FLIR Home Energy Audit Tools

What tools do Home Energy Auditors and Home Inspectors use? Shopping for the right Home Energy Auditor or Home Inspector can be a timely process. Beyond their certifications and experience, you should also consider the types of tools they use to perform their tasks.

Here’s a video with Tom O’toole of FLIR Systems and Flemming Lund, a certified Energy Auditor & Home Inspector, talking about the tools used in the various phases involved in a home energy audit.

InfraMation 2016 – a World Class Training Event

Nearly 450 attendees, presenters, exhibitors, and staff congregated at the Rio Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada for InfraMation 2016 in late September.

Attendees listen to a speaker in the General Session Auditorium

The event included 54 presenters, 23 clinic short courses, and 31 paper presentations on a wide variety of thermal imaging applications ranging from bats (the flying kind) to bridges to buildings.There was a lot of buzz and interest in the new field of unmanned aerial vehicles. Jan Gasparic from DJI gave one of the keynote presentations and it was very well received. Bill Schwann, an ITC instructor, managed a clinic on IR UAV applications that was standing room only and very popular. In addition, there were several exhibitors demonstrating this technology.

Corbett Lundsford gave Keynote and clinic presentations on Build Performance Testing and how Proof of Performance is Possible; while Casey Anderson, our wildlife expert, was also back and gave another amazing Keynote presentation on mountain lion behavior at night.

Corbett Lundsford answers questions during his Keynote presentation

The conference had a good mix of first time attendees and returning delegates from previous conferences, providing a dynamic mix of experienced and new thermographers exchanging ideas, information, and experiences.

With over 87% of attendees rating the conference Very Good or Excellent, I think this quote from one of the ITC staff sums up the conference experience:

"The last day in Las Vegas, a gentleman came up to me almost in tears. He said he had never been so impressed with a conference in all his life. He said the speeches, classes and workshops were great. He gained lots of knowledge and had all of his questions answered with lots of “Ah Ha” moments. He especially liked the lineup of speakers."

Joe DeMonte captivates the audience at the Mechanical Applications Clinic

Online FLIR MR160 and MR176 Operation Course Released

This course will acquaint users with the FLIR MR160 and MR176 Infrared Guided Moisture Meters with basic operation and use.

• Learn how to operate the  FLIR MR160 and MR175
• Identify areas of possible moisture intrusion
• Use the moisture meter to quantify the extent of intrusion
• Gain basic understanding of how environment measurements aid actions

Course Home Page

Throwback Thursday – AGA Thermovision 651

While at FLIR Systems in Täby, Sweden last week for the ITC User Conference, I came across this on display in the main lobby that I just had to share as a “Throwback Thursday” item.  It’s an AGA Thermovision 651, the world’s first commercial infrared system from the mid-1960s.

The device used liquid nitrogen to cool the detector and worked with a display that was a modified oscilloscope. The camera had a field of view of 5˚ x 5˚, a thermal sensitivity of 0.2˚C (0.36˚F) and a frame rate of 16 Hz.  Total weight, including all necessary accessories (tripod, oscilloscope, etc.) exceeded 110lbs (50kg)!

Thermal imagers certainly have come a long way since then, but having the chance to see this in person really makes me appreciate what we have for options in the marketplace today.

New Online Course - Emissivity Explained in Plain English

Give us 10 minutes, and we will help you understand the basics of Emissivity, a key parameter needed for accurate measurement as well as thermal image interpretation.
At the conclusion of this course, learners will be able to:

• Explain the basic nature of Emissivity
• Describe its importance for image interpretation and measurement
• Identify a few high and low emissivity surfaces

Link to the Course Home Page

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

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:

---

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!

Using a Wide Angle Lens as a Macro or Close Up Lens

Some thermographers are surprised to learn that many wide angle lenses can be used for high magnification work. After all, the wide angle lenses have a larger IFOV and IFOV footprint, so how can they be used for small targets effectively?

