Infrared Cameras for Inspections

Using Infrared Cameras

Flir infrared cameras have come down in price recently, and have therefor become much more popular for many different people. In the past, a relatively basic infrared camera cost tens of thousands of dollars, was gas-cooled, and required sophisticated and expensive software to interpret the images.

Now, an entry level flir camera can be purchased for two or three thousand dollars, is quite compact and easy to use, and includes basic software to adjust, analyze, and interpret the infrared images. It’s not too surprising then that infrared cameras have become so popular for many different people and uses.

Home energy audits are becoming very common uses of infrared cameras these days, as energy costs rise. Currently, it would be unlikely to find a home energy auditor who didn’t use an IR camera as part of their standard equipment.

Infrared is heat energy, and since infrared cameras detect this energy, it’s possible to literally see the heat moving through walls. During a home energy audit, users can see areas of missing insulation in a wall, leaky windows, and other gaps in the building envelop integrity.

Electrical system inspections are also a very popular use for IR cameras, and common faults that result in an increase in resistance. This greater resistance in turn creates heat, which is visible to an infrared camera. Infrared thermographers are able to detect bad fuses, circuit breakers, and faulty connections that both waste energy and are potentially very dangerous. For this reason, insurance companies often require regular infrared audits of electrical systems, or offer a large discount on premiums for doing so.

Infrared cameras are even becoming more and more popular in human medicine, particularly in early breast cancer detection.Breast cancer detection is another area of human medicine where infrared has made significant progress. Tiny changes in blood flow can be seen in the infrared before it would ever show up on a mammogram. This method has the added benefit of being totally passive and non-invasive. One of these cameras also costs significantly less than most other equipment that might be used to detect breast cancer.

IRS Solutions