Testing by temp

[electricalist]

I recently purchased a inexpensive gun that reads temp . My buddy is a ac guy and he uses his to check temp on in coming and return air. He said the cheaper ones were as accurate as his 100.00 + one. So I realize that it will only be so accurate. What are some way I can add this to help in my work. When I tested it on my arm against a digital thermometer it was 4 degrees lower

 

[cadpoint]

You have to remember

You have to remember

When a product is reproduced for mass consumption, it's usually broke down to the component
level. Here is where a product can be reproduced at a saving to the assembler and in the end
The consumer.

The spirit of the pattern is not broken, but the quality of the parts used can be heavily substituted.

Company's buy the rights to make these things. They have to find a better way, and you probably
noticed there is no support literature, and certainly won't make a statement of accuracy ....

 

[hurk27]

Optical thermo scanners have many uses in the electrical industry, for one it is a safe way to test terminations for high resistance faults that are leading to a failure with out making contact with live parts or moving parts, testing breakers, buss connections, motors, bearings, transformers, coils on contactors, and just about anything that will heat up as a sign of failure is a good preventive maintenance method to avoiding future failures or looking for intermediate power losses.

At work we have both IR scanners as well as thermo-imaging cameras, the cameras can be used for even more things and give you a method of capturing an image of the problem for substantiation that a repair is needed, with a camera you can see right where the heat is at and sometimes can see the parts inside of the breakers that are causing it, also you can capture images from a distance so you can see failures on HV power line connections that normally you would not want to be close to.

 

[ptonsparky]

We use both handheld scanner & a camera. Neither are calibrated nor are we certified but they still come in pretty handy and keep our hands out of energized panels doing a FOP.

 

[growler]

I recently purchased a inexpensive gun that reads temp . I realize that it will only be so accurate. What are some way I can add this to help in my work.

They use those same infa red thermometers at the airport to check passengers suspected of having Ebola and so far only a couple dozen have made it through the check point so they must work pretty well.

 

[ptonsparky]

They use those same infa red thermometers at the airport to check passengers suspected of having Ebola and so far only a couple dozen have made it through the check point so they must work pretty well.

I am sure the instruction for those include "pandemic prevention".:happysad:

 

[PetrosA]

I am sure the instruction for those include "pandemic prevention".:happysad:

I'm not sure what they're using at the airports but I have to say that the Exergen thermometer that I got last year has proven to be the best body temp thermometer I've ever owned and it's an IR thermometer. $29 or so online or at Costco, and made in the USA. The clinical grade version costs considerably more and has lots more bells and whistles. I don't know that any of them work as non-contact though.

For scanning large groups of people I would think any one of the available thermal imaging cameras should work. Even if it's not very accurate, it will show who's got a higher body temp compared to the others around them which makes singling them out for a more accurate reading a lot more efficient. Flir now even has one for about $500 that could probably do the job.

 

[Barbqranch]

The difficulty with getting an accurate value with thermal imaging or other non-contact reader is that different materials radiate differently for the same temperature. For instance, try shiny aluminum foil verses steel vs. a painted object, all at the same temperature.

 

[jxofaltrds]

http://www.flir.com/flirone/

Just now from my Iphone: