I love what you have to say. All your videos are eloquent and thorough, you seem to care about morality and how we live. But every time you mention Amazon, i get a jabbing pain in my chest, why do you seem so keen to mention an organisation that is hell bent on dehumanising itself to sell to humans and and not pay tax or contribute to society in the process.
I purchased the Flir One a couple years ago. Got the Apple version but was a little disappointed with the lack of software support and battery life. They could have used the host device as a power source, and you would have had much longer usage times. As for the software; no updates, and it often had difficulty establishing a connection to the camera. Did they improve any of that on the newer cameras?
I have bought one to investigate a cold section on a wall in my house. It works great. I also recently discovered that it is an extremely useful tool when my kids' hamsters are on the run in the house... 😁
For those wondering, the slow 9 fps of these FLIR cameras is because anything faster is export-controlled by the U.S. Department of Commerce through ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and AECA (Arms Export Control Act.) Since FLIR wants to sell these both domestically and abroad, setting them at 9 fps or less allows them to be exported without a license. FLIR was fined $30 million a few years ago for violating these laws.
These are really useful for finding pipes in walls and on cold nights you can see cold air coming in through gaps. I found huge drafts in my extension all around the skirting boards and around the downlighters. I've sealed the skirting board gaps with clear tec7 and changed the downlighters to the sealed bathroom led type. It's made a huge difference to the room.
Use a blower door at the same time and it "amplifies" any air leaks making them easier to detect (as long as the temperature outside is substantially different from the inside).
I almost wonder if the hot-spot in the ceiling of your master bedroom is caused by bee activity. Not to be an alarmist--it's just that I've seen similar FLIR pictures of such activity. Please use extra caution while crawling around in your already-difficult-to-maneuver-in attic crawl space.
I work in electronics and finding a short on a board can be tedious and time consuming. I had considered the accessory camera system until I realized just how much I would really be using it. That's why I went with the Cat S60 and then upgraded to the S62 Pro. This has been a great help in both my work and home. I found insufficiencies in my insulation very quick (1st day) . I can see when a bearing in a mechanical system is starting to go out and so many other things.
@@charlesurrea1451 I'd love to see some video on a thermal camera capturing a failing bearing. As a mechanic this would be good for power steering pumps.
Just awesome! I've been waiting for someone to do a thorough comparative review like this on these two tiers of the FLIR line. Thank you!!! So well done and helpful! 👍🙌
I have a CAT S61 with an older FLIR thermal camera built in. Don't use it every day, but do use it a lot. Used it in the mountains to check my breaks to see if they were getting too hot. Used it to check the insulation. It's really good at seeing where issues are. Good for checking some remotes to see if they have dead batteries. Used it to decide storing a lipo4 battery in my car during the summer was a very bad idea. Last winter during the cold snap was amazing at figuring out where the pipes froze. Use it cooking. Would love a higher resolution version, but the S61 is still running really good Edit: Also depending on the temperature difference, between rooms or the outdoors it can work as a pretty nice stud finder.
Great Review! I use the top of the line Flir at work, Electrical Codes require a thermal inspection of all electrical Panels and Switch Gear. Glad to know Flir has a consumer version I can buy and use at home.
I worked in the power industry for 40 years and fell in love with thermography training I received. I highly recommend checking switches and breakers with this tool. It will let you know about potential failure long before you would find it otherwise. It can even be helpful for tuning old cars via the exhaust.
That's a cool feature to be able to adjust the height of the plug in port as I have had to remove my Otterbox Case from my phone to use certain thumb drives and things like that.
With the expense of new construction, remodeling tips would be great. I ran across a blog, someone dissatisfied with the low pitch roof on their house, asking how to replace the roof with a different pitch. An architect responded how expensive this would be and advised simpler changes to compliment what is already there, sound advice before the owner wasted too much time and money. Your channel is like this, consistently practical and invaluable for everyone.
Thanks, this is useful information. I've been using thermal imaging since 1985, but they were way out of reach and not as capable as these units. We used them to identify electrical overloads, loose connections, roof leaks and wet insulation. I love how easy it is to take camera output and use it in reports. Good work.
Some building materials store and radiate heat, don't confuse this with heat loss per se. They would look warmer on camera but such readings don't tell you whether they are less effective as insulation. Incorrect assumptions could lead to the condemnation of perfectly well insulated buildings in which the conservation of energy has been miss-understood. Great film Belinda, all the best Lucas.
Your statement is nonsensical. Not some, but ALL building materials store and radiate heat, just at different rates. A hot spot (meaning relative to surrounding material temperatures) means a difference in R value. This means higher heat gain/loss caused by that material. For energy efficiency and comfort the goal is to have as much R value as possible, as evenly as possible.
@@sladeoriginal What you have written demonstrates exactly the pitfall of relying on this kind of thermal data. Your understanding of how energy is preserved in a building is incomplete, if applied to a great many types of construction. What happens when the heating is switched off? How long does a building radiate heat back into the living space? R value tests are carefully conceived as an aid to marketing particular products, and are sadly unscientific. In some cases leading to time-honoured systems being displaced by experimental and ultimately inferior systems.
