Ice Dams and Infrared (Thermal) Imaging

[Chris Morrell]

Use this thread to discuss the entry Ice Dams and Infrared (Thermal) Imaging at the InterNACHI Blog

[Robert R. Butler]

Nice post, and the thermal imaging looks impresive, but the thermal images only tells me there is heat loss, and where it is.
So far so good.

It does not, however, tell me anything aboult ice dams. A property vented soffit to attic zone will not create ice dams, but the heat loss shown by these thermal images would be the same, as viewed from the living space.

What you are seeing on these thermal images is the variations in the suface temperature of the walls and ceilings.

How much heat differential shown by the different tones on the images is not shown to us in this blog. That range can be set on the camera, as well as the colours.
A temperature variance range of say 4 degrees is relatively meaningless. The heat loss would not be significant.
But a temperature variance range of 18 degrees would be significant. As a matter of fact, it would be a big deal.

But in both situations the images would be vertually the same.
So the image itself isn't the whole story, even when side by side with the normal photo of the same space.

Still, its a good blog. I'm not here to split hairs, but a lawyer will. It's what they're all about.
Cheers,
RB