The first ECO HUB Sidmouth launched its first fortnightly sessions on Saturday – and it went very well, with residents interested in the Exeter Community Energy’s offer of help in retrofitting their homes for more energy efficiency.
Several also signed up for the CAPS/Town Council’s free thermal imaging surveys – whereby we can see how efficient a building is in keeping in the heat, which in turn can mean we know where our house is losing heat – and try to do something about it.
Below is one such sample survey carried out this time last year – and copied with permission of the householder:
Completed survey report:
First of all, thank you for allowing us to take thermal images of your home as part of the Town Council’s efforts to help people save on their energy bills. Please remember, we are not heating or insulation experts. All we can do is provide images that will help you decide if you want to make changes to how you keep your house warm.
Remember, heat is being lost if the outside pictures of your home show warmer areas, the inside pictures show cool areas. The camera sets itself for each picture, bright yellow indicates warm and dark blue/purple indicates cool for that picture. The centre marker is the reference point for the listed temperature. Occasionally the camera does not line up the thermal image with the underlying picture of the house, but you can still see the effect.
Walls
The ambient temperature outside was about 0C at the time of the survey the internal temperature was about 18C. The external wall temperature varied but it was generally in the range -2.2 to 0.3C suggesting good insulation.

There were however a few exceptions. The area around the back door was warmer in the range 0.9 to 2.3C. This might be associated with the door being opened earlier in the morning.

Two other areas of note were the wall below the front window which was cooler than elsewhere, and the wall above the window into the Conservatory which was also cooler than the rest of the room.

Such areas are often linked to damp but none was obvious. The seal between the conservatory roof and the house might be worthy of inspection.
Doors
Viewed from outside the front door was about 0.7C and the back door 2C. Given that both doors had been opened that morning, these are not too high and suggest reasonable thermal insulation. There was however a noticeable cool area on the right hand side of the front door when viewed from the inside and this coincided with a broken plastic frame which would probably be creating cool draughts. The back door, when viewed from outside, had a warm area in the corner on the hinge side suggesting a faulty seal but it may have been caused by opening the door that morning. This might warrant further investigation. The cat flat is often a weak point in a door and this was true here in the back door. However there was no major evidence of draughts as had been seen elsewhere.

Windows

The windows were all about sub zero suggesting good insulation as the internal temperature was about 18C.
Roof
The roof temperature was -5.4C as a result of the low overnight temperatures suggesting good loft insulation with minimal heat leakage.

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Here’s the online form:
Sidmouth Town Council is offering residents the opportunity to have a free thermal imaging survey of their house to help identify likely areas of heat loss. The photographs will be taken by a volunteer who has been trained in the use of the Infra-red camera but is not a qualified surveyor.
The service will be offered on a first come first served basis and the Council does not guarantee that photographs can be taken in this winter season if demand exceeds our ability to provide this service. Sidmouth Town Council will not publish the images without my prior consent but they may be shared with the team running this project in order to improve the service offered to residents.
Thermal Imaging (Infra-red) Domestic Residence Survey Request – Sidmouth Town Council
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