You can get some very useful imaging of insulation from the outside too, especially when the temperature outdoors gets a bit cooler. One particularly useful experiment I did with mine was a "poor man's version" of a blower test: you cut a foam board to fit in an entrance door frame, cut 1 or 2 holes to fit box fans (to push the air inside) that you affix with tape, then take a few images (from the outside) of windows or anywhere the air may leak, start the fans, take the same images and compare. In my house I had a mix of new and old windows, and that test was part of what convinced me to change the old ones.
I really appreciate your review of both the devices, especially the side by side footage. As an electrician doing mostly old work remodeling, I’ve been considering this investment for a couple years. This past week I suddenly wanting to do something that’s been intended for years, and while beginning the layout on my downstairs rec room ceiling I thought I had a good layout. But as I narrowed the areas I plan to cut holes for recessed lighting, I found ductwork in key areas. Finding a suitable tool I thought would be easy. But several of the reviewers maintained jargon that was unnecessary and not something I cared to have to deal with. Your video defined adequately many of the terms (and reassured me they weren’t going to impact my work requirements to know what they meant) and gave relative information regarding what I actually intend to gain by making the purchase. Thx. I haven’t decided what to purchase, but I’m fairly certain about reasons why the costlier devise might be a good expense addition l. And vice versa. ❤
Just a thought, it might be worth exploring energy waste from solar panels. Additionally, as you do the remodel, testing various insulation types all on the same wall might be interesting.
Most solar installations are on top of the already installed insulation, so I highly doubt that they would noticeably increase heat loss from a normal attic. At least not any more than nailing some pictures to an internal wall should alter a houses insulation value.
Thanks for the review, Belinda, as I’ve been wanting to buy one of these. The first time I saw a thermal camera was in the mid 90’s, and it was larger than a VHS camcorder, and cost $60,000.
That was great! Good explanation of emissivity. Next can you review some laser levels or ultrasonic measurement devices? I think there’s a thing that lets you do very accurate inside measurements, like where you’d have to bend a tape measure and guess, like in a doorway. In the old days you’d use a folding ruler with the little brass extension, but nobody under 30 has one of those in their tool belt.
I bought one of these a while back, they are super neat and useful. I originally just got it because I was insulating my entire house and wanted to find any problem areas that would be better adding some spray foam to.
FLIR is a top shel product. We had two at wirk for everything from scanning high voltage systems too dangerous to get close to. We also used them to find moisture and thermal links. One night we compared IR and NVG images in a wildlife preserve and it was amazing!
After seeing some terrible reviews for the Flir, I ended up getting a Seek Thermal Compact Pro instead. Definitely recommend, and I can't imagine having to charge my thermal camera separately to my phone like the FLIR requires. The higher resolution of the CompactPro (significantly more than the Flir One Pro) also means that the lack of MSX is not a problem, the detail is sufficient just from the IR image.
For folk interested in a FLIR camera, it's worth looking at phones with FLIR built in. The Caterpillar CAT S60 was one of the first, and you could be lucky - like I was - and find a used one for
Being in the calculations and diagnostic business, I usually tell people in your situation to go for the easiest and cheapest first and go from there: Tighten the building envelope first. We don’t want to heat and cool the backyard… - Caulk around doors and windows if not replaced. - if possible replace old leaky doors and windows. New “Builder grade” (I hate that word) windows will still be much better than those 45 year old single pane ones. - Replace door seals. - Vacuum the old attic insulation and inspect. - Eliminate as many ceiling penetrations as possible and seal the rest. That attic fan NEEDS to go! Installing insulation above it will not eliminate air leakage. - Seal around AC vents, lights, etc and every top plate hole with that orange foam they use on newer homes. - seal or replace ducts, diffusers and boxes. - with that done get a blower door test and decide if you want to invest more money in tightening the home or not. - at this point decide if you want to spray foam the attic or not and reinsulate it. - now that you’ve taken care of the envelope according to your budget, you can decide what else to spent money on. It’s a bit simplified but that’s it in a nutshell.
I recommend Infiray imagers for Android / Windows users. 256x192 resolution is 2.6x greater than Flir One Pro with refresh at 25hz for half the price: P2 model is under $250. T2 models with macro, normal & telephoto lenses from ~$320. No battery in the camera means it's much smaller & usage isn't limited to 1hr max whilst it works. Power needed is lower as it doesn't have a cheap visible light camera to make up for low resolution. Infiray is a big OEM producer & released an SDK - there's some advanced apps for the T series that work on Windows. USB-C extension cable included is super handy. Solidly built metal housing. I'm not sponsored or paid by them either, just very impressed & far superior quality, function & value to the Flir offering that I can't believe Flir is able to sell these at such prices.
