Infrared Photos: I Can See Your Heat Leaks From Here

The technology of infrared scanning is not new any more; i have a small infrared device i carry to scan ductwork and rooms. It helps me to test and balance my installed heating/cooling systems. Having a scan of your own house is a little pricey (neighborhood of $400), but you can learn a lot from studying scans of typical houses.

The links attached to this post are infrared scans of homes, some probably like yours, and the colors tell the tale about where heat is escaping most rapidly from the building envelope. For novices, the temperatures run opposite to the rainbow: violet is coolest, followed by indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Red is very hot in relative terms. Window glass, in most homes, is the greatest concentration of red.

Check out the links, then, and see where the most obvious heat leaks are. Then have a look at your own house, and we'll be back next time to chew over the results a bit.