Infrared cameras

Simply Rad

Have any of you had any experience with the Flir One for your phones. I have only used the hand held versions. This could be a great option and simple to carry with you most of the time. I am just wondering if is appropriate for locating radiant heating distribution systems ..

Regards
Jeffrey

hot_rod

Max recently purchased the C2. He researched the models pretty well and thought this to be the best bang for the bucks.

I'll see if he can share any pics from it.

http://flir.com/instruments/c2/

margsuarez

i recently got a Flir One for use at work. It works well to find loose electrical connections.

I will post photos of my radiant floors, perhaps sometime this weekend.

marg

Zman

I have the less compact E8 (E4 modified). I really like the 320x240.
The downside is the portability and functionality. First it has to be with you, it also needs to be charged. It is kind of a pain to download the pictures.

The Flir One is on my shopping list. It is small enough to live in the glove box, photos upload to cloud for access anywhere, no battery to worry about. 160X120 is not bad for most uses.

IR Cameras are awesome! I am constantly finding new uses. The other day I was looking for a roof water leak and was asked by the tenant why the commercial kitchen had failed the health health department inspection because it took too long to get hot water. I pointed the camera at the mixing valve and recirc pump 12' in the air and was able to tell them the mixing valve was fine but the circ was not working. No ladders to haul up stairs, just point and shoot.

margsuarez

Here's a quick image I snapped of my 1st floor. I read somewhere that optimal distance is 1m so you can't capture a large area, but as you can see it works really well to identify location of tubing.

I have WarmBoard-R on top of 3/4" plywood subfloor (uninsulated), covered with engineered hardwood and QuietStride underlayment.

R-Value: Kährs (14, 15mm) flooring = 1.15 R
QuietStride Underlayment = 0.40 R

The coldest spot in the photo is a stair landing with "blank" OSB supplied by WarmBoard (to match thinkness).

Between the tubes there is only a 2.3 degree variance in temp.

When I took this picture there was a call for heat. Boiler was in postpump and water circulating was about 89 deg F.

Room temp set point is 70 deg F. My floor sensor is in a colder part of the room (near the front door) and stat is supposed to limit floor temp to 81 deg F. This is showing average 85 deg F, so I will have to see about sealing/insulating that front door better... Also perhaps the emissivity of the sensor is not set right and affecting temps -- but this image does demonstrate how well the WarmBoard disperses the heat.

FYI
marg

RayWohlfarth

I purchased the Fair after listening to a RPA seminar last year and it worked well. I have used it to trouble shoot a radiant heat system and it really helped.

RayWohlfarth

sorry Flir I hate spell check

Simply Rad

Thanks for all the great feedback. Marg, Thanks for posting the picture as it shows exactly what I was hoping for. I think I may try the Flair One. Simple and easy. This is another great tool for the box. Regards Jeffrey

rick in Alaska

I bought a Seek Thermal off Ebay for $170 on a special deal. It is a "thermal camera" that plugs in to my I-phone. It is definitely a $170 camera and does what I expected of a cheaper unit. But, it does show radiant tubing locations. It comes in a small case that I actually keep in my pocket. I keep forgetting about it, and never thought about using it for finding dead pumps and such. I will have to remember its there and use it more often for diagnosis.
Would love to have a nice Flir though. But, not in my budget.
Rick