Here is a typical example for a FLIR E60 camera (320 x 240 resolution):

Lens FOV	IFOV (mrad)	IFOV footprint at 19.7” Working Distance
25° x 19°	1.36	0.03”
45° × 33.8°	2.59	0.05”

The specs above don’t indicate that a wide angle lens is any better, in fact it has a larger footprint. So what gives?

Take a look at the thermograms below:

	Here is a thermogram of a ruler taken with the standard 25° lens at its closest focus distance of 9.2”. Note how the scribed lines on the 100ths scale are fuzzy and merge together. The horizontal FOV is about 3”. This indicates that items this small cannot be resolved using this lens.
	I have enlarged the 25° image to illustrate the blurred lines on the scale.
	Here is the same ruler taken with a 45° lens. The scribed lines can clearly be seen and differentiated. The horizontal FOV is about 1.5”. What’s the secret? The 45° lens can be focused much closer to the target (1.2”). Hence it effectively can resolve smaller targets.

Does a wide angle lens work as well as a dedicated close up lens? No, of course not. You might notice that the sharpest areas are in the middle of the image. A dedicated optic for close up work would be designed to reduce this effect while achieving higher magnification.

But as a dual purpose optic, when you need to do some close up work, a wide angle lens is pretty handy.

Here are some images from a FLIR P640 for comparison.

IR InformIR Blog Enhancements

I have added a few enhancements blog readers should appreciate.

A search box has been added so you can easily search the blog for the content you are looking for.

 

The blog can now be easily translated into one of 54 different languages, everything from Afrikaans to Yiddish. Just use the drop down menu on the right and choose your language!

 

An easy “follow by email” tool has been added which makes it easier than ever to get new blog content sent to your email box automatically and right away.

Enjoy!

Infrared Training Center Introduces Mobile Training Unit

The ITC Mobile Training Unit (MTU) is traveling around the US giving thermography professionals an opportunity to learn about thermal imaging from the experts. This customized RV carries a full complement of FLIR's thermal imagers and Extech Test Equipment, and has application examples along the walls for demonstrating and training thermographers on condition monitoring and building applications.

Look for it coming to a location near you.

FLIR Thermal Vision Research & Science Symposium - Baltimore

WHO SHOULD COME AND WHY:
Whether you're an engineer, a student, a technician, or a Ph.D., this is your opportunity to meet and learn from other scientists and engineers on the cutting edge of research thermography. 

• Learn about advanced uses of thermal imaging in research and scientific applications
• Learn from many of the world’s leading authorities in research thermography
• Get tips and tricks for getting the most out of any research thermography program

DATE: Monday, April 23, 2012

TIME: 7:00am-5:00pm

LOCATION: Hilton Baltimore, Key Ballroom
401 West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

PRICING: $395.00/attendee
Inclusive of: Free license for FLIR ExaminIR Pro (a $7950 value!), Breakfast, Lunch, and Breaks

All attendees are invited to join the SPIE welcome reception at the Maryland Science Center Monday evening from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.

More Information

Accuracy Specification of FLIR Cameras

How accurately can the camera measure an absolute temperature?

Most FLIR Thermography cameras have a specified accuracy of  ±2 ºC (±3.6 ºF) or ±2% (whichever is greater) of reading for a blackbody target (emissivity ~ 1).

For example, for objects that are 100 °C or lower, the temperature reading off a blackbody can be 98°C to 102°C and be within specification. Similarly for objects above 100°C, say 200 °C, the reading could vary between 196°C and 204°C.

Some science cameras such as the SC660 are specified ±1°C or ±1% of reading.

This means that any camera, at any environment condition (within specification), at any time will give a reading within the accuracy specification.

However, a particular camera, at the same environment condition, will have a statistical repeatability of measurement that is much better than this. Typically close to the NETD value. This is also applicable when you compare adjacent pixels, provided your target(s) are optically resolved. This means that much higher accuracies can be achieved by comparing values with a known reference source in the image scene.

