• Requirements for Air Tightness Tests

Thermographic Surveys

HRS have many years experience of carrying out thermographic surveys and can offer clients advice at an early stage as to the most productive method to carry out a thermographic survey.

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HRS wide ranging technical and practical experience of building technology, design issues and potential faults in buildings allows us to give a high level of service both in carrying out the survey and interpreting the results.

Building thermography is a method of indicating the heat distribution over the surface of a building envelope. This remote-sensing technique can be carried out with minimal disturbance by a single operator and allows qualitative detection of air leakage pathways and insulation discontinuities. The survey will be carried out using an un-cooled thermal imaging camera, which can measure temperatures to 0.1°C and displays the images and reports in full colour. HRS uses a calibrated FLIR 395 camera, which allows full analysis of saved images.

Thermographic Surveys are carried out to BS EN 13187:1999: Thermal performance of buildings - qualitative detection of thermal irregularities in building envelopes - infra-red method and BRE Report 176 - A Practical Guide To Infra-Red Thermography For Building Surveys.

On-site Requirements For Thermographic Surveys

The following outlines the requirements for the above test. Areas of discontinuous insulation will be more readily identified in these conditions:

• The integrity of the building envelope should be complete for the survey
• Drawings (plans and sections) and specification details regarding the areas to be surveyed should be supplied prior to the survey taking place
• HRS have assumed that the survey will be carried out from the outside of the building, usually at night (or on an overcast day in winter) when the weather is dry.
• It is important that the internal temperature of the building is 10°C higher than the external
• If possible, the internal pressure of the building should be raised by 10 Pascals by switching off the extract units

An hand-held infra-red sensitive camera records images of the subject that are compared to conventional pictures of the same areas. "Hot-spots" can then be related to features of the building and an informed view taken of building integrity. Local/component thermography whilst a building is depressurised can identify where air tightness needs improving.