Useful but too addictive! Checking for cold spots with the Topdon TC002C thermal imaging camera

[@MrEV]

You can get it using this link: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266923811265?mkevt=1&mkcid=2&mkrid=7111648024041847&keyword=UK_youtube_31TC002C Alternatively, use my Amazon referral links (and if you see a money off voucher, make sure you select it!) UK: amzn.to/48pav7X USA: amzn.to/3Yj37X2 Europe: amzn.to/3NLYpw8

[@stephgray]

Was actually really interested to get one of these - tried the code on the eBay link and it says it doesn't work. Can I check it's definitely CRISP10? (Tried today, 1 Nov)

[@MrEV]

@@stephgray Sorry for only just seeing this. That's definitely the code Topdon gave me but I'll check with them to see if it's working properly. I'll get back to you asap.

[@MrEV]

@@stephgray I just confirmed with Topdon and it's definitely the correct code. In fact, it also says the voucher code on the eBay page. Weird that it doesn't work for you. ☹

[@stephgray]

@@MrEV thanks for checking! Will try again

[@JohnRoss1]

You have your own swamp! ❤ You needed the camera for your home inspection ❤

[@kathrynmoll86]

Your new home is charming. Love the pond and conservatory! I think, with a little rub and shine, it will become a gem!

[@MrEV]

Thank you! Lovely to have some positivity on the comments!

[@AndyC2_]

Pond ? …….. Swamp 😂

[@scottwills4698]

I have the same camera. Found lots of leaks, have plugged them all now (well the cheap / free ones) and it’s made a massive difference.

[@MrEV]

Great to hear!

[@johnnodge4327]

I have a thermal imaging camera for work, but it's handy to use to measure heat losses from home too. They're also ideal for setting up the flow and return temperatures of central heating, detecting faulty electrical equipment, and for searching out rodent nests in winter.

[@MrEV]

What an excellent idea about rodent nests! I think we have mice in the attic actually (just another thing to sort!) so that could come in really useful.

[@Jaw0lf]

A new gadget like this is always fun and family always moan when you keep measuring temperatures on everything! Nice to see other updated ones other than FLiR

[@martinswitzer6534]

Yeah, "how hot is my wife?" apparently gets very old, very quickly 😀

[@nickline6888]

That'll be a great house when it's all done, huge potential.

[@MrEV]

Thank you!

[@derekbilton-heenan854]

Then time to sell up😅

[@waynecartwright-js8tw]

Check for thermal bridges in the loft , we had walls going through the insulation and taking heat up. insulate round them for the win.

[@MrEV]

That's really useful info. Thank you!

[@remotaurog]

That's a beautiful house and the pond is really cool,wish you all the best with it.

[@MrEV]

Lovely of you to say. Thank you!

[@JimmySelgenNielsen]

Here in Denmark we keep our conservatory at 5C during winter. With all that glass it’s pretty hard to keep temperature controlled. In spring/autumn we use it on sunny days, as well as an extra heat source. And of course in summer you can boil to death out there. I assume the southern Britain has a much fairer climate, so maybe it makes more sense to keep it heated during winter.

[@scara1701]

Congratulations on the new home!

[@MrEV]

Thanks very much!

[@lucasfunkt]

I hope you do some follow up videos on how you address the heat loss issues in the house. I've just bought one too because I know our house is full of heat loss issues that need sorting. I think finding the solutions is going to be the hardest part for me though so would be good to see ways of going about it.

[@MrEV]

That's the plan!

[@lucasfunkt]

@@MrEV Great, looking forward to it. Just received my Topdon this morning, it's very good just having some trouble with it drastically changing temperatures ranges between environments.

[@MrEV]

@@lucasfunkt There's that note about emissivity on first starting the app so I wonder whether that might have something to do with it? Perhaps calibrate by pointing it at a piece of paper and see if that improve things. (If that's how it works!)

[@drmexicoii]

Congratulations on the new home. Now more pond videos please! Need regular pond life updates!

