I considered buying the iPhone Flir One camera that hambrook has, but was put off by the app reviews. Looking at his images I would still like to use one. I’ve been using an IR thermometer which is useful. It would be nice if OVO could get a decent thermal camera for us to borrow, I think I remember someone on this trial forum had borrowed one from Octopus. 

Mine is a Flir One Pro can’t remember where I ended up getting it from. Think it was under £200 from memory. It just takes all the guess work out when you are trying to sort out why a room is cold. 

Tool hire companies usually have decent thermal cameras to rent out at around £60-£70 per day.

I borrowed one last winter from Octopus. You had it for a week which was enough time to investigate any hot or cold spots. They have 200 cameras to lend, but this year they are prioritising the lending of the cameras to those on their Financial Hardship Programme.

It would be a great idea to help those on the trials but you’d need quite a few especially if you wanted to get one to anyone who wanted one this winter.

A really great-sounding scheme there, @nealmurphy.

How did you find using the camera yourself? Highlight anything missed in your EPC report? 

Heads up heat loss hunters, I’ve moved this into the public Smart Home area. It’s a good question from M.isterW that others might be asking about their own house.

Related to this is our guide on loft insulation:

Heat pump insulation:

and heat pump pipe insulation:

I don’t know about you, but I’m loving having so many heat pump owners knocking about! There’s a huge challenge ahead of us as we look to retrofit our homes with low carbon heating and improved heat retention. Thanks for being part of the solution! 

Agreed. 

The amount of real world experience at a variety of different levels of detail and complexity is very useful for thinking about changes to our homes, both big and small.

One advantage of this cold weather is that I can see how useless my double glazing is, and how useful even a thin curtain is. This is in my unheated loo !!

Which camera are you using?

It’s the Seek lowest price attachment for my iPhone. 

One advantage of this cold weather is that I can see how useless my double glazing is, and how useful even a thin curtain is. This is in my unheated loo !!

You need to be very careful when taking thermal readings from glass, mirrors, metal or shiny surfaces. The emissivity of different surface types varies considerably. With really shiny materials you can be viewing the reflected heat from the room or yourself rather than the actual heat of the surface.

For example, here's a thermal image I captured to illustrate the point. This is my reflection in the glass of the patio door from inside the dining room. The glass isn't a whole variety of temperatures that, spookily, exactly match me. The glass is reflecting the room temperature of walls and furniture and me within it.

You can see part of a wooden chair that's at 20.2C, but the glass? Not so sure.

It will work well with walls, floors, ceilings, paint, brick etc. Glass, not so much.

Yes @eezytiger I’ve used foil wrapped insulation over my foam lagged pipework, knowing it’s not going to show a true reading (being shiny)  I’ve been wondering whether to drape a cloth over it to test for heat leaks. Would that make sense or just skew the reading?

Note to self - must find out how to focus the Seek !

Ideally you want something that makes close contact and isn't itself a reflector or insulator. A cloth wouldn't transfer heat well from the pipe through to the outside of the cloth, or not quickly. I mean, we wear clothes made from cloth in order to keep warm. :-)

A good tip is to stick bit of (matt if possible) electrical tape to the pipe, glass etc. That way, no fluffy air gaps.