The man interested in heat escaping from Cumbria's walls
13th October 2009
In the dead of night, as most of us lie sleeping, a silver car is passing through the streets of Cumbrian towns, photographing our houses.
But this is not some Big Brother-style invasion of privacy or infringement of civil liberties. It is part of a scheme to protect the environment – and which could save each of us hundreds of pounds every year.
It has been operating around many different parts of the country but arrived in Cumbria last week and will remain in the Allerdale district throughout the next four months or so.
The scheme is called “Heatseekers” and is a joint venture between Allerdale Council and energy efficiency company the Energy Saving Partnership (ESP).
But the operator are not snooping on us, even if they are photographing our homes.
The device they are using records heat rather than light, and is called a thermal imaging camera.
Humans, animals and buildings all give off heat, and a thermal imaging camera measures that heat and shows its different levels in all the different colours of the spectrum – creating pictures called thermograms.
So in a thermogram the warmest areas appear as red, with the next warmest orange, then yellow and down to the coolest areas in shades of green and blue.
Properties which appear in the pictures with large red or orange areas are those which are losing most heat and could most benefit from insulation – cutting their carbon output and cutting energy bills at the same time.
The Heatseekers vehicle is currently touring the streets of Workington, Keswick, Cockermouth, Wigton and Maryport during the hours of darkness, and the thermal imaging camera onboard is taking pictures of around 1,000 properties each hour.
Once the thermograms have been examined, energy advisors will be visiting homes, showing householders where heat is escaping, explaining how to improve insulation and carrying out free surveys.
Thermal imaging is nothing new and has been used for other purposes for years. Firefighters use it to “see” through smoke, enabling them to find people caught in burning buildings or trace the source of a fire, usually its hottest point.
Maintenance technicians also use it to examine power lines and trace parts that are overheating – often an early sign of a potential fault.
Soldiers and the police use it in operations at night and it can be used in medicine, where thermal images of the human body can reveal or diagnose illnesses.
But now that global warming is threatening our future – and the only way to tackle it is to cut back drastically on our carbon output – it has found a new use: helping to protect the planet. Indeed ESP’s director Keith Hewitson describes it as “a front-line weapon in the battle against climate change”.
He said: “The technology has already helped improve energy efficiency in thousands of homes across the country. It really is playing an integral role in the plans to make UK homes more efficient.”
The advisors will be encouraging householders to think about the environmental and financial savings that come with insulation.
Insulated cavity walls can cut carbon outputs by 800 kg per year, while an insulated loft can cut it by more than one tonne.
By reducing the red patches on the thermograms of our properties we’ll be helping keep our bank accounts out of the red as well, as home insulation is another of those many environmental measures which simultaneously improves the health of the planet and the health of our finances.
Insulation costs money to install, but it quickly pays for itself through the reductions in our energy bills.
Cavity wall insulation starts at about £149, and loft insulation can cost £189 or more. But you can save around £160 per year by insulating cavity walls, and up to £205 per year by insulating the loft – so you’ll soon get your money back.
Besides, there are grants available that may cover all or part of the cost of installing insulation, through a Government-funded organisation called Warmfront. Details are available from the website at www.warmfront.co.uk or by phoning the free helpline on 0800 416 2805.
Though still a new scheme, Chris Cook, account manager with ESP, said Heatseekers was quickly growing in popularity. Councils in south Wales, the west Midlands, Cornwall and Greater Manchester were already participating.
“Local authorities up and down the country have signed up, or are signing up,” he said. “It is spreading its tentacles quite widely.”
Of course not everyone will feel comfortable about their homes being photographed at night – even by a thermal imaging camera – but Mr Cook is keen to reassure them.
“The thermal imaging cameras can’t see shapes. It can’t see through windows because they act as a mirror and appear blank, and it can’t see through brickwork either.
“All we are interested is heat escaping from walls or roofs.”