Council better off hiring or buying a thermal camera for locals use?

[Mr Gus]

My local parish council mentioned that the big council are looking at hiring thermal cameras for the public to make home assessments...

Seems like massive Octopus type queue potential with names getting to the top of the list out of season if mismanaged,
(i'm guessing it will focus on exterior losses primarily but who knows) !?

Do you reckon it is worth buying an "ok" unit & memory card & try to recoup some of the money by a small fee for a few nights hire?
If so what sort of model & price to go for these days? ..I don't have much faith in the phone connected flir (based on the "non replaceable battery element I checked out when they initially came out, & phone calls to their supposed CS, whilst they are nowadays youtube battery swap out videos, it still seems shonky compared to many handheld regular style units, something needed to point the parish clerk at.

[wookey]

Cambridge Eco-homes have bought several IR cameras and load them out and teach people how to use them. It's been very popular so they haad to buy more. And a guy at work (big 1500-person office) has been doing the same. These things do go out of date so you might want to assume a 5-7-year lifetime if you care about not being out of pocket. I've not been keeping up with models, but there are suppliers other than FLIR. The cheap ones are very low-res. And older FLIRs don't work with Linux.

It's certainly very helpful to people to work out where the really crap bits are in their houses. A bit of training to understand the results is important.

[Mr Gus]

Yes, the inexperienced user was what I was also thinking would likely happen pay a fee- take it away & point it without proper understanding..

A council will either shrug & say "that's our bit done" tickbox, or pay silly money these days for an "online course" access ..also worrying compared to someone made available to take shots, take care of kit, extrapolate data etc..

No idea how flir PC software is for "punter" users in forms of highlighting the obvious to the less than clued up.

[Swwils]

FLIR are now massively behind infiray at this end of the market who finally nailed down 12um tech and aren't subject to export regulations.

The P2 Pro and it's sensor family are so much more cost effective and featureful than FLIR equivalent. The cheap ones are now very high res.

Rentals to public are almost useless, you really do need thermographic training to use these properly, or at least the basic idea of when survey conditions are correct and when you are looking at a geometric bridge or emissivity differences - otherwise anything you gleem could just be obviously seen without the camera.

[Stinsy]

My understanding is that there was a time when FLIR was the market leader and no one came close. Now their products are low res, unreliable, and their CS is famously shite.

I’d go for a phone-attached camera if I were you. You’re using the screen and processor you already own and you’re just buying the sensor…

[Mr Gus]

That's why I prefer the all in one units, with screen & memory card, about asself containedas can be. (just a micro sd card photo transfer)

Flir phone attached are crap, for reliability, maintenance, have to run through a phones software (data access)

My experience with chinese software is buggy,crashy, report backs & an unknown redolution time for fix, hung out to dry, mind you that is rapidly the case with other firms attitudes these days too! (anova, flir, sage) ..I would not want lots of permissions allowed for a chinese firm of unknown allegiance / co-operation with cccp dictatorship.

But its not my call on what they "rent" which is why I'm concerned that it will all go t*ts up without oversight & a competent user taking measurements for all involved (two sets of expense a council llikely haven't a clue at the office level involved, funded by us all).

Which is why I was looking for free access (preferably) courses which might mean only serious folk **willing to learn** might be set up with something to blitz village homes & appraise / summery se pictures they.have taken, a long long way off from "householder loans of tech"

I will fire off an email to the clerk..

cheers folks, it was as I thought

[Swwils]

FLIR absolutely are the market leader just not in consumer end of market. Can't blame them really the margins are better elsewhere.

Please don't tie up clerks with unanswerable queries, that's how these kinds of schemes fail.