Thermal imaging cameras are coming into their own within the industry for HVAC repair and maintenance. With a greater emphasis on temperature management and regulation inside houses, many homeowners today have HVAC systems installed inside their houses for proper regulation of temperature.
HVAC systems come with both cooling and heating properties that can come in handy during both summers and winters. You can utilize the heating component of the system during the winter season, while the cooling component of the system can be utilized through the summer season. Overall, your HVAC system ensures that the temperature is regulated during all hours and you don’t have to worry about feeling too cold or sweating due to the heat inside your house.
While HVAC systems happen to be convenient and reliable, they do come with exhausting levels of repair and maintenance. Maintaining the system can be troubling and hard for most homeowners. The components present inside a typical HVAC system are hard for most beginners to understand, as even experts can sometimes mess up the repairs.
Keeping in mind the complex nature of the repairs required in these systems, it is necessary that professionals keep a thermal imaging camera with them at all times. HVAC professionals can benefit from the addition of thermal imaging cameras to their toolbox, because these cameras allow them to diagnose a wide array of problems in the HVAC system.
Oftentimes, professionals try their best to diagnose and find out a problem without any luck, because they are unable to get to the root cause behind it.
Thermal Imaging Defined
A thermal imaging camera is perfect for detecting and locating infrared radiation produced from a magnetic spectrum to form an image usually referred to as the thermogram.
Thermal imaging cameras provide a non-invasive and an easy method of not just assessing but finding a solution to many problems related to your HVAC. Thermal imaging cameras assess moisture damage in your HVAC vents and make sure that all electrical problems are kept at bay.
Most HVAC systems falter because of moisture damage, which is why it is beneficial to study the moisture damage in the area around your HVAC system and make sure that the damage is prevented in the future.
Thermal imaging cameras work by studying and comprehending the temperature readings around a certain area. The temperature differentials are shown through different colors in the results on your camera. The camera shows results in the form of colors and tells the level of heat being exuded by different vents in the camera.
In this article we look at some of the ways a thermal imaging camera can improve the detection of problems in your HVAC system.
Detect Air Leakage
Air leakage can be a major cause of concern within HVAC systems. Air leakage across vents and other components of your cooling and heating system can lead to multiple problems.
Most professionals are unable to detect air leakage inside the HVAC system because of the entire length of the system and because of how difficult it can be for professionals to get a hand on the area where air is leaking.
Once you map your HVAC system, you will see multiple temperature variations showing in the camera. As we have already talked about above, the variations in temperature are shown in the form of different color codes.
The air escaping from your system can lead to a significant rise in your energy bills. Your energy consumption can have a significant impact on your bills, which is why it is necessary that you pinpoint and diagnose these problems immediately.
Professionals use thermal imaging cameras to get the exact location of air leaks and reach that spot to clear away the leak and make sure that no further energy is lost because of the leak.
Detect Electrical Problems
You can use thermal imaging cameras on your HVAC system to check electrical problems as well. Thermal imaging cameras can easily be used to check on overloaded circuits, failures in the motor bearing system, loose connections across the board and other issues with electricity distribution.
Your HVAC system works purely on electricity, which is why it is necessary that all preventive measures are carried out to make sure that electricity isn’t a nuisance when you are looking after the system.
Since electrical failures lead to an increase in thermal off load from your HVAC system, your thermal imaging camera will catch the increase in heat and record that within the camera. Once you study the electrical connections on the camera, you will be able to pinpoint where things have gone awry.
A loose connection can be a cause of concern, because the connection gets dirty over time, and the dirt adds a certain level of resistance. Due to the increase of resistance, your circuit will overheat causing the entire system to heat up.
In all cases, electrical issues can lead to a power failure or electrical fire. Professionals should make sure that the thermal imaging camera is used when the HVAC system is operating under typical or full load. You will only get the full idea of the system’s electrical output when it is working at full load.
Moisture Detection
Thermal imaging cameras can also be used to detect moisture on your HVAC vents, electrical wires and other components. The presence of undue moisture on your HVAC components can lead to electrical issues among many other problems.
If you want your HVAC system to work at full potential, it is necessary that you detect moisture before it causes any major harm. Fix it before it fails, so that there is no possible downtime or threat of fire involved in the process.
