Historic Buildings

Apart from the obvious and established use of locating and defining heat loss (which in itself can be very important in an old building) applications include the location and/or assessment of the following:

Assessment and inspection by conventional means can often involve the hire of expensive access equipment, temporary scaffolding and disruption of activity. Infrared camera surveys however can often be conducted from ground level. The speed with which an entire street can be assessed makes it a valuable tool in historical recording. The images can be electronically captured, stored on disc and printed out in colour. However, infra-red thermography is very sensitive to climatic conditions - rain or bright sun on a wall to be investigated may prevent any successful assessment, and the temperature gradient required sometimes means that more information on heated buildings can be obtained in winter, and unheated ones (such as churches) may be better surveyed at night when the day's solar gain provides sufficient gradation.