Wife: oh dear! Look at our house, it is so beautiful!!

Husband: yes dear! It is… as we spent a great deal of money in it isn’t it?

Wife: yes of course! Hope we can relax now, no more expenditure on this home!!

Husband: yes! Come let’s enter…

10 MONTHS LATER:

Husband: I told u to utilize the A/C properly. Have you seen the bills?

Wife: don’t shout! I use it seldom… I don’t know why the bill is high?

Husband: no… don’t lie to me. It’s all your fault. In winters you use the heater all day even when it is not necessary…

Wife: no you are wrong… I haven’t done that…

THE TRUTH:

Actually the wife is speaking the truth. She always used the ac and heater only when it was needed. But even then the electricity bills were high!! What could be the reason? THE ANSWER IS: "Poorly or not at all done INFRARED ENERGY INSPECTION", which helps to improve ENERGY EFFICIENCY and reduce the CARBON FOOTPRINT of the house.

So let’s explore what is this new technology which helps us to reduce home bills and do out bit to reduce the climate change…

INFRARED ENERGY INSPECTION:

One of the most commonly used technique these days to complete building constructions to improve energy efficiency. It is basically an energy audit or a survey of your home using a thermal imaging camera to find possible leakage of air or bad insulation of walls and/or roof, which is the cause for most of the heat loss and hence extra load to heater or AC, which in turn increases the bills. An estimate of U.S. department of energy shows that typically a household spends US$2500 per year as house maintaining bills. And almost 30% of it is wasted due to poor insulation and weather stripping of common areas like door, windows and roofs!! So its highly advisable to go for a good energy audit of your home.

Before going to infrared energy inspection let’s see how thermal imaging camera works. It is most important tool in an energy audit of homes, as this captures what a human eye cannot. The infrared image of an object that is the heat reflected from a body. Infrared light is the non-visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum of white light. Its wavelength falls in 400-700 nm range which is greater than the visible light. Now lets see how the camera works.

1. The infrared light is focused through a special lens

2. A phased array of infrared detector elements create a detailed temperature pattern, this is called a thermogram.

3. Thermogram is converted into electrical pulses.

4. Signal processing is done and final image is created on phosphor screen.

5. We can observe the hot areas in sharp yellow or red color and cool areas as black or some other color depending on the setting you use.

6. Easy analysis can be done using this image.

For more information on thermal cameras and pricing please visit: www.infraredcamerasinc.com

HOW THERMAL IMAGING CAMERA ARE USED IN ENERGY AUDITS?

An energy audit is the detailed inspection of a building to find the possible leaks and poor insulation. This helps in finding a solution and reducing the carbon footprint of the building. Thermal cameras play an important role in it as they facilitate to obtain the infrared image of the body under study and hence the leakage and other faults can be seen easily which, in fact, are invisible to the naked eye. So the step by step working of this energy audit is:

1. Infrared energy inspections use a special type of camera called a thermal imaging camera.

2. This captures the infrared image of the surrounding/object, which is, invisible to the eye. This is called a thermogram (the infrared image of a object).

3. Auditors perform interior as well as exterior survey depending on the conditions to maximize the result.

4. With the thermographic images (thermograms) we can pinpoint what is the point exactly from where the loss is happening or whether the insulation is installed properly or not?

5. The survey can lead to possible solutions to improve the energy efficiency of a home or any building. Like reinstalling a portion of insulation or fixing the leak points etc.

6. The best results for an energy audit can be obtained when the inside and outside temperature difference is at least 20°F.

HOW ENERGY AUDIT CAN LEAD US TO A GREEN WORLD?

1. Energy audit makes the building more energy efficient.

2. It reduces the annual heat bills, hence you are happy as you save money.

3. The reduced carbon footprint helps in reducing the global warming and slowdown the climate change!

4. An energy efficient home consumes comparatively less power, hence reduce the ever growing need of power and the saved power can be distributed to the needy.

5. Saving energy will remove the reliance on other countries for oil or gas to produce power.

6. We reduce global warming by reducing the carbon emission, a big chunk of which comes from less energy efficient buildings. So let’s get involved and do our bit for the nation and the world by doing proper energy audits for buildings. And do our bit to fight global warming and climate change.

by Farukh Hashmi