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Infrared

The ‘Quick Scan’ is Our Most Requested Inspection!

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Why should you pay full price for a thermal imaging inspection if there aren’t any problems in your home! 

There are two types of home infrared scans our company can undertake…

Every home owner has different inspection needs, from a basic leak detection right through to a complete detailed report.

Get a ‘Quick Scan’ first!

A quick scan is great value, gets problems identified fast, keeps the inspection cost down and gives you a great peace of mind that your home is healthy. A quick scan is cheaper than a complete report.

nz home heat loss

Comparison – ‘Complete Infrared Report’ V’s ‘Quick Scan’:

Both types of Scans Include: Complete thermal imaging scan of all interior walls & complete non-invasive moisture meter reading of all walls. Both scans could reveal any areas of concern regarding moisture, leaks, heat loss and any evidence of missing insulation.

QUICK SCAN: This type of infrared scan is excellent value, and gets to the heart of any potential issues fast. The advantage of this type of inspection is the option to upgrade to the complete report if problems arise that concern you. You may not have any moisture or heat loss problems in your home, so a quick scan is the best starting point for leak detection, home moisture ‘check ups’, and home pre purchase inspections.

 

detect water leak

A quick scan does not include photos or a written report. The home owner must be present to view the live camera images, view moisture readings and identify areas of concern (Our moisture meter is made in NZ, for NZ conditions).

COMPLETE REPORT: This type of internal inspection includes a complete infrared scan of your home, complete double check with moisture meter and full written report including thermal imaging photos. A complete infrared report is an excellent way to save money during rectifications. With our complete report, you can supply the photos to appropriate contractors so they can go directly to the issue without needing to pull down other parts of your home to ‘find’ the source of the problem.

We guarantee you will not find better value thermal imaging then our quick scan. Call for a free quote!

Increase Uptime – Reduce Downtime Using Infrared Thermal Imaging

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If you own a company, or are incharge of the maintenance within a company, you should clearly understand that the more time a company is producing a product or providing  service, the more cash flow it brings in. When there’s an interuption to the chain of events that bring in this cash flow, you lose money but maintain the same overheads. In a nutshell, if your power goes out you lose money in wages, and you can also lose product.

No matter if it’s a big company with lots of machinery, or a small company only using a few ovens, the actual cost of an electrical failure can cost hundreds, if not tens of thousands of dollars to a company! Using a regular infrared predictive maintenance program can dramatically reduce the probabilities of a power outage.

hot spot

Many company’s have a schedualed downtime, but simple problems that can’t be seen with the human eye (such as loose connections), can usually be identified with a thermal imaging camera when under load and emitting infrared radiation. We suggest getting a thermal imaging scan over all electrical components in your workplace BEFORE the schedualed downtime, that way your service can be completed efficiently, thus reducing the downtime. An efficient service to machinery and electrical means getting up and running faster = more revenue.

Contact us today for a complete scan of all the critical electrical components in your workplace.

What is a Thermal Imaging Building Inspection?

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If you’re interested in getting a thermal imaging ‘building envelope’ inspection on your home, it’s important that you have a small understanding of how thermal imaging works and what you’re actually getting for your money. Here’s what’s actually happening in the pictures you see on this website…

Everything you see around you (objects), be it a wall, car, wood, heater, fridge (everything) has a certain temperature and they all emit waves of energy called ‘infrared radiation’ (IR). The hotter the object, the more energy it emits. A thermal imaging camera translates these energy waves into a viewable image, which shows a “heat picture” of the object the camera is pointing towards at the time. On the actual screen of our thermal imaging camera, hotter objects show as white, cooler objects show as black, and objects in between these temperatures show up as a gray.

Here’s an example of how thermal imaging can be used outside of building inspections: Firefighters can use thermal imaging cameras to see right through smoke, as the infrared radiation that’s being emitted from ‘hot spots’ can not be blocked by smoke. This enables them to find victims faster, identify the seat of the fire earlier, detect areas that may still have a fire burning underneath rubble that they can’t see, and detect areas of structural danger and damage to the building envelope.

The actual detector we use within our thermal imaging cameras are somewhat similar to the human eye, and are very sensitive. The TI’s detector (called a focal plane array, or FPA) and the eye are both receivers. They receive electromagnetic energy and convert it into an image for our brains to interpret. The eye receives wavelengths of energy called “visible light,” while the FPA (the detector on our camera) receives wavelengths of heat energy called “infrared.”

Technically speaking, no thermal imaging camera can actually ‘see through’ solid materials. For example, in New Zealand most homes will be either build or contain at least one of the following ‘objects’ – drywall, plaster, concrete, steel, wood, paneling, down comforters, doors, sofas and the like… and non of these objects are actually ‘transparent’ to infrared. Our IR cameras can only “see” the temperature difference on any given surface.

The slightest of temperature differences on the walls in your home will show up in our cameras. EG. If you walk up to a wall in your home and place your hand flat and leave it there for 5 seconds then pull it away, the image through our camera screen will see a perfect hand shape… exactly like you would have seen had you put your hand in black paint and put it on a white wall (or vica versa depending on which object is warmer/cooler at the time). When water leaks behind your wall, it affects the surface temperature of the wall in the area of the water leak… hence why our camera will see it right away. It’s the same with air penetration through your insulation… the cool/warm air will blow onto the back on the wall… hence affecting the temperature on the surface of the wall.

It’s the air leaks, water leaks and mold growth you can’t see with the human eye that can make your ‘relaxation time’ at home very uncomfortable. We specialise in the detection of any problematic areas … usually within minutes in most cases, and totally non-invasive.

Contact us today for a infrared scan of your home!

The Ideal Time of the Day to Do an Infrared Building Inspection on Your Home

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Here’s a simple run down on why we use the cameras we do, and why a thermal imaging inspection on your home could be more effective early in the morning or late in the afternoon, rather than the middle of the day…

The problem with our real world environment is that for a majority of the day say between 10am and 3pm our environment is very much in equilibrium (i.e. very little difference between inside and outside of a building). Early morning and late afternoon our environment is in a “heating” or “cooling” phase, giving us a good differential or change in our environment. Good thermal imaging camera operators will always take advantage of these two keys times, however, practically, it does not leave a lot of the day to work with, so that’s why our company (NZ Leak & Heat Loss Detection Ltd.) use a highly sensitive camera that can work at all hours of the day.

For example: An infrared camera of average sensitivity makes it very difficult to work in the middle part of the day, and you simply just won’t see a void in the wall, moisture, stud or missing insulation. You will just get a uniform surface with no apparent defect at all. So if the camera is sub-standard, or operator is not properly trained and certified, it is impossible to know what he/she is NOT SEEING, when they are using a camera of average sensitivity. Defects such as excess moisture in the wall, floor or ceiling simply won’t appear, and you have nothing to reference it against. Consequently, that is why we use the appropriate camera because we need to work in “less than ideal” times, i.e. during the day. In saying that, there are many applications that we need to do late at night, or very early morning when the environmental conditions are optimal, or we would simply be wasting ours and your time during the day (rendered facade on high rise, concrete cancers etc). (Thanks to IPI Australia for some of the above info).

Our cameras are highly accurate, and re-calibrated once per year to assure accuracy.

Would you prefer to turn a blind eye to what’s behind your walls, and get a nasty surprise down the track? We can do a scan of your home in less than an hour in some cases, and you can have a piece of mind in the process!

Call us today – Contact Us.