Thermal pass · Available
Home thermal pass by drone: we show where, why is for a specialist to judge.
A thermal camera flown around the house takes a quarter of an hour and sees the whole façade at once, including the walls you cannot walk up to and the roof planes you cannot see from the ground.
The result is a list of places where the surface is clearly warmer than its surroundings. That is the whole product and we deliberately do not pretend it is anything more.
Where something usually shows up
Six places that come back most often.
Reveals and lintels
Around windows and doors: the joint between the frame and the wall is the place where the temperature difference is often the most visible.
Roof-to-wall junction
The eaves, the wall plate, the joint between the roof plane and the knee wall. From the ground practically invisible, from the air at a controlled angle it is not.
Service penetrations
Chimneys, ventilation, cable and pipe ducts. Every break in the envelope is a place where something may have been left unsealed.
The junction with the ground
The plinth and the zone at ground level, where insulation is sometimes broken or damp, and the problem stays invisible for a long time.
Balconies and bay windows
Elements projecting beyond the outline of the building. Structurally difficult, so often visible in the thermal image.
Roof planes
Uneven distribution of heat across a roof plane, especially visible with a thin layer of snow or frost.
The list describes where such places tend to be. It is not a promise that anything will show up at your house - and it is a good thing if nothing does.
Conditions
A seasonal service. No exceptions.
To see heat escaping, there has to be somewhere for it to escape from and to. The conditions below have to be met together, and if even one of them is not, it means moving the date, not forcing the flight through.
- the heating season, the house heated steadily for several hours before the flight
- before sunrise or at least two hours after dark
- no precipitation and at least two hours after it has stopped
- light wind, because convection blurs the image
- no sunlight on the observed walls on the day of the flight
- the distance and angle recorded for every shot in the record of conditions
If you order the package outside the season, we carry out the roof part on the normal date and move the thermal pass to an agreed date within the season, at no extra charge.
Limits of the method
What this image really shows.
It shows
- the surface temperature at the moment of the flight, in the recorded conditions
- places clearly warmer than their surroundings, with a descriptive location
- paired shots: the same fragment in ordinary and in thermal imagery
It does not show
- the state inside the building envelope - the image ends at the surface
- the cause of the temperature difference or any ruling on what produced it
- the amount of energy lost and the cost of heating
- readings on glass, sheet metal and reflective surfaces
A visible temperature difference is not confirmation of a defect, and the absence of one is not confirmation of a tight envelope. An energy audit and an energy performance certificate are carried out by a certified auditor - that is a separate document with different authority.
Questions
Five questions about this method.
How does this differ from an energy audit?
In everything except that both are about heat. An energy audit is carried out by a certified auditor: they calculate demand, assess the building envelope, propose a scope of works and sign a document with defined formal force. We capture an image and show the places to be checked. Our material is often a good starting point for the auditor, but it does not replace them and does not have their authority.
Why do you not give temperatures in degrees?
Because a number without a validated method looks like a measurement, which it is not. A reading from the camera depends on the emissivity of the material, reflections, distance, angle and humidity - and we do not yet have our own measurements that would let us say at what contrast the result is reliable. Giving degrees would suggest a precision we have not verified. We show the difference, not the value.
Will you see that my insulation was done badly?
We will see that the surface is warmer in a given place. There can be several causes: a break in the insulation, a leak, moisture, a structural thermal bridge or simply a service penetration. Deciding which of them it is requires going deeper than the surface image, so we leave that to the auditor or the contractor.
Do glass and sheet metal work as well?
No. Reflective surfaces show the temperature of what is reflected in them, not their own. Windows, glazing, sheet metal and polished elements we exclude from the assessment and say so plainly in the observation card, instead of entering readings that mean nothing.
Can it be ordered separately, without a roof inspection?
This service is part of the Roof 360 package at 499 PLN gross, and that is where it makes most sense: one trip, one visit, two passes. A thermal pass on its own without the roof part is quoted individually, and never for a single address, which we do not take on at all.
Check Feasibility
Plan a thermal pass around your house for the heating season.
A reply within 1 business day. The feasibility review is free. The date of the thermal part depends on the weather more than any other service of ours.