Comparing a Thermal Camera and Infrared Thermometer for Home Inspection
Last year, Jane from Kaiweets emailed me, asking if we'd like to review one of their soldering. Nobody ever asks us that, especially for a soldering iron, because of the time Dr. Webster helped put ColdHeat out of business, so I was excited to let him review another. Somehow, Google has a higher opinion of Applefritter than Applefritter has of Google, and we're still the top web result if you search for the KOT936 soldering iron.
This fall, I was toying with the idea of getting a thermal camera, to help with heating efficiency. I have an infrared thermometer, but that only tells you the temperature of one spot at a time, so unless you already know where to look, you have to go around the house pointing it at absolutely everything. I didn't feel like I could justify the expense to just check the house a time or two, and then have a toy lying around, so I asked Kaiweets to send me one. Jane said they would send a Kaiweets KTI-W01, but asked that I use the referral code this time, because of the value of the thermal cameras. I declined. They agreed to send it anyway.
I did the math afterwards… these cameras sell for about $300 and the referral fee is 15%. That's $45 per referral. With Applefritter's search rankings, I've potentially given up a lot of money by not hyping this up and using a referral code. I was aware of how this worked, but this time I got to feel it. If there was a $45 referral link in this article, I would want you to click it.
But there isn't a $45 referral link, so instead of a "review" trying to convince you to purchase, you're just going to get me playing around with a new toy. Speaking of which, I confirmed that my wife is hot:
Not as hot as the light bulb, but 10.8° hotter than her surroundings.
The images generated by the camera have a photo resolution is 240x320, overlaid with a 256x192 thermal image. They're disappointing to look at on a large screen, but for most uses where you're not publishing your photos, they're fine. I did not test the accuracy of the temperature readings. The relative temperatures are sufficiently accurate for home inspection. The device has as USB-C port for charging and data. When connected to a computer, it mounts as a 28 GiB VFAT volume containing images in jpeg format and videos in mpeg4.
After getting a handle on how it worked, I went around the house taking photos of everything. Thanks to thermal imaging technology, I discovered that I forgot to close the window in the workshop:
There was a lot of obvious stuff, that I could have easily figured out with the infrared thermometer or even just my hand. The door leaks where I knew it leaks:
But there's also a significant leak in the crow moulding, that I probably would have missed:
I was surprised to see how well the camera shows the wall's structure. You can see exactly where the studs are and even make out a bit of the lath.
I also found a section of bedroom ceiling that isn't insulated properly:
I'll need to go up in the attic and check that out. This is another example of something that was dramatically easier to find with a thermal camera than with an infrared thermometer. I would have had to map the whole ceiling, point by point, to identify that strip. I knew the thermal camera would show cold spots more clearly than the infrared thermometer, but I was doubtful I'd find anything I wasn't expecting. The leak in the crow moulding and the inadequately insulated section of bedroom ceiling demonstrate its use.
For a future article, I'll verify the temperature accuracy and look at some electronics. I don't have anything interesting on the workbench right now, but a ThinkPad Z16, maxed out, gets up to 127.5 °.
Kaiweets offered us a 15% coupon and a 15% commission, which I declined. You can find many such coupons by searching youtube for kaiweets 15%. The thermal camera used in this review is the Kaiweets KTI-W01.