[@MrEV]

Will do!

[@adrianupnorth]

Good point about electrical use. Visual thermal damage and touch are the normal inspection techniques. Im tempted 🤔

[@ChrisJakins]

This next week if it gets as cold as predicted, try going outside and record the heat escaping from the house. This would help find the problem areas and give you a good baseline for later comparison.

[@MrEV]

Will do. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever looked forward to a cold spell, purely to geek out with the thermal camera!

[@TIMSANDYSURF]

Once you learn the ways of the log burner you will love it. Honestly it takes awhile. 1/ Only use well seasoned wood. If possible get ready to burn and then season it for another 12 months (forward planning. 2/ use the ‘top down’ lighting method. You fully load the stove with the logs on the bottom and the kindling at the top. This way you don’t have to open the stove until it is red hot at the end of the first burn. This means no ‘Smoke spill’. A hot stove overcomes the cold air outside which causes a plug of cold air in the flu in an cold stove. 3/ never open the stove until it is just a bed of red hot embers to avoid Smoke spill. Good luck.

[@MrEV]

Thank you! We had a brilliant chimney sweep explain a lot of that to us as well. (He was such an interesting character, I wish I'd filmed him!)

[@stephenperrault895]

Thanks for the review. I’m sorely tempted to get one, despite the cost. Note that the Amazon page has pictures that show it being used in landscape mode. Maybe that’s covered in the nonexistent manual.

[@MrEV]

Interesting. Well spotted! Non-existent manuals is a real bugbear of mine!

[@jonwetherell5214]

It is a useful tool that can pay for itself in winter heating savings.

[@robinbennett5994]

I can recommend Magneglaze for those single glazed windows. Magnetic secondary glazing that comes cut to size. Mine took a few weeks to arrive though. I guess they're busy at this time of year.

[@MrEV]

Apparently they're all double glazed (I know it doesn't look like it!) but thank you for your suggestion. I've never heard of that!

[@smallmj2886]

Do another scan on a very cold winter day. Things really show up when there is 30 or 40 degree temperature difference between inside and outside.

[@MrEV]

I will! It's been quite mild recently. It's about the only time I've wanted a cold day. Normally I just moan about dropping temperatures!

[@MalBuch-vk1jw]

​@@MrEV If you could drop another video with your findings at -10°C or so, that would be cool to see. I always love watching IR-content of real-world things in a catchy colormap...

[@trickshotish]

Love the pond bloody amazing

[@MrEV]

Thank you!

[@zanfr123]

had the same for a while (android version) and yes it is very fun and useful. I used it to check electrics/electronics, my AC, house insulation etc. my own temperature, although I don't recommend this one for health use. not precise enough and measuring body temperature is always tricky in IR

[@KodessR]

@10:51 the warm thing is probably a chrome bolt? When something is refelective the thermal camera won't read the temperature right often making it a hot spot.

[@MrEV]

Interesting. Thank you!

[@michaelgoode9555]

Looks interesting. The TC001 version is for android, TC002 for apple.

[@edwyncorteen1527]

Good luck with the new House, I can guarantee that all the exterior wood will be rotten, Time to replace all the doors and windows!

[@MrEV]

Thank you, I think! 😀

[@saqmaster]

3C delta in your cold spots - is that really a big issue? Sod living at 16-17C ambient! No wonder you wear jumpers lol.

[@MrEV]

It’s fairly mild at the moment. If I do it again in the depths of winter I imagine it’ll be far worse.

[@saqmaster]

@@MrEV Yes it will be interested to see the delta in the colder months. Right now it looks like your dT is < 20%.

[@mdshovel]

All the external wood will be softwood with a short lifespan - especially those window bays, the conservatory will create condensation. So ventilation and insulation are a must. Cut that overgrowth back from the house and Go around the outside at night with your heating on.

[@MrEV]

Yes, we're going to get a vent soon and film the process. We had them in two of our previous houses but this one needs it far more! We're certainly going to have to sort those windows and conservatory but the quotes are scary!

[@mdshovel]

@@MrEV I wonder if the walls have cavity insulation. Looks like you have a lot of "Cold Bridges"

[@mfurmyr]

Looking at the window and one layer window this must be a cold house in the winter. I have a 60 square meter new flat in Norway with 3 layer windows an one 1600 W electric panel oven heats the flat. Minus 30 C is not unusual here.

[@MrEV]

It doesn't look it, but most of the windows are double-glazed. The frames are bad though. We will try and get it all triple-glazed, although we don't have to worry about -30°C here. Yet! Who knows what'll happen in the future! 😬

[@blobstrom]

I really must point my thermal camera at my house one day.. I think it's because I'm scared of what I might find hence the delay.. Rob

[@MrEV]

Don’t do it! 😀

[@Julesybabes70]

Great video about something we should all have in order to keep our homes well insulated. Btw I knew the wooden bay windows would be a cause of heat loss. They are normally terribly insulated.

[@wintersun398]

do you have a kitchen extractor fan that is vented outside? if yes, when it drops to 5c outside, turn on the fan to max. then go around the house with the camera and you’ll see the cold start to spill in via all the cracks/gaps.

[@MrEV]

Really?! That's an amazing tip. I've never heard of that!

[@barneyplumber7673]

I might be wrong as hard to see on small pic but looked as if conservatory was below damp proof course from video

[@MrEV]

Yes, that damp area is, I think, the top of the render that goes around the house covering the DPC. So you're right - the conservatory does sit slightly below it.

[@danwiddon3854]

Hilarious that you say F and daughter won’t realise you added house tour to unboxing thermal camera review.😂

[@MrEV]

They have no idea! Hopefully.

[@jeffmtitanium1]

They will now😂​@@MrEV

[@markyates5744]

I put a thermal camera to my friends front door like yours. It was 7C when it was zero outside. And 3c on the glass bits. The frame will be no better. A GPR door has a celotex core.

[@andyyoung814]

Ever mind the sensor thing. What does Flaviana think of the new house? X

[@MrEV]

We'll try to do a Live Stream soon to answer that question!

[@matthewmason8982]

That predator moment 😂

[@LeeOades]

I properly laughed too! 😂

[@JohnnyMotel99]

Cavity wall insulation? Full loft fill? Check all windows for drafts. Loft hatch insulated and sealed? Shame about the all electric heating, but I guess with a big solar PV instal and batteries it could be cheap to run.

[@MrEV]

Yes, I think we're going to have to go for a lot of solar and a battery. I'm not sure about cavity wall insulation, but the loft hatch isn't insulated and sealed and I'm sure the windows will be draughty once the cold wind starts blowing!

[@JohnnyMotel99]

@ You have a cavity for sure, the brickwork shows that. Modern resin beads work well for brick cavity and don’t cause damp.

[@MrEV]

@@JohnnyMotel99 Fascinating! Thank you.

[@neilhollow1937]

Very interesting video Andrew. Back in 2005 I had guy with a infrared camera do a survey on the house. I sat on the results until last year since I didn't know what to do about the issues. However we had an EPC for getting a HP grant and this made recommendations on raising the rating. We've replaced the double glazing units and I've been insulating like mad in all sorts of unusual places. Octopus were lending a camera out to their customers but stopped doing it unfortunately. In general terms just make sure what you do is breathable and there's no vapour barriers.

[@MrEV]

Have you had another EPC since you've made all those changes? We have quite the shopping list of things we need to sort here. Our EPC is E so the only way is up!

[@richardeskins]

We have an EPC A rating but can’t get an ASHP without ripping out the microbore downstairs! 🤷‍♂️

[@twelvebears1971]

I suspect we don’t want to ask what the EPC rating is. Fortunately your car is cheap to run, you’ll need the cash to keep warm. Also excellent time of year to move into an older house. I wish you luck Sir. 👍

[@MrEV]

It's got a rating of E, with a potential of B. A lot of work to do! We'd have moved much sooner but the whole process took about 9 months in the end. Nightmare!

[@twelvebears1971]

@ at least you’ll be able to make it your own and know how stuff has been done. 👍

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

Another move! Your last place had solar didn't it? Looks great though so good luck and happy renovations. 😊

[@MrEV]

Thank you! Yes, we had a small array (2kW) before but this time we'll be going BIG. If we can afford it!

[@andyl6416]

Are you sure your pond is only 9 metres long. It looks way bigger!!! Great video as usual

[@MrEV]

You're right - it is way bigger! I was told it was 9 metres but it's probably twice that (if not more).

[@engineer1692]

​@@MrEVI hope your house isn't at risk of flooding in heavy rain. Ensure that there is good drainage away from the house and the pond has somewhere to overflow to.

[@MrEV]

@@engineer1692 Yes, the pond has an overflow direct into the drain in the road. Although the drain is blocked so that's something else we have to deal with!

[@KodessR]

Glass is the same, the camera doesn't read the temperature of the glass or the temperature, it reads the outside temperature. Place piece of opaque tape (eg masking tape) on the window or shiny bits to get a correct reading.

[@markyates5744]

Given heatpumps have £7500 gov discount I'm surprised you say it would be so expensive. Hope you'll get a sponsor to do it . what was the house EPC E or F?

[@MrEV]

It's got an EPC of E. We've been quoted a rough figure of £12,200 for a heat pump from one company (after the BUS grant). We'll explore it again in the future, but I think we'll live with the electric radiators for a while to see how it goes. It'll be good to compare costs if/when we do get a heat pump.

[@anthonyschofield7807]

Very interesting and thanks for the video,did you not want to check the exterior of your new house at night to see where heat is escaping?

[@MrEV]

That would have made sense! I may do a follow-up when it gets colder.

[@LeeOades]

Is it possible to see where radiator pipes run behind a wall? I'm guessing not.

[@MrEV]

Good question. Perhaps behind plasterboard, but the heat may disperse too much to get a solid reading.

[@LeeOades]

@MrEV Yeah, I would have thought so. Still, even if you can detect a warm line running up the wall it'll stop me drilling into it!

[@FFVoyager]

What a pond! Is there such a thing as a water source heat pump?

[@MrEV]

There is! You really need the water to be flowing though. I may try to cover that in a future episode.

[@whatnow9653]

​@@MrEVI would have thought that the water in the pond would be great at extracting heat from the ground below it. Might be worth running a temperature sensor to the bottom of the pond over the winter.

[@engineer1692]

​@@MrEVyou don't need following water, many people have ponds as heat sinks for their heat pump.

[@jeffreycooper8408]

Why is it i can see a forthcoming video showing F's reaction to you not keeping the garden tidy ?

[@MrEV]

She moaned at me for spending *too much time* trying to keep it tidy the other day as I had other jobs to do. 😀

[@TimJW]

Ground source heat pump in the pond 🤔

[@MrEV]

I've had a couple of people suggest it and I'd love to, but the cost of a heat pump install is far too much to think about just yet. Also, I think we need to have a flow of water for water source heat pumps to be efficient.

[@simonpritchard472]

@@MrEV Ground Source HP might freeze the pond in winter, then you could go ice skating!

[@JoosupUK]

Duck pond? Sold!

[@markyates5744]

Id recommend solar on the roof. A biggg battery. Like 25kwh and a air to water heatpump. Fill the battery on off-peak in winter. 5 hours at 5kw at 7p. Run the house on the battery. 5x5kwh pylontech batteries. 5kwh pylontechs are only about £1000 each

[@MrEV]

The roof is big so we can put loads of panels up there. And we will get a battery I think... but we'll discuss all of that in a future video! It certainly makes sense.

[@maverlk7]

Interesting and useful device! I am curious as to why you moved house as you seemed to have your previous house well set up in terms of efficiency and EV charging. If you intend to add a heat pump system, insulation, better windows and EV charger, this would surely be a huge additional expense? Or have you decided against heat pump/ EV charger etc installation?

