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does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful for
getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and other
buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time to
start plugging leaks...

-- Ray

(UK) fire service vehicles carry them as standard, to check for any
remaining hot spots after a fire's extinguished. I'd *guess* they're
specialist devices and probably out of the financial reach of ordinary
punters for such a 'one-off' use, and I very much doubt if any consumer
digital camera has such capabilities as the fire folks' cameras sense
for heat, not light.

Ray wrote:
> does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful for
> getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and other
> buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time to
> start plugging leaks...
>
> -- Ray
>
>

It would require a really deep IR filter and a CCD that is cooled
You are correct these are purpose built and expensive.
For instance glass is opaque to long wave IR so that the lenses are often
made of materials like sapphire or zinc selenide.

"Bill Smith" <> wrote in message
news:...
> (UK) fire service vehicles carry them as standard, to check for any
> remaining hot spots after a fire's extinguished. I'd *guess* they're
> specialist devices and probably out of the financial reach of ordinary
> punters for such a 'one-off' use, and I very much doubt if any consumer
> digital camera has such capabilities as the fire folks' cameras sense
> for heat, not light.
>
> Ray wrote:
> > does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful
for
> > getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and
other
> > buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> > heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time
to
> > start plugging leaks...
> >
> > -- Ray
> >
> >
>

well, if the outdoor temperature is 10 above (or -40 below here in Minnesota
from time-to-time) the CCD would get down to that pretty quickly... keeping
the batteries warm enough to keep the camera going would be a possible
problem... but such an examination of a house or building probably wouldn't
have to be up to the standards of deep-space astronomy... just needs to be
*good enough* to tell you where your house or whatever is spewing out
heat...

-- Ray

"Paul Cordes" <late*> wrote in message
news:iPz%a.5462$ et...
> It would require a really deep IR filter and a CCD that is cooled
> You are correct these are purpose built and expensive.
> For instance glass is opaque to long wave IR so that the lenses are often
> made of materials like sapphire or zinc selenide.
>
> "Bill Smith" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > (UK) fire service vehicles carry them as standard, to check for any
> > remaining hot spots after a fire's extinguished. I'd *guess* they're
> > specialist devices and probably out of the financial reach of ordinary
> > punters for such a 'one-off' use, and I very much doubt if any consumer
> > digital camera has such capabilities as the fire folks' cameras sense
> > for heat, not light.
> >
> > Ray wrote:
> > > does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially
useful
> for
> > > getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and
> other
> > > buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric
are
> > > heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good
time
> to
> > > start plugging leaks...
> > >
> > > -- Ray
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>

"Ray" <> wrote in message
news:...
> well, if the outdoor temperature is 10 above (or -40 below here in
Minnesota
> from time-to-time) the CCD would get down to that pretty quickly...
keeping
> the batteries warm enough to keep the camera going would be a possible
> problem... but such an examination of a house or building probably
wouldn't
> have to be up to the standards of deep-space astronomy... just needs to be
> *good enough* to tell you where your house or whatever is spewing out
> heat...
>
> -- Ray

Ok, let's say that the camera is cold. We'll use an external battery pack
which we can keep warm inside your coat.
Now all you need is a lens that passes longwave IR but not visible light and
short wave IR. Those filters can be bought. Now if you use a pinhole as
your lens you should be good to go. They make pinholes for the front of
SLRs so a digital SLR should do the trick. Not much resolution there but
it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a sapphire lens.
One last problem suggests itself. I'm not sure how far down a typical CCD
goes into the IR with that Bayer grid in front of it. Might want to look
that up before you get to far into this science experiment.

PC

Yes, but they start at about ten grand. There are three types now,
mechanically scanned, pyroelectric vidicons, and bolometer arrays. They
are getting cheaper all the time, though since they cannot use silicon
chips they will never get down to prices of consumer cameras. Big
buyers are police and fire departments.

BTW, only some of these are visible, many are analog. They are
generically called 'thermal imagers'. Prices can run upwards of several
hundred grand for really fancy ones used by military.

Ray wrote:
>
> does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful for
> getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and other
> buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time to
> start plugging leaks...
>
> -- Ray

--
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

webpage- http://www.usfamily.net/web/stauffer

No, even cooled a silicon chip will not go out far enough. You need at
least four microns. Platinum silicide is only silicon-based chip to
work, and it is MUCH more expensive than straight silicon CCD. PtSi
still needs cooling.

Paul Cordes wrote:
>
> It would require a really deep IR filter and a CCD that is cooled
> You are correct these are purpose built and expensive.
> For instance glass is opaque to long wave IR so that the lenses are often
> made of materials like sapphire or zinc selenide.
>
> "Bill Smith" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > (UK) fire service vehicles carry them as standard, to check for any
> > remaining hot spots after a fire's extinguished. I'd *guess* they're
> > specialist devices and probably out of the financial reach of ordinary
> > punters for such a 'one-off' use, and I very much doubt if any consumer
> > digital camera has such capabilities as the fire folks' cameras sense
> > for heat, not light.
> >
> > Ray wrote:
> > > does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful
> for
> > > getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and
> other
> > > buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> > > heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time
> to
> > > start plugging leaks...
> > >
> > > -- Ray
> > >
> > >
> >

--
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

webpage- http://www.usfamily.net/web/stauffer

Infrared covers a long spectrum, film infrared is short wavelength infrared
while what you are looking for is a long wavelength thermal imager. Some house
inspectors offer this service, our gs company was doing it for free one year,
then the next year no one at the company knew anything about it or who to call
to get the service.


Tom

In article <>, says...
>
>does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful for
>getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and other
>buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
>heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time to
>start plugging leaks...
>
>-- Ray
>
>

"Ray" <> wrote in message news:<>...
> does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful for
> getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and other
> buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time to
> start plugging leaks...
>
> -- Ray

Yes, these are special products that have (liquid-nitrogen?) cooled
sensors in them and are VERY expensive. Thousands of dollars.

Basically you have somebody come out to your house and do the work.
You don't do this yourself. These are industrial machines. They are
used in many kinds of industries to measure temperatures of objects
remotely.

what's needed is a sensor that'll work in the 3 ~ 12 micron emission
range... ferroelectric bolometers is what I've seen them called, and
supposedly these things are getting cheap enough to be put in ATM
stanchions... if they're getting that cheap, manufactured in appreciable
volume, we ought to begin seeing cameras using them get cheaper... I wonder,
however, if we really need that... My Sony TRV730 camcorder, used without
its little red IR source, does a pretty fair job of picking up a 98 degree F
face and distinguishing it from an 80 degree shirt and 70 degree walls - I'm
wondering about this... I haven't gone outside in the present 90 degree
weather to check my own house for heat loss for obvious reasons...

-- Ray

"Michael Scarpitti" <> wrote in message
news: m...
> "Ray" <> wrote in message
news:<>...
> > does anyone know if there are digital cameras that are especially useful
for
> > getting images of either heating or cooling leaking from houses and
other
> > buildings? from what I hear the rates for heating fuel and electric are
> > heading to the stratosphere later this year and now might be a good time
to
> > start plugging leaks...
> >
> > -- Ray
>
> Yes, these are special products that have (liquid-nitrogen?) cooled
> sensors in them and are VERY expensive. Thousands of dollars.
>
> Basically you have somebody come out to your house and do the work.
> You don't do this yourself. These are industrial machines. They are
> used in many kinds of industries to measure temperatures of objects
> remotely.