Until recently, thermal imaging cameras have been the province of spies and law enforcement. Now, predictably, there's an app for that. Well, an app and a small thermographic camera called Seek Thermal that you plug into your mobile device.
Does it work? If so, how can it be applied to home remodeling and inspection?
Basics
I tested the Seek Thermal Camera (as opposed to the Seek Thermal XR - Xtra Range, which I will discuss later) and free app on a Samsung Galaxy (Android) phone.
As any Android user knows, to obtain the app, go to Google Play and search for "Seek Thermal." Note that upon ordering, you need to specify whether you want the Android or iPhone version of the camera. Price is $249 and shipping is free.
Opening the protective case is difficult. Seek even has a FAQ about this. I took the easy way out and asked my box-smart 10 year-old boy to open it.
The camera plugs into the side of the device. After clicking a couple of OKs, I was in. The camera was already working--no annoying lead-in process. Every second or two, the camera clicks as it recalibrates temperature.
Resolution is low, meaning that the image is fuzzy. You get the general idea of what you are looking at and that's fine. You just need the basic impression of an area--a door, a house corner, a window--in order to derive information. If you get lost, you can switch to a split-screen mode that shows half thermographic image, half regular image.
Thermal Camera Uses For Remodeling, Inspecting?
Like any Seek Thermal user, I spent the first hour playing with it, detecting
- Footprints on a floor after a person has left the room.
- The thermal impression of a body that has been laying on a floor.
- A person in a pitch-dark room.
- The pattern of water on the front lawn from the sprinkler.
- Raccoons in the backyard.
Range was farther than expected. When my son walked away from me, into the woods, I was able to track his bobbing yellow body-shape as it diminished into a little dot and finally disappeared, but only after about 100 feet.
Besides those novelties, Seek Thermal can be used around the house, DIY or professionally. The most valuable use for the building/remodeling trades is locating energy loss in a house. I've long wanted to pay for an energy audit in those winter months when my furnace is pumping and house leaking heat like crazy. Thermal imaging is a far more reliable way to find heat loss than holding up your hand to feel for leaks.
Beyond that, Seek Thermal's uses are murkier. I was able to image wall studs in an exterior wall, though it's not precise enough to tell you where to start cutting into the wall.
Heating vents hidden behind ceiling drywall are visible. Exposed hot water pipes show up as flaming yellow lines, as seen here (colors can be changed to your liking), but they are exposed and you knew that already. Hidden pipes are more difficult to detect, but the closer to drywall, the greater the chance of detection.
Like so many detection devices, it helps to know where something is located in order to find it. For example, if I hadn't know the 16" on-center configuration of my exterior wall studs, I probably wouldn't have recognized the fuzzy gray lines.
I highly recommend paying the extra $50 for a Seek Thermal XR - Xtra Range, which has the ability to be focused. With the base model, the zoom felt all wrong. I always felt like I had to stand back too far to take in the area of interest.
Information Desert
Mechanically, Seek Thermal works well--as good as you can expect an inexpensive gadget that fits in your pocket. Informationally, it is lacking.
Seek Thermal needs to invest in educating its customers about how this camera can be applied to the customer's needs--in this case, remodeling, inspection, construction.
Customers are left with only 12 FAQs and a handful of questions in the community forum. While Seek Thermal helpfully offered to connect me with a support team leader, I passed as I felt this was not reflective of a typical customer experience.
Even one community member asks if
someone [can] put together a list of how to guides for thermal camera users, whether the links are videos, pdf's or articles? I think it would be helpful for camera owners as well as potential customers.
Exactly. This receptive, tech-hungry crowd wants to dig in and learn the complexities of, say, locating leaky water pipes behind drywall. Instead, we're left to figure it out by ourselves and it's a case of the blind leading the blind.