Infrared Thermography for Quick Thermal Diagnostic of Existing Building

GANEM, CAROLINA; BAREA, GUSTAVO; BALTER, JULIETA

Los Angeles

Conferencia; 32nd International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments; 2016

Polythecnic University of Pomona - California

The aim of the paper is to assess the usefulness of infrared thermography for a quick diagnostic of the thermal performance of the existing building stock. A representative housing case study in the city of Mendoza, Argentina (32º40?SL, 68º51?WL, 750m above sea level) was selected and infrared imaging was carried out with a low cost thermograph camera (FLIR i3) at two times every day, in the late evening and in the early morning, for avoiding the possible mistakes from direct solar radiation. Emissivity was introduced in the camera according with local material studies. At the same time continuous measurement of air temperature inside and outside were taken with data-loggers with the objective of examining in detail the obtained results by the thermographic survey. Because the case studied has a high thermal inertia the survey in the evening shows better the different behaviour of construction materials. It is concluded that the thermogaphic survey resulted a valuable tool for quick thermal diagnostic in building certification if a specific protocol is followed in order to obtain accurate results.