Webcasts Now Scheduled Through September 2014

Our series of free live webcasts continues with dates set through the end of September.  We're getting lots of positive feedback from thermographers who have attended these sessions and appreciate everyone’s interest!

ITC’s live and on-demand webinars are designed for those that are new to thermography or perhaps need a quick refresher.  Participants learn not only the basics of thermal imaging, but also where IR can reduce costs, save energy and increase safety for professionals across a variety of industries.

Registration is available at www.infraredtraining.com/webinars where you’ll also find the on-demand recordings posted from past live events which can be viewed at any time.

IR on Electric Motors: Great for the Plant…and at Home Too!

It’s no secret that infrared can be used to diagnose problems with electric motors in industry, but residential applications? As ITC Instructor Ron Lucier recently discovered, possibilities exist at home as well, this one involving his pool pump motor:

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Returning from a recent Level III class in Nashua I heard an awful noise in my backyard when I stepped out of my car. Pretty quickly I determined it was my pool pump motor (1 horsepower). What a racket. Sounded like just a bearing so I brought out my trusty vibration acceleration detector: a screwdriver. Measuring at each bearing of the motor and the pump I didn’t feel very much. However, I noticed a black spot on the side of the gold painted motor. It was time to get out the IR camera: my brand new FLIR T650sc.

I would find out the next day that the long wave emissivity for this paint is 0.91 so making the correction the hot spot was about 201 F! Good thing that I didn’t try to touch it!