Screwdriver's : DIY homemade projects

House insulation is a key element for both comfort and also economy regarding heating (or air conditioning) consumption. Principal defect will be a lack of insulating material or thermal bridge between inside and outside resulting in colder area. An other defect could be a air leakage at door or window. This will result in loss of hot air and can also lead to other issues as humidity.

Professional control would normally need a thermal camera that will directly identify on its screen the difference of temperature showing objects in different colors from blue to red. But this type of material is very expansive or quite difficult to rent.

Beside you can do a good preliminary check in order to identify major defect using an Infrared Thermometer even if it will be less accurate.

These thermometer have a scan function which is very great for such type of application. You just have to hold ON the switch and then slowly move the laser pointer on the wall doors and windows. Measure may be done not too far from surface to locate colder areas. A distance of approx 1 meter will be great. Movement must be smooth and slow to allow thermometer measurement.

Special attention has to be taken near window, doors, wall angles, stairs floor and roof junction which are critical points. A defect in the center of a wall will normally nor occur except in case of really bad built. Take care also to internal walls between heated and non heated areas as garage cellar and so on.

Measurement will be firstly done inside house but an other check from the exterior could also be great to confirm or find other issues. Obviously such check will be done when there will be a sufficient difference of temperature between inside and outside otherwise it would not be representative.

Under picture illustrate a typical insulation defect :

This correspond of the under side of a cellar stair. You can see that on the left the temperature of the stair is at 17.5°C and just next to, on the wall temp is only 16.8°C. Wall temp correspond to cellar temp which is not heated, wile stair is hotter. This shows that part of the house temperature is leaking through the stair.

Depending of the result and the defect area several options can be foreseen as insulating material replacement or repair, addition of a seal or add an other layer.