More fun with a thermal camera; what to conclude?

[Garald]

First snow day in Paris. Time to have fun with a thermal camera!

Here are the main things I've observed. Perhaps you can make your own observations?

 

a) (You can't see it in these pictures - I can post others.) My attempt at sealing air gaps seems to have been a success - some places where air used to come in are only slightly cooler than the rest, and others aren't at all. But then perhaps air gaps are not obvious on a thermal camera.

 

b) In the main floor and the attic, the coldest spots are (in rough descending order of importance, i.e., ascending order of temperature)

1. Corners and sides of windows, especially skylights. Not sure I can do, other than the obvious thing - paste some cork (1cm might do); my girlfriend might kill me, but the worst offender is actually the old skylight left by the previous owners in her office. I can promise to use only the nicest cork there...

 

2. Joints and crevices. Is this normal? Is this inevitable?

3. The very low walls on the side of the attic, when not covered in books or bookcases with backs. This is puzzling, though I noticed it already next time - I've actually drilled into one of those walls and used some sort of snake camera to make sure that the contractor did a proper insulation job. Is this just an artifact of air not circulating much around there? (In the case of bookcases without backs, should I consider... cork? Bit of a waste of cork if there isn't a real problem - and there's only so much 1cm or 2cm worth of cork can do; it can eliminate a thermal bridge, but it adds only about 0.5 to existing R.)

 

4. The metal frame on the northeast attic side wall is noticeable - *very* noticeable on the side of the small staircase. Even if I were to decide, in the end, not to insulate the north wall from the outside, I should insulate this small wall properly from the outside (and then possibly make the small staircase less narrow; about 5cm of it - or a bit more - is hidden by the insulation). I'll have to contact the owner of the mystery kitchen somehow.

 

c) The north wall (I've been asking for quotes for insulating it from the outside; I'm waiting for a second reasonable quote - one from a place that responds quickly) actually does not seem too bad, at least on the first floor. It's in the ground floor that one can see trouble, particularly under the main staircase.

 

 

What are those black lines? Hidden beams? Poorly done joints? I had a mold problem on the vertical one a few months ago, as you may remember.

 

d) The cork door (3cm of cork on an outside metal door - people here may remember that)  is pretty much a success, though, as predicted, it is not quite as warm as the middle of a modern double-glazed window. You can actually see R calculations being validated: centre of a window, 3cm-thick cork, spots of 2cm-thick cork.

The handle and hinges are clearly cold (ca. 10C) but they are not even close to the outside door temperature (0C or less), meaning their R is not near-zero. So, given their small area, I could just leave them alone.

I should add some more weatherstripping to be safe. Notice the black lines.

 

e) The main door (which opens onto an unheated corridor) is less cold than I thought. I was planning to cover it in two 1cm-thick layers of cork (in fact the cork arrived today is being flattened in the library right now) but I should probably reconsider and use only one layer. There are other possible uses for cork.

 

f) If the single-pane windows outside the stained-glass windows help with insulation at all, it's because they trap air (but then the air layer is too thick to help much). They seem to have next to no R. If I insulate the north wall (and perhaps even if I don't), I should have them redone with double-glazing (by the guys who did the living-room outer windows, say). I don't have manufacturers' data on them at all.

.

 

A single-pane window outside, and the stained glass in front of it (both open):

 

 

 

Oh, and I think my radiators are working correctly now? I see no cold parts.

[Garald]

BTW, here is a good demonstration of how terrible single-glazing (even thick, good-quality single-glazing) is at heat insulation. What you see at 0.9C or 1.9C is not the outside air (which was at about 0C or perhaps -1C when I took the picture) but the thick single-glazed outside pane in my library windows. Conclusion: if I redo the windowpanes outside the stained glass, I should redo them in double-glazing (with less obtrusive frames than now). In the meantime - at least they trap air.

 

 

Edited November 22 by Garald

[SteamyTea]

No images are showing, so no comment.

[Andehh]

Images show for me, albeit it I don't know enough to comment!

[Garald]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

No images are showing, so no comment.

@SteamyTeaStrange - can you see the following?

 

 

 

 

[Andehh]

I can still see them for what it's worth!

[FuerteStu]

All I know is, if you hear a clicking sound and see a triangle of laser pointer dots... Running won't do you any good.