Better yet… perhaps Mr. McKenna can please explain which one or portion of the above standards don’t apply to IR use in a home inspection and which part of the InterNACHI SoP applies to home inspectors utilizing infrared technology in one of the most complicated applications known to the field of IR.
Those willing to show us the greater way and help us see the all the defects that they are finding and the rest of us do not… please show us your superior methods. Now is your chance to show us the light.
Teach us. Please do not hesitate to explain things for us all. Let us be your students. Don’t back out now.
I have not heard any solutions yet, but only the old “us against them”. Please be specific.
Several IR schools have created “standards of practice” and claim theirs is the better way. Please show us.
Anyone?
Mr. McKenna, (as there are 2 Johns posting),
I will state that I have not taken your class so I will ask you for a little class info first if you don’t mind.
- Do you teach your students to image the electrical panels?
If yes, are they to take temperatures of items?
If no, are they to determine a problem just by thermal pattern? - Do you teach them to take amperage reading on a circuit if it looks different?
- At what angle to the panel are the images to be taken?
I will start with these questions and depending on your response we can proceed
TIA
William and John (Bowman) have hit the nail on the head. 
I will wait to see Mr. Mckenna’s responses to William and Jeff’s questions…for now.
So what are the standards of practice that you teach your students to use IR in one of the most complicated applications known to infrared?
“Enlighten us” as you like to say. 
We’re asking you to teach us why the previously stated standards don’t apply to a home inspection… Sell us on your course and instruction with quality information. Do you have any case studies we all could learn from that perhaps might help you promote your course?
I’m being serious here and not facetious in all these questions.
I see no one wants to step up and offer solutions, but just attack and engage in name calling.
I am waiting. Don’t avoid the chance to SHOW us the much needed wisdom you have. If you
claim there is a better way, then explain to us what we are all missing that you can find with
your superior methods of IR.
To start with, I have no intention of “teaching” you anything John M. You will just turn around and sell it to someone else.
John, this is not about how standards work in the IR/HI fields. It’s about how you can take what you know about HI and what you learned in one IR Building Science course and even consider that your qualified to “certify” anyone.
As you have been told time and time again, none of the IR Levels of training “certify” anyone in the IR field. So you are right! Level I does not certify anyone. Neither does Level III. Level Inachi certainly can not “certify” anyone either.
Your claims of “hundreds” of successful Inachi thermographers is just another ploy to market your cash cow. I tried to send work to some of your students in TN while I’m on vacation and I couldn’t get a single one to reply. Guess they don’t do it any more or weren’t up to the task at hand…(two were in the class or yours I attended in Brentwood).
I know that you will never give away any free advise on this board about TI, not because your tight with information you could otherwise “sell” but because you’ll get torn apart by some Level I…
You say that these guys can’t comment on your course because they didn’t take it. Your right, they only know the marketing claims you make, nothing more. You have to pay your $500 to find out.
You can’t even answer questions directed to you, never mind chipping in and helping someone out.
As for a Level I not being able to do a building scan without being a home inspector, it is more important to know IR and do it on a building than to be a home inspector trying to do IR. The theory of thermography never changes regardless of the scanned subject, but Home Inspection Standards does not make you a thermographer. Your twisting things around again concerning the fact that you should not scan an object you know nothing about.
A Home Inspector should never inspect a house with a tool they are not proficient with. A HI is much more likely to get in trouble not knowing IR than a Thermographer that is not a proficient Home Inspector. There is nothing in Home Inspection related to thermal imaging. What makes you think it is more important to know home inspection over thermal imaging?
A thermal anomaly in a wall can be from conduction, convection or radiation. Tell us how you can tell what the anomaly is with a thermal camera.
Keep in mind that a thermal camera is not a thermometer or a moisture meter.
I made an attempt to give you the chance to engage in a civil back and forth but you chose not to answer my questions. I did not attack nor engage in name calling as you stated in your response.
Still waiting for someone to tell us the proper way to do things with IR so we can find all these IR issues that all of us are missing without your methods.
It seems when it comes time to produce the mysterious advice of how to do it right, that all of a sudden no one is willing to produce an answer… yet they will point the finger in order to avoid offering the advise they claim to know.
Still waiting.
John, why can’t you just answer Jeff’s questions in post #43. I think they were straight forward questions and he wasn’t attacking you… Nor am I.
How does you course approach electrical panels?
I’ll try to explain, here is your mystery advice you’ve been waiting for: There are specific Standards that pertain to infrared inspections of buildings and building components. ASTM and Infraspection Institute have established Standards which outline how to perform infrared inspections of building components and systems. We also have Standards that outline how we perform home inspections (SOP). What Standards do you recommend that your students follow when performing infrared inspections of homes?
Morning Peter!
Seeing as nothing of educational value is forthcoming from the IR Guru…
I’m on my way up Mt. Washington.
34F, 61 MPH breeze!
Will be able to see Marcel on a day like today!
You guys have a great day…
John, I hope you get to learn some of the worthy education your requesting (and need).
It appears that MR. McKenna is now out on a limb with it cut 1/2 way through. Just a few more saw strokes is all we need, sir!!!
I have seen these debates before. When I ask for people to please provide the answer that they claim our IR class is missing they avoid it like the plague. It is so easy to just attack.
Then when they finally cough it up and tell us what they think we should be doing… lo and behold we already cover that very topic in our IR class. This is what they fear.
This is why people like to mock and demand answers, but will avoid explaining the answers themselves.
Still waiting. Please teach us what we have been missing during all these home inspections and your methods that will cause all of us to find all these defects that you claim we cannot see.
Now is the chance for those who claim to be so advanced to show us the light, but instead this is where they always grow silent and back out the door as they mockingly hide from the issue at hand.
Still waiting.
BTW… David Anderson
You once asked me if you could teach my class. You were very friendly up to that point. Then after I said “NO”, you began attacking the very IR class that you were asking me to teach. I think it is easy to see what happened after I offended you.
John, the question was presented to you first. Why don’t you answer it? Your lack of an answer only shows your incompetence…
What everyone else has responded with is the line of questioning that everyone should be asking about your course and what exactly it is that your are teaching them before taking it.
Happy to see others chime in and thank you for putting things so eloquently David, couldn’t have said it better myself. 65 mph winds? Talk about convection lol!
Still waiting.
John, the question has been presented to you, not the other way around. The people attacking the class do not have to defend themselves when they are asking a legitimate question of your course.
We are not the ones teaching a skill to others that you claim to know so well, if another person was teaching a course I would put there feet to the fire just as much and in all actuallity when I have looked at any training to take, HI or infrared I do just that. People especially when looking at IR training need to ask themselves what is it exactly that you are teaching but in addition what am I failing to learn as a result of x course.
If a potential person interested in your course were to ask the same thing, how would you respond? Would you just say, oh we don’t teach standards or let people know that there are standards available that can be utilized, why don’t you tell me why I should. Seriously?
BTW…it is too bad that David wasn’t part of the class you teach, I bet it would be substantially better today because of it.
Still spinning.
Who do you fellas think you are saving by attacking a NACHI approved course provider?
I’ve taken John’s course and found it adequate for my needs.
Most of the critics here offer advanced IRT services.
Maybe they simply fear anyone starting down the road of IRT.
This is a NACHI approved course.
If you have something better to offer please do so and stop your whining.
See Michael’s post above.
Still waiting.
I told you… this is where it always ends. No one will explain to us what we need to be doing because it will make them look foolish when it is discovered that we already cover that topic in our IR class.