FLIR One images

No dumbass, I was showing you that even a BCAM has a spacial resolution good enough to see the difference at the edge of an object (without the need of MSX to see what your looking at) due to detected emissivity fall off from geometric changes).

Do you just look at the pretty pictures, or can you read?

Water in the gutter is all you see?
You are an idiot aren’t you?

Trying to point something out to you, but your liberal California attitude is getting in the way of the facts.

I personally have a flir e4 hacked to flir e8. I do not advertise thermal imaging as a service. When I do by times use it to help visually confirm suspicions to clients, I am always sure to explain to them that it is one of the tools that I have to help give a visual representation of whats going on and I use other tools to confirm it (such as a moisture meter). I understand that I do not have the knowledge or experience to read it and understand it to the same extent of some of the very knowledgeable guys on here such as chuck and David nor am I qualified to represent that I do have those qualifications. In my opinion, everytime you are opening that case, you are opening yourself up to a huge liability of you aren’t extremely well versed in what you are doing and HOW to use and read it. I am planning on taking courses to upgrade to level 1 certification in the future to see where that brings my knowledge level and will make a decision with how to proceed from there. My point is, I know my limitations, and the limitations of my camera and that all statements made are damning either a home or yourself (depending on whether you are correct or incorrect) so you better know what you are doing if you’re gonna pull it out. My point is this. I have no clue what the hell Rick is doing, whether it’s a joke, or just trying to stir the pot or actually that inept. But everything I see posted about that little app is so far off base in understanding, analysis and procedure that it’s not even believable. If you’re serious, you need to stop now. You’re just devaluing the service of trained thermographers and opening yourself up to liability. Do you know why they replaced that door? It’s not because there was an issue, it was because they believed you were qualified to make that determination, they believed you and had good customer service. Much like in my younger years when I returned a VCR that I decided that I didn’t want to Walmart and because they have a 100% customer satisfaction return policy, when they asked me what the problem was, I told them I didn’t like the way it smelled. They took it back no questions asked and because of that customer service, I chose that store over other big box stores in the future. Anyway my final point is, for the sake of uneducated customers, thermographers and even sellers who don’t know enough about thermography to defend themselves against frivolous deficiencies, there needs to be regulation in the use of commercial thermal imaging, although we will never see it.

Your e8 is 400x better than my BCAM, never mind the thing Rick is pushing.

And I’m sure you know to call me or Chuck if you need any help. More than Rick is demonstrating…

Rick just has inferior equipment, inferior education and an inferiority complex. Bashing people just makes him feel better over his shortcomings.

Thanks for the offer to help David. I have asked chuck questions in the past as well and got great feedback. What irks me about the way this is going is how much the science is being devalued by hacks and thus becoming worthless from an investment standpoint as customers don’t know how to differentiate between the good or bad. They all just incorrectly think anyone with a or camera can “see through walls”. There was a brand new inspector with no or training at an office meeting with whom I do a high volume of business with, flashing around his camera and saying how ridiculous it was that another local inspector charges for thermal imaging (who is a level I thermographers) and they do it for free with every inspections.The vast majority of customers don’t know the difference between someone who understands what they’re looking at and someone who thinks every color change is an issue. It’s horrible for the industry as a whole and the people who actually need to charge to recoup their substantial time and money investment. I really am bummed about considering investing in more education and having to justify why I have to actually charge for extra for it when the home inspector across the town does it for free and found a missing batt of insulation for their friend with his iPhone, because we all know iPhones pretty much trump everything in life.

The training for thermography is designed for different needs. You may not need some levels of training for some applications. To just mock it all as something not needed is silly to say the least. There are concepts and methods that have never been discussed on this forum that are very needful in some aspects of Thermal Imaging. It is very needful to get at least a solid foundation in IR training.

Oh No, how do I write this reflection up?

Thinking of you today Rick…

Can anyone tell me what this thermal exception is?

Its the bus bar. Emissivity playing a role here.

Is that a door way to hell :mrgreen:

To follow up on these items and to illustrate how Elliot utterly failed in his representation of the phenomina he oberseved with his toy, let’s explore the points raised here and completely ignored by the goofball.

1). In order for an electrical component to produce heat there must be current (electrical load). Rick identified a bond between the grounded bus and the water piping as the cause of thermal anomally (I think he referred to it as overheated). The purpose of a bond is to eliminate electrical potential between systems. The amount of current passing through this conductor in the absence of a fault or lighning strike should effectively be ZERO. If Rick’s example has adequate current to produce heat at the connection, he has a much more urgent concern to be addressed than the heat being produced. Had he bothered to measure the load on the conductor, he would have immediately realized how wrong his theory was.

2). Rick somehow deduced that the thermal anomaly he observed was excessive heat at the bus bar being caused by a poor connection at the other end of the bonding conductor (i.e., at the connection to the metal water piping). A loose or high resistance connection under load, will produce heat at the point of electrical resistance, not at the far end of the conductor as Rick ridiculously concluded. If Rick’s fantastical theory were valid, you could not have appliances or HVAC systems which use electrical resistance as they would burn up the breakers at the other end. His whole premise is completely preposterous.

3). Copper and aluminum are not only excellent conductors of electricity, they are also excellent conductors of heat. Notice that the copper conductor connected to the bus at the point of his thermal anomaly shows no elevated temperature whatsoever. If there were actually elevated heat at the point he indicates, there would be a very obvious thermal pattern visible at the conductor attached at that point. The thermal pattern would show peak temperature at the point of the connection tapering down as it extends further from the source of the heat. As you can see, there is absolutely no indication of elevated heat at the conductor. Again, he has completely and utterly misidentified the cause of the thermal anomaly that he observed.

Elliott has unwittingly (his normal state appears to be witless) performed a service for the folks reading this thread by demonstrating just how wrong a conclusion one can draw and represent to clients and the public at large through incompetent use of thermographic equipment.

He provides us with a perfect case study of exactly what NOT to do.

Hint: It is not as it seems…

Any wild *** guess will likely be the correct answer.
This is just a brain teaser.

I bet Rick could get this one right, being so wrong about everything else…

Don’t want to get you too off track, but it is not the buss, but emissivity (high, not low) does have something to do with it.

Think : what is the heat source.
There are very subtle clues there.

Reflection off the plastic insulator.

Closer!

Damn I was wondering about that as it looks like brick behind so maybe outside and the colder outline is a shadow and your warm from the sun and it’s reflecting off the plastic.
This is a good one Dave

It’s absorbing not reflecting. The plastic insulator is in fact that temperature.

This is a outdoor disconnect.
A very thin amount of solar loading entering the panel (right). Open panel cover blocking the sun.

Notice all the angles are parallel. A hit that solar loading or radiant energy is the heat source.
Plastic is black, high emissivity, so high emittence. Look at the unmarked scan again. You will now see it.

Made me look twice as I walked by that panel.

Too bad a Flir One can’t can’t provide these gradients so you can figure things out.

I figured my first answer was to quick after looking at it closer.
I wasn’t sure if the sun was hitting it or if you were inside and the light was doing that and really thought it was a reflection.
That was good Dave.