Infrared Thermography for Buildings

Learn how a Thermal Imaging Camera can benefit you for building work.

Infrared Thermography for Buildings

Measuring Body Temperature with an Infrared Camera

by Mikael Cronholm and Gary Orlove

From a biological standpoint, human beings are so called warm blooded animals. That means that we maintain a fairly constant body temperature, regardless of the surrounding temperature. The term body temperature (that we compare with when we decide whether a person has a fever or not) refers to the inside temperature, or core temperature of the body. The outside of the body is nearly always colder. It must be, because as we convert the energy from our food when we do work, we also produce heat. That heat has to go somewhere and if the outside and inside temperatures were the same, no heat transfer would be occurring.

None of us have a constant metabolism, or energy conversion, over time. It varies with our activity level. That means that the amount of heat we need to lose also changes with time. Our surrounding temperature also changes up and down, which means that sometimes we need to conserve heat and sometimes we need to increase the cooling by increased evaporation of liquid, we start to sweat more. Sweating is something we always do, just more or less depending on the situation.

To be able to use non-contact measurement for fever screening purposes, we need to find a point on the outside of the body that is close to the inside temperature – our “body temperature”. Because the outside is colder, and varies from place to place on the body, it is obviously the highest temperature on the outside of the body that is also the closest to the inside temperature. So we want to look for a warm spot on the outside.

Call for Papers - 7th International Infrared Conference InfraR&D

Thermography in R&D, Industry and Automation

April 25^th and 26^th, 2012, at the Hannover Fair.

After the great success of the Infrared Conference InfraR&D the last few years, ITC is pleased to announce its popular international event for thermographers working in Research & Development, Industry and Automation in April 2012.

With presenters from six countries, the recent 2011 conference was attended by delegates from more than 12 countries.

InfraR&D is a true user conference built upon the commitment of the presenters and the interest of the delegates. The conference is a professional meeting place for scientists, engineers and users of advanced infrared measurement equipment. InfraR&D covers IR physics and applications in a wide variety of fields, from veterinary surveys, optical gas imaging to advanced NDT solutions and all in between.

You are welcome to submit a contribution of a:

• long paper – duration of the presentation about 40 minutes
• short paper - duration of the presentation about 20 minutes
• poster
• demonstration or
• reflection and background paper – highlight trends and technologies with future importance for the field of thermography and IR measurements.

The conference language is English. Please submit title and abstract to one of the E-mail addresses below before November 1st 2011.

Online Thermography Training Courses

ITC has made the following courses available to IR camera users.
WEB-TH10 Thermography Basics This course is a primer or first course in thermography and serves as an excellent, and recommended, addition to the infrared camera basics operation 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. 2 ITC Certification Renewal, 2 RCI Continuing Educational Hours (CEHs). This course is FREE.
WEB-TH20 Introduction to Indoor Electrical Surveys using IR Thermography This introductory course is designed to give you a straight forward explanation of how Infrared technology fits in the indoor electrical inspection industry. This course is a replay of a webinar session hosted by an Infrared Training Center instructor and webinar director. This course earns 1 ITC Certification Renewal Credit.
WEB-TH25 Introduction to Outdoor Electrical Surveys using IR Thermography
This introductory course is designed to give you a straight forward explanation of how Infrared technology fits in the outdoor electrical inspection industry. This course is a replay of a webinar session hosted by an Infrared Training Center instructor and webinar director. This course earns 1 ITC Certification Renewal Credit.
WEB-TH30 Introduction to Residential Energy Audits using IR Thermography This introductory course is designed to give you a straight forward explanation of how Infrared technology fits into the residential energy auditing industry. This course earns 1 ITC Certification Renewal Credit. UPDATED February 18, 2011.

