What is an Infrared Heat Gun

An infrared heat gun will allow you to find where your home is gaining heat in the summer or losing it in the winter. There are several tools that can assist you with this issue, like a kill A watt monitor or an infrared camera, but none of this are as cheap as an infrared heat gun. You can find an infrared camera for under $70 at your local office supply store. Try to buy an infrared heat gun that has a set reference button. I will expand more why this feature is so important further down where I explain how to find a thermal leak.

To find out where heat is leaking or where you house is gaining heat just walk around your home and shoot with the infrared heat gun anywhere that you feel like there is a change of temperature and the gun will give you a detailed description of where the heat is escaping to the outdoors or to the inside of your home. After you have read the information the gun has given you, now you can determine where you home doesn’t have the proper insulation.

To have an accurate reading with an infrared heat gun it’s recommended to point the gun 12 feet away from the target, so you can get a temperature reading of 1 square foot area and this way the reading of the gun will be better if you shot it farther or closer away.

To be able to find a thermal leak on your home there are a few simple steps you need to take before your start.  First, close all windows and doors and turn on the AC or heater like you normally would. Second, draw an illustration of your home from the outside emphasizing any key parts like windows and doors. Third, start with one wall and take a few readings of that side of the house to get an average temperature of that side of the house. Remember to take these readings with the infrared heat gun early in the morning or in the evening because you want to avoid taking readings at a wall that is being hit directly by the sun.

Once you have established the average temperature on that wall, point and shoot the infrared heat gun to an area that will give you that reading and press the set reference button on your gun. After that, the gun will show you a green light every time you shoot at an area that has a similar temperature to the average and a hot light if the temperature is not close to the average. After you get a red light shoot closer to the area so you can pin point the thermal leak.

After you have detected a thermal leak you need to find out if there is no insulation on that part of the wall or maybe there is rodent activity inside the wall. Many times you will find leaks on doors and windows that are poorly sealed. After you have done a few reading on all sides of your home with your infrared heat gun you will have a better understanding of where and why you have a thermal leak on a specific area of your house.