Thread: problem with a thermocam

i used a moisture meter and identified water in part of the wall.
I try to see this in a thermocamera when I was doing a inside scan.
I know it's needded a difference of Temperature called delta T, so I heated all the wall. But it doesn´t work.

Do I need to heat al the house´s interior or just the wall?
Wich equipment could do that?

Hello mutzgrila mutzgrila,

Welcome aboard. Enjoy your visit here at InspectionNews and if there is anything I can help you with just let me know.

If you are a business owner please accept this gift for making your first post: http://www.inspectionreferral.com

If you are a home buyer, seller or DIYer, this gift is for you: http://www.inspectionnews.net/home-i...als/member.php

Originally Posted by mutzgrila mutzgrila

i used a moisture meter and identified water in part of the wall.
I try to see this in a thermocamera when I was doing a inside scan.
I know it's needded a difference of Temperature called delta T, so I heated all the wall. But it doesn´t work.

Do I need to heat al the house´s interior or just the wall?
Wich equipment could do that?

It might be the camera. What brand and model camera are you using?

If you can post a picture of the wet wall that might help others to provide some help.

Originally Posted by mutzgrila mutzgrila

I try to see this in a thermocamera when I was doing a inside scan.
I know it's needded a difference of Temperature called delta T, so I heated all the wall. But it doesn´t work.

Do I need to heat al the house´s interior or just the wall?
Wich equipment could do that?

You destroyed the evidence (so to speak) for the infrared camera to see by heating the wall - the infrared camera is looking for temperature differences, and heating the wall removed those temperature differences you were looking for.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

You destroyed the evidence (so to speak) for the infrared camera to see by heating the wall - the infrared camera is looking for temperature differences, and heating the wall removed those temperature differences you were looking for.

It could also be that the moisture meter provided a false positive. Maybe a piece of metal, nail, screws, wire, nail plate, etc... The wall might not have any moisture in it!

Heating the wall can sometimes help locate moisture (with a thermal cam).

As stated; you are measuring temperature [temperature differentials] and everything changes temperature at a different rate, water being the slowest. So if there is a wet area in the wall, and you turn up the heat in the room, the wet areas will change temperature at a different rate of speed then the dry areas.

If the water has been in the wall for a while, it has the chance to equalize temperature with the wall. By changing the temperature of the wall, you are creating a differential.

How did you heat the wall? How long did you wait when heating the wall? How did you identify the wet areas with a moisture meter? (surface scan or probes).

Originally Posted by Steven Turetsky

How did you heat the wall? How long did you wait when heating the wall?

Those are the questions I was thinking of ... but did not ask ... as they will either (as you said) help find the issues (like the sun heating a wall - the interior parts of the wall show up better) or remove the evidence by bringing the entire wall structure to the same temperature (which is what I was suspecting he did) and this no differences show up.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

Those are the questions I was thinking of ... but did not ask ... as they will either (as you said) help find the issues (like the sun heating a wall - the interior parts of the wall show up better) or remove the evidence by bringing the entire wall structure to the same temperature (which is what I was suspecting he did) and this no differences show up.

I agree, there are unanswered questions. Assuming the wall is wet, I wonder what in the area could be contributing since there are other enhancements that may be helpful.

Originally Posted by mutzgrila mutzgrila

i used a moisture meter and identified water in part of the wall. I try to see this in a thermocamera when I was doing a inside scan.

How did you do this? Maybe the problem is not the cam, but the meter.

Originally Posted by mutzgrila mutzgrila

I know it's needded a difference of Temperature called delta T, so I heated all the wall. But it doesn´t work.
Do I need to heat al the house´s interior or just the wall?
Wich equipment could do that?

You only heated one wall? How did you do this?

If I was conducting that test, I would heat the whole house and would use the house's heating system to do this. If there was no heating system, I would heat the whole room using some type of portable heating system. Depending on the conditions, normally in about 1/2 hour I would start scanning, and again in 1/2 hour increments until I was satisfied.

Depending upon the conditions, I may ask a client to blast the heat 1/2 hour (or so) before I arrive.