Great video :-) tons of good info here @ 6:25 emissivity is the ability for a material to release radiant energy /heat. while emissivity is solely dependent upon the type of material reflect Tivitt he solely depends on the color White being most reflective and black being most absorbent of heat. If something is black and iron or concrete or both there is a slow emissivity during the night hours. For a sheet of aluminum that is silver will cool off in a flash having a fast or higher emissivity.
Great video, I’ve only recently found your channel and have found your commentary and insights very informative. Would it be possible for you to provide a video on SIP’s construction method i.e. the positives and negatives? Thanks you.
The only prominent issue I found in reviews about these devices is that the battery begins degrading prematurely. The fact that most people who buy these will not be using them regularly doesn't help the battery issues either, as the battery is not being charged and discharged optimally. It can apparently be so bad that the usage time dwindles to ~5-10 minutes after only a few months of ownership. I have no clue if this issue is still relevant or applicable to all the different generations and device compatibilities, but that's really the only thing keeping me from purchasing one for our own reno.
@@mowcius Do you have that device? I remember looking into it previously and just checked it out again to refresh my memory. There seems to have been a privacy concern with the amount of permissions that were needed to be granted in order to use the device. These permissions apparently allowed (still do allow?) the company to use your location as well as the images taken using the thermal camera for "marketing purposes" if they choose to do so. I would love to hear your experience with it if you have one!
I would like to take a moment to thank you for the recommendation on the airthings monitor. It is a fantastic tool to have an idea of what's going on in each room
For attic & wall cavity areas that are hard to access, consider drilling a small hole & using a boroscope to see what's going on. Small holes are easily patched.
My old boss used to say that a thermal imager was an expensive stud finder. It clearly shows in your video. As for that weird hotspot I think it’s a lack of insulation in between studs and you just see the aggregated image of the studs and the spot as one “strange” area.
FLIR originally referred to the IR camera on a fighter jet. It was used target enemies with hot engines and as the IR sensitivity increased image the aircraft.
Thank you so much for this really interesting review of these products. I live in a house that is over 100 years old so it will be good to see where the cold spots are using this infrared imaging. Of course I already feel where they are but there is prob more places I haven’t identified yet.
Thanks Belinda. I've considered these before but always get stumped on the fact that I will only use it very occasionally. A rental option would be nice.
That sort of usage pattern actually makes the Flir brand cameras less ideal. As she referred to by the charging port, and how long they run, these cameras have an internal battery, that is not user serviceable (or has not been). If the battery gets too low from lack of use, or putting it away after use with a low state of charge, and it self-discharges too low, it may refuse to charge, turning the camera into an expensive brick.
I forgot to add, that this can make the Seek line of cameras more appealing. They don't have the dual camera, "object outline overlay" feature of the Flir, but because they don't have a battery, they will never fail to operate with a low battery fault.
Great video! I’m in the process of putting together a video charting the journey of building our new eco home. Would it be ok to use some of the footage from this video to demonstrate how thermal imaging can be used to test the thermal performance of building fabric please?
Are hot water heater blankets practical with modern hot water tanks? When comparing imaging devices, it's usually more important to look at the radiometric resolution, or the pixel range for a particular color "channel" as characterized by the bits between the darkest and lightest endpoints. A 4-bit system will have 2^4 or 0-15 greyscale options, while an 8-bit will have 0-255 greyscale options for each individual pixel. IR systems are usually behind the curve compared with VL systems. Examples would be NASA's Landsat 7, which had 8-bit pixels, versus Landsat-9, which will be launched on Sept 27, and has 12-bit pixels. Those satellites have to deal with different lighting conditions as they fly from pole to pole, and at different seasons, so the radiometric range really matters, especially when you want to go back and compare previous images of the same area. In different lighting conditions, the pixels are not always able to make full use of their range. A multispectral system will have multiple wavelength channels, although you can only ever present three in a graph that a human can see. Some may be composited, or it may allow you to select several of them with captured image processing. E.g., Early Landsat MSS units usually had 4 bands, plus a few other separate imaging units. IIRC Landsat 8 had 11 bands across multiple resolutions, half in the visible and half in infrared. Source: seminar course on remote sensing
I'm interested in getting one of these (the pro), but your affiliate link only goes to the iOS version & there isn't an option to switch to Android. I know I can search for it easy, but but I figure if I'm getting one & you've directly influenced that, you should get a little kickback. Love your work & hope you're doing well.
Theoretically amazon affiliate links will apply to your purchase regardless of whether you buy the specific product linked or another, so long as you entered Amazon through her link it should still credit the purchase to her affiliate link
Thank you, Chris. That's very kind of you! As Samuel said, the affiliate link should work, but here's the affiliate link to the android version. amzn.to/3i6uqzG
Hi just wanted to let you know that this video helped me alot, i was in doubt to which one i should buy (can afford both) the differnce is bigger than i expected from reading the specs, so i will go with the pro version thx alot for your video :)
Thank you for that info Belinda, very educational. Calling on all your experience and expertise in this area which of these would you recommend to detect an underfloor leak on a heating pipe or even a cold water pipe? say under 100mm of concrete screed. Or perhaps there is another option (camera) best suited to this scenario.