WEB-IR40 E Series Basics Course

Description This course covers basic operation for all new (2011) FLIR E Series cameras. This includes the E30, E40, E50, E60, and E30 bx, E40 bx, E50 bx, and E60 bx models. There is NO CHARGE for this FREE course.
We will discuss the controls of the camera as well as the user interface, and show you how to operate your camera.
Who should take this course: This course is intended for users of FLIR E Series infrared cameras.
Prerequisites: No prior knowledge of thermography is required.
Availability: This course is an on-demand self paced web based training course available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can begin as soon as you enroll.
Click here to go the course registration page.
This course teaches you how to use the features of the E Series cameras, but doesn't teach you thermography; when to use the features, how to make measurements, and how to interpret the thermal patterns on the screen.
We highly recommend you take a thermography course after finishing this basics course. We offer the On-Demand Thermography Basics class here, or Level I, or Residential Energy Auditing available at http://www.infraredtraining.com/ .

InfraMation 2010: A Stand-Out Success Story!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Wrong!

InfraMation 2010 may have ended a few weeks ago, but people are still talking about it. From tweets to message boards, (http://www.infraredtraining.com/community/boards/thread/9924/), the feedback is clear: InfraMation 2010 broke all the records in its 11-year history!

View Full Album

“The numbers speak for themselves …” states David Francoeur, FLIR’s Director of Marketing. “InfraMation attendance jumped 60% compared to last year and 30% over the all-time-record achieved in 2008.”

No doubt this reflects several factors. Chief among them is the strong return-on-investment most companies, both large and small, receive on their infrared cameras and thermal imaging inspection programs.

“At a time when companies hope to reduce energy loss in their building envelope or want to extend the life of capital equipment, there’s really no better tool than an infrared camera,” adds David. “And most people see the value in getting some formal training or attending a conference such as InfraMation.”

This year’s InfraMation boasted an exceptionally wide offering of educational opportunities. Attendees had the advantage of participating in 55 technical presentations and 17 different expert-led workshops – or “IR Clinics.”

One of the exciting events was also hearing the motivational speech from Mike Holmes, host of Holmes on Homes™. His keynote talk was inspirational, and he articulated some age-old maxims:

• Get the best tools for any job,
• Be sure your work is always high quality, and
• Think broadly about how you can add value in your company – and your community.

What does all this have to do with thermal imaging? Everything.

To all of you who attended InfraMation 2010, we thank you. We especially want to thank all the authors, clinic presenters, and the FLIR Marketing staff for their endless hours putting the conference together. We hope to see all of you along with some new faces next year at InfraMation 2011!

Sincerely,

The InfraMation Team

Live IR Imaging of Iceland Volcano

A FLIR A320 infrared camera was shipped to the Icelandic Mila company and is now installed to monitor Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The camera is installed approx. 10 kilometers away.

View live visible and infrared imagery of the volcano at the link below.

LIVE VOLCANO IR VIDEO 

New On Demand FLIR Reporter 8 Course

This course will introduce you to FLIR Systems premier report and analysis software, FLIR Reporter Pro 8.

The FLIR Reporter 8 online course is aimed at infrared camera owners who want to leverage the power of FLIR Reporter software.

Regardless of the type of FLIR infrared camera that you use, FLIR Reporter software is the simplest and quickest way to communicate the critical details of an infrared inspection. The Introduction to Report Writing Course teaches infrared camera owners how to leverage the power of FLIR Reporter software to generate inspection reports and perform detailed infrared image analysis.

By the end of the course students will have an excellent understanding of how to quickly produce a detailed and professional report using FLIR Reporter. Students will also understand how to change critical IR image parameters in the report and how to use the vast array of measurement tools at their disposal. Finally, students will understand how to modify an existing template to meet their specific needs. FLIR Reporter is a powerful tool and, when utilized to its full potential, can optimize the report writing process.

Additional modules will be added to this course over time. Your tuition will allow you to access these modules when they are available at no additional charge.


 Register for the FLIR Reporter Course.