You wouldn’t think twice before putting on a coat before going out on a cold winter’s night but when it comes to your own house most of us seem to ignore this obvious choice. Instead of a coat think of insulation.
I too have ignored this obvious choice and paid little attention to the advice that I should insulate my house. I felt I have insulated the loft so what else can I do?
However recently, having been very vocal on telling everybody else to ‘think about the climate’ I decided to take some action myself.
Is my house losing heat?
The first and obvious step is to find out if you are losing heat from your house; here, with the Sustainable St Albans on hand it’s easy, with their scheme to lend out their Infra-Red Camera.
Infra-Red Cameras are very similar to conventional cameras but instead of detecting light to give a picture they detect heat to give you an image based on the heat that is emitted which is then detected by the camera. We have all seen Infra-Red Cameras when we watch action films, where soldiers detect the body heat of the enemy or when customs officers detect stowaways in container lorries, but they can also be used in everyday life too and are very easy to use. You don’t have to be a camera buff to use one.
I live in a solid walled, brick built 1920s semi. These houses weren’t built with insulation in mind. Our outside walls, especially those facing north are cold and our small bedroom, with two outside walls suffers from damp. I could never be certain whether the damp was caused by condensation or water ingress. With these problems in mind, I approached Sustainable St Albans to enquire about using their camera. It all proved very easy. The organization provides online instructions how to use the camera which can easily be absorbed even by the most technological incompetent. You are allowed to borrow the camera for 24 hours, though its best used at night, especially cold nights. But I found that’s all the time you need to get the information you want to get an idea of the level of insulation in your house.
Interpreting the camera images
If you are not an expert, and that’s definitely me, the final image provided by the camera is useful but can be difficult to interpret. After taking lots of pictures as described in the online manuals, I finally decided that the best way to survey your house was to compare and contrast different parts of your house. For example, I found that there was a massive difference between the picture displayed on the camera, when it was pointed to the walls in the damp bedroom and when pointed to those of the living room. Also, there was an obvious difference between the outside facing walls and the internal dividing walls. I have recently had an extension where the walls were built to a higher standard than those built 100 years ago. And here too I could see a massive difference between the walls of my original house and those of the extension. These differences clearly alerted to me where I should start with my insulation project.
Although the information that the Infra-Red Camera provided was useful the real benefit came when I returned to Sustainable St Albans to borrow their camera one year later after I had insulated the parts of the house that the camera showed were losing heat. These new images, that the camera provided, gave me the confidence that the insulation that I had installed was really doing its job. I took pictures of the parts of the house that had been insulated and compared them with images that I took before my insulation project and the results are quite startling. I am showing these in this blog to show that you can have confidence that the camera can really show you where to insulate and the benefits of insulation.
Comparison before and after insulating the house
I have taken thermal images for three places before (pictures D – F) and after (pictures G-I) insulation. The first (picture D) shows internal and outside-facing walls, which are different colours (orange and pink) in the infra-red image. The colours correspond to the temperatures shown in the scale on the right of the images and indicate the outside-facing wall is about 3 degrees C colder, due to heat loss through this wall. The infra-red image taken after insulation work was completed (picture G) shows both walls to be the same (orange) colour, indicating that their temperature is now the same. The infra-red image (picture H) after insulation was completed of the wall under the bay window shows the temperature to be about the same as the internal wall, as shown from its colour on the corresponding temperature scale.
In the third set of images (pictures F and I), showing the small bedroom with the damp, the temperature of the outside-facing wall is purple (picture F) which (from the temperature scale here) indicates that the outside-facing wall is about 5 degrees C colder than the orange internal dividing wall. Whereas, after insulation (picture I), the final image shows both walls are the same colour and now have the same temperature.
Was it worth it?
Well, was it worth it you may ask. Financially I have noticed that my gas consumption was much reduced this year from last year, but it is too soon to calculate how much I have saved to make an accurate prediction of my savings. As far as comfort goes, a great improvement and I now have a bedroom without any mould, effectively giving me an extra habitable room. However, I have decided that whatever my savings I can be satisfied that I have contributed to my reduction in the emissions of CO2. If you decide to improve the insulation of your house, consider it as an investment in the property for future generations, be it your own children or to the community at large, who will benefit from the action you take today.
Find Out More
Sustainable St Albans has been loaning thermal imaging cameras to residents in the district for ten years now. Sustainable St Albans has two thermal imaging cameras that residents can borrow to check out their homes. Online information sessions for the Harpenden and St Albans thermal imaging camera will start in October, and then residents can book to borrow a camera for 24 hours. We also have a community thermal imaging camera that schools and community groups can borrow for a week to use in schools or with their community. Further details will be on our website by early October.