Infared Cetification Course?

[jbettencourt]

For those who have taken the teleconference Infared Certification course, I would like to ask if you believe that taking that course in conjunction with a Bcam or the Fluke camera advertised here is adequate for some one to start offering IR scans in conjunction with a regular home inspection. I am not talking about doing full energy audits or anything like that, I just mean during a home inspection to help with moisture, leak, and insulation issues. Once again I don't know too much about IR yet and I am considering this as a Starting point, and what other training would you recommend?Thanks.

[rcooke]

I bought my Camera in Nov 2007 Did the on line FLIR course three time did and passed level one in Dec 07.
Did the John m & and Will D .
Have been practicing on all my inspection no charge.
Have spent $200;00 on disks and another $100;00 on books.
Expect to do some more on line courses and will start advertising and charging in March.
Thats me I like to be completely satisfied that I can do a proper job in every thing I do.
I have BcamSD.
...Cookie

[Mathew Hawley]

Roy,

How did you like the distant learning class for your level 1. I was thiking about the online Building Science Course.

I am taking John and Will's IR class in Orlando in April.

Do you have any recommendations on some good IR books or disk?

[rcooke]

Originally Posted by mhawley

Roy,

How did you like the distant learning class for your level 1. I was thiking about the online Building Science Course.

I am taking John and Will's IR class in Orlando in April.

Do you have any recommendations on some good IR books or disk?

I took the level one at FLIR Canada. I feel they charge a lot $1800;00 for 3.5 days but was a good course not really directed to Home inspectors .
I also did the on phone John & Will was satisfied It was their first attempt and lots of good information directed to home inspection.
Books not sure if ( Common sense approach to thermal Imaging ) is a good idea only 1/3 the way through.
I also want to do three more on line IR Courses soon.
They have a conference every year in California cost about $1,800;00 four days I think.
They have all the last four conferences on disk cost is $25;00 each Have only got into the first one no idea yet on how good they will be.
I am in the middle of a mold course and have a Radon coming .
That with having to but a new desk top computer and dropping my lap top and bought a new lap top ,not many spare minutes for the inspections .
Every body seems to want me NOW...
I am normally a very active person but this is just a little more action then I normally have .

...Cookie

[jbettencourt]

Roy,

I was going to say can you fit any inspections between all that?

[Mathew Hawley]

Roy,

What online IR courses are you taking or are planning on taking? The ones I looked at are like $1600.

Where can I purchase the $25 IR confrence disk?

[rcooke]

Originally Posted by jbettencourt

Roy,

I was going to say can you fit any inspections between all that?

Did one this morning . Will post more info later.

Here it is http://www.infraredtraining.com/store/
Disks $25;00 each
I have the book alien Vision on order.

...Cookie

[John McKenna]

Jerry,

You can read the testimonials of our students at our site
http://infrared-certified.com

Also...
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f58/infrared-certified-training-course-24932/
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f58/infrared-certified-training-course-24989/
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f58/ir-camera-and-courses-24943/

I recommend field experience of at least 30-40 inspection
using the IR camera along with our IR course... until you
feel confident in what you are doing.

Yes... you can do it... to answer your question.

[David A. Andersen]

I think John's recommendation for field experience as well as some formal training should be considered prerequisite before charging somebody for this service.

When I was in the building science course, one thing I noticed was that people came to the course with very little knowledge of the camera they had purchased. They were holding it like a newborn baby!

Take the camera out and play with it on anything you can think of. I find something new and interesting everyday.

I find very little online knowledge about interpretation of thermal scans. The quality of thermal scan interpretation across the net appears to be very poor in this new industry when it comes to inspecting buildings.
Check out the NACHI members websites, they're the best around.

Post your findings and any questions here and we can all learn together. The important thing is to gather as much information about the anomaly so we can do more than guess about what's going on.

[John McKenna]

David is correct. There is really no class anywhere that can take the place of
field experience with your IR camera. The class is important, but your ability
to interpret the images that you see with the camera comes with experience and
your background knowledge of the subject matter you are trying to analyze
with thermal imaging. It's like riding a bike after a while.

[jbettencourt]

I am only a part-time inspector at the moment, but with the Canadian dollar pretty much at par I could buy a camera for a decent price at a time now where I have full-time income to support the purchase. I believe in time after properly learning how to use it , it could be that marketing item that could assist me into doing the inspections full-time, which is the goal.