IR Therm

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mstrlucky74

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Have a friend who's going into the home inspection business and he's looking for an IR thermometer to check panel hot spots and walls...I think that's what he said..:dunce:

Any suggestions on a descent one? Thanks
 
mstrlucky74 said:
Sorry meant IR Therm for title.
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Knew what you meant.........:D
Maybe a friendly mod will alter it for you.

Fluke do a range of IR instruments and it is a well known brand.
FWIW, I think taking thermal measurements is an excellent way to diagnose impending problems.
 
He will probably find it is not especially helpful for electrical problems but may well find insulation and air infiltration issues, especially when it is cooler.

personally, I am not convinced it is worth the time and money spent on going over a residential electrical system with such a device. there is a limited amount of time to be spent on the inspection and that time is probably better spent doing other things.
 
petersonra said:
He will probably find it is not especially helpful for electrical problems but may well find insulation and air infiltration issues, especially when it is cooler.

personally, I am not convinced it is worth the time and money spent on going over a residential electrical system with such a device. there is a limited amount of time to be spent on the inspection and that time is probably better spent doing other things.
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I agree but it looks like it would be used for the entire home, which would make it worthwhile.
 
petersonra said:
He will probably find it is not especially helpful for electrical problems but may well find insulation and air infiltration issues, especially when it is cooler.

personally, I am not convinced it is worth the time and money spent on going over a residential electrical system with such a device. there is a limited amount of time to be spent on the inspection and that time is probably better spent doing other things.
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Probably true for resi. Might give him bragging rights/a sales pitch.

But one fixable find.......before it escalates....
 
He needs a load

He needs a load

He would need to put a load on the circuit for it to produce heat. As Bob said time is money and it would take alot of time to test properly. He may not want to OK something without loading it, I would not.

Cowboy
 
While possibly valuable in electrical diagnosis USED BY A SKILLED EXPERIENCED technician, I've been amazed at the reports that say the (whatever) breaker is bad because it is warmer than others in the panel. That it is in the middle of summer and the air conditioner breaker is identified, or some such ... a loaded breaker will be warmer than an unloaded breaker. Remember that most residential breakers trip by thermal means ...

Bad insulation installation, leaky windows and doors, leaky ducts ... VERY valuable ... but not what the average home inspector does.

We've several professional thermographers on the board ... perhaps they will chime in.
 
I would suggest for him to take a class on thermography before he buys any unit.

It is not just point and shoot he need =s to learn what it is he si looking at and how that image can be distorted by the local environment. ie: you may be reading a very high temperature but in reality it is not high at all.
 
FLIR has fairly recently introduced an inexpensive device that plugs into an iPhone to display a thermal scan. While I am sure it can't compete with models costing $1000 +/-, it can identify significant over temperature connections. I have one, but don't use it a lot. I normally just shoot the panel with my IR temp gun. Over almost 10 years I have found 2-3 connections that I reported as needing attention. I'm not talking about warm breakers - it is usually a 4/0 Al connection that is 20-50 deg hotter than surrounding devices.
 
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GeorgeB said:
While possibly valuable in electrical diagnosis USED BY A SKILLED EXPERIENCED technician, I've been amazed at the reports that say the (whatever) breaker is bad because it is warmer than others in the panel. That it is in the middle of summer and the air conditioner breaker is identified, or some such ... a loaded breaker will be warmer than an unloaded breaker. Remember that most residential breakers trip by thermal means ...

Bad insulation installation, leaky windows and doors, leaky ducts ... VERY valuable ... but not what the average home inspector does.

We've several professional thermographers on the board ... perhaps they will chime in.
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I agree, not very often will a breaker in a dwelling be loaded long enough to create any significant "normal" heat, aside from air conditioning or maybe electric heating. Even those may not get too warm unless it is an extreme heat or cold weather spell.
 
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