Why do I need all this training?

To put it simply, I know very little about thermal imaging, but I have an old B-cam, and if I point it at something hot, I can tell that it’s hot, if I point it at something that has both hot and cold areas, I can see the differences. If I point it at something with a wet spot, if the water and material adjacent to it aren’t the same temperature, I can see it. I understand that a roof leak with saturated substrate is going to show up better when temperatures are changing because different materials change temperature at different rates.

This IR camera doesn’t look as complicated as my digital camera to use. I point this thing at something, the temperature shows upon the screen, yellow’s hot, blue’s not, it’s not rocket science. Color palettes? I don’t care what color it is, I just want to see the problem.

  1. If all I want to do is spot leaks and electrical problems in homes, why should I fork out thousands of dollars for training when I can see them with NO training? I don’t want to be a thermographer, I just want to do these two things. Leaks and electrical.

2.Why should I care about emissivity?

  1. All this stuff about how complicated interpretation is, show me an IR photo of a leak or an electrical problem that I need $1800-$5000 of training to interpret correctly.

If I’d paid a lot of money for training, I’d be going on and on about how important training is. If I made my living teaching thermography, I’d be going on and on about how important training is. But since I haven’t and I don’t, tell me why I should.

To know the difference between an IR photo and a thermal image,

Why should I care what they’re called, my clients won’t?

SO you can tell them the difference, make them think your smart and charge them more money. win win

John, they don’t care, the report’s already longer than they want to read.

Kenton,

If you say all you are going to do with it is building diagnostics… your knowledge of systems and how they operate and how/where they fail is a good backbone if you will.

Have you taken Nachi’s and Flir’s online/free courses? They’re not too bad for a start. Then you can decide if learning more tickles your fancy.

As an alternative, Infraspection has a great course for just what you’re talking about and Nachi members get a deal for the course. I took it and can say it’s been of great value.

Well, it’s like this, Tim…
I’m in Mexico writing courses for InterNACHI Mexico. The Interior course seems like a logical place to discuss how inspectors us thermal imagers. If the industry develops successfully, there will be people going out and spending thousands of dollars on IR cameras, taking them home and playing with them and then asking the questions I asked in post #1.

I don’t know much about IR and since now I’m mainly a writer, I’m not going to get IR certified, but I do need to answer these questions. I looked online, but couldn’t find any answers, just a lot of people with personal motives saying that training is important… but not telling why.

I thought that if I posted on the boards, maybe someone might be able to answer these questions for me. These questions don’t necessarily represent my thinking personally, but they will be asked, and they seem like basic, valid questions.

once you get certified, that will answer all of your questions why…

I’m not getting certified, its a waste of money.

EDUCATION is a waste of money.
Then answer this
Why are you writing INACHI training lessons ?

are you for real

education is a waste of money

then why are you writing nachi education courses for?

you know, what ever rocks your boat dude. But do yourself a favor and go to the ITC website, they have FREE online courses that will teach you the basics. Once you realise that you have no idea what thermography is, you might reconsider. Unitl then, don’t event mention that you have an IR camera. #-o

You have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.:roll:

OK, before you get all carried away you gotta read post #7.

and…

I notice no one has answered a single question from post #1.

Aha, a challenge in the form of sarcasm.

Kenton,

I can dig up some thermal pictures with subtle differences that led me to a leaky shower or similar… but in the end, it’s as simple as this.

IMO, using your IR cam to find a “wet spot” or a “hot spot” is of some value for sure, right outta the box. Having said that, so is a fresh graduate of HI Academy, no? I understand where you are coming from, IR education could be construed among the seemingly endless ways to clean an inspector of their hard earned money, right?

How about this…

Look at it from a consumer’s standpoint, they hire you… Kenton, as you possess an IR camera, and are likely to find things including wet spots and hots spots that the naked eye and Home Inspector without said Thermal Imager won’t.

Ok, this is a stretch, but it’s my expectation that an inspector using a tool should be trained to use said tool, no? I realize that you put it in a nutshell and said differences in temperature can affect results? What else would influence that to a point where you should indicate in your report that while you scanned a surface, little could be discerned?

If you didn’t… would you be amiss? I’d be under the impression that a customer’s expectations are raised when an inspector possess’s this technology, and rightly so.

Anything to follow up on here?

IR.jpg

There we go!

Look guys, this isn’t really how I feel about thermography certification, but some people here will feel that way and I need to be able to answer their questions. My responses are how they will respond.
I’m kinda surprised it took 14 posts to get an answer, thank you Tim!

OK, my untrained eye tells me that that’s a photo of thermal bridging of the framing and some subsidence of insulation in the wall.
How’d I do?

And equipment… with powerful equipment, finding a wet spot that was only about 15% is made easy. To me, the other stuff was like looking at a wall behind a dirty fish tank.

If you need some images Kenton, just email me… no problem.

In the name of professionalism, yes, it’s good to walk onto a job and be able to explain some of the finer point of what you’re doing to the client if they ask, and using proper terms, to be able to confidently explain to a client, a seller, an agent or an attorney why you’re qualified to make a certain recommendation that is probably going to cost someone some money. If you’re not qualified, that someone may be you.

In the name of professionalism, yes, it’s good to walk onto a job and be able to explain some of the finer point of what you’re doing to the client if they ask, and using proper terms, to be able to confidently explain to a client, a seller, an agent or an attorney why you’re qualified to make a certain recommendation that is probably going to cost someone some money. If you’re not qualified, that someone may be you.

I thought I’d better explain before someone really came unglued at me. :mrgreen::mrgreen:

So… thermal bridging/ insulation subsidence? Was I right? I’m going to take no answer as a yes.

Also, the wet spot on the ceiling? Interpretation? Even a blind inspector could see that! :twisted:

Actually Tim, if you do have some tricky images, I’d like to be able to give an example showing how an untrained eye could miss problems.
This is just a short section about IR cameras, not meant to really explain much, but you want to get people thinking in the right frame of mind from the beginning. Be qualified, be professional.