Tracing Heat Losses

[bunns]

Hi, All
I'm a Newbe here. I live in an older two story wood frame 1900 sq. ft. dwelling. It has plaster walls with 9 ft. ceilings, full basement and small low ceiling attic. Oil hot water with mixed cast iron baseboard and radiators.... Other than windows. Can anyone please tell me how to trace heat losses?... Thanks Before hand.
Sincerely, John

...Get Yours Hands In It

[LazyPup]

BAsically you begin by locating any opening that will allow air movement from inside to outside or vice versa.

You can use a candle flame and carefully move it around windows and doorframes to find areas of drafts. The flame will flicker when in the presence of a draft.

There is one relatively simple, very high tech method of locating heat losses, although it can be difficult to find the material to do it.

If you can locate a professional photography store you can get a roll of 35mm infra-red film. (You will probably need to special order it). On a cool day with the heat running in the house take exterior pictures of your house using the infra-red film. Pay particular attention to areas with windows, doors or other openings.

After you take the pictures and have them processed you will note that the pictures appear a bit out of focus due to a focal shift in the infra-red portion of the spectrum. (Some high quality 35mm lenses actually have an infra-red focus index marked on the lense.)

The fininshed pictures will appear in shades of blues, greens, yellows and reds. The brighter red the image the greater the heat loss. Yellows represent minor heat losses and blues or greens are minimal heat loss.

There are some very high tech laser thermometers on the market that have a laser pointer beam and a digital readout. They are often used by professional companies that specialize in identifying heat losses, although they would be considered way to pricy for a typical DIY project.