Module 4 · Tools & Equipment
4.3 Thermal Cameras: Beginner Interpretation
7 min read
Thermal imaging has become affordable enough that most surveyors now carry it, and it produces dramatic images that clients find persuasive. That combination is dangerous. The camera measures surface temperature and nothing else, and a confident interpretation of an artefact is worse than no image at all.
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Explain what a thermal camera measures and what it cannot.
- Identify the artefacts that produce false cold and false warm areas.
- Use thermal imaging to guide, rather than replace, other measurements.
- State thermal findings within the limits of what the image supports.
Key terms
- Thermal imaging
- Visualising surface temperature differences across an area as an image.
- Emissivity
- How efficiently a surface radiates heat. Low-emissivity surfaces like gloss and metal reflect rather than emit, and read wrongly.
- Thermal artefact
- An apparent temperature difference caused by reflection, draught or history rather than by the fabric.
- Delta-T
- The temperature difference across the fabric. Too small a difference and nothing shows up at all.
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Read the rest of Tools & Equipment
Module 1 is open to everyone. The remaining six modules — building science, each damp mechanism in depth, meters and thermal imaging, the full inspection method, and report writing — are free too. We just ask for an email so you can pick up where you left off, and so we can send your certificate when you finish.