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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.

Buy individually or both books together. Delivery is free!


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  1.  
    Hi there,
    I am looking at getting an energy audit on a house. Walk through inspection checking for the usuals - insulation, air leakage, ventilation, draught strips/excluders, no. of CFLs, heating/controls etc. I know about the blower door testing but I see a number of people offering Thermography pictures. Is this 1. practical (I was told the weather - wind,cloud, sun, temp., has an effect of the result) and 2.Should an air tightness test be the first test to do and the image pictures a back-up.
    Appreciate your time on this.
    Alan
    • CommentAuthorchuckey
    • CommentTimeJun 24th 2008
     
    One problem with it is with the emissistivity of the surface its looking at. For instance if part of a wall is painted, it will show up as a different temperature, while in practise a .02" thick layer of paint has no insulation properties worth talking about. This is because it photographs the amount of infra-red the article is radiating, which depends on its temperature and how well it radiates the infra-red(emissistivity).
    It could be effective in finding areas of missing cavity insulation, if the external surface of the wall is the same.
    Frank
  2.  
    It has partial cavity insultation so I would be filling that anyway. Sounds to me that the thermography imaging is a bit gimmicky. Or is that unfair. I'm sure it has its uses in other areas but I just wondered about its use in taking a picture of a house from the outside.
    • CommentAuthorJeff B
    • CommentTimeJun 25th 2008
     
    Wisemandesigns: I had a thermographic survey done on our house (dormer bungalow) last autumn. In my case it proved to be very useful as we had not long moved into the place and I wanted to know how effective the existing insulation was and if there were any "hotspots". The survey was carried out on a calm, dry, chilly night with the C/H on, which I understand are the optimum conditions for such a survey. As they say a single picture tells a thousand words and this was certainly true here! Overall the heat losses from the property were not large, which was encouraging, but we were able to find:

    (a) heat escaping through the top of the door seals of the PVC French doors. As a result of seeing the thermograph the double glazing company had to come back to fix the doors, eventually replacing the seals and readjusting the doors.

    (b) some insulation (Celotex) was missing from between the rafters in the roof (otherwise undetectable in the roof of a dormer bungalow!)

    (c) heat being lost from uninsulated central heating pipework under the bedroom floors and in the void spaces behind the bedroom walls.

    It cost about £90 as I remember, which didn't seem too bad.

    Jeff B.
  3.  
    Judging by what you have said, Jeff, it does seem to be useful and very cost effective.
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