[@MrEV]

We would have stayed at the previous house but we've moved for our daughter to go to a different school. We have a bit of money after the sale to plough into this one but yes, it's not going to be cheap! We're unlikely to do a heat pump any time soon. It'd be far too expensive (we have electric radiators here, so no boiler to replace) but we'll take our time and see how it is over winter. Solar and a battery is probably going to be the most cost effective thing. We'll live with the granny charger for a bit but will certainly get a charger at some point soon.

[@Biggest-dh1vr]

If you have no wet radiators, A2A (air conditioning) is likely to be cheap to install and offer good efficiency (see @katandtimsgreenwalk)?

[@judebrown4103]

​@@MrEVHi Andrew congratulations on the move, house and garden looks beautiful. How is your water heated as you're on electric radiators? We're considering infrared ceiling panels as heating, research all done on that, should be fine... but I'm still looking into how to heat the water for downstairs sink, and upstairs the shower and hand sink in the bathroom. Promise I'm not stalking you from Canterbury but I have relatives in East Sussex, so never know, might still bump into you sometime....don't fret, I rarely get out so it's even less likely than it was when you were just down the road 😂 I'm sure you'll all settle in comfortably and I hope the little one gets used to her new school quickly too, bless her.

[@MrEV]

@@judebrown4103 Thank you! We have oil-filled electric radiators. We'd love a heat pump but the cost is astronomical! I'm using my infrared panel in the conservatory right now. Positioning is everything! Ceiling-mounted should be fine. Hope to see you one of these days!

[@judebrown4103]

@@MrEV 😀you didn't say how your water is heated for the hot taps? I use an oil filled radiator to help dry washing in the between seasons in our spare room, the thermostat and setting it not too high keeps the cost under control. Probably not so good for whole house though. Hope your little one is happy at her new school btw. 👍

[@richardblakey3345]

Would have been useful to identify the water leak in our en suite bathroom . Might have saved our insurance company £6000.

[@MrEV]

£6,000! Blimey!

[@PhilippeDHooghe]

TOPDON USA, headquartered in Rockaway, NJ, is a leading provider of advanced automotive diagnostic tools and equipment. That explains the presets. Looks like you won't be heating this house with a heat pump...

[@MrEV]

Yes, a heat pump is very unlikely. We have no gas - all electric radiators - but that's clearly not very efficient. The cost of a heat pump install will be astronomical.

[@PhilippeDHooghe]

Ow… I was thinking of the energy cost. With radiators it will be worse, unless you get a really good tariff. It looks like insulation is necessary…

[@seanashmore8785]

I have some nice recipes for duck......

[@MrEV]

If they go near the chickens, that's a possibility. 😀 Did you know they can kill chickens if they try and mate with them? Don't look it up on Google. I wish I never had!

[@LeeOades]

😂

[@Jimmybones100]

Welcome to east sussex

[@MrEV]

Thank you!

[@MiniMicroMan1]

The downside is that you have now added another 50 repairs to do on top of your existing 100 jobs 🤣🤣🤣

[@MrEV]

Yeah, tell me about it! My wife's already been round and used up a whole can of expanding foam.

[@markyates5744]

Let's start with the front door. Single glazed. Thin. Check out GPR doors. Be a lot warmer and more secure. Your home insurance might not even approve of the standard door. Is it a 5 point lock? Wonder how thick the loft insulation is. Eek those bay windows will leak heat badly and rot quickly. Single glazed windows everywhere? Old conservatory. That's gonna be a lot to heat. And electric heating is 3x gas price.

[@MrEV]

It's double glazing everywhere (well, perhaps apart from the front door) but yes, we're looking into replacing the bay windows and will consider replacing the front door as well.

[@imcan19]

Would mess around for ages, but wouldn't want to see the list of jobs at the end of it.

[@SWR112]

Yeah I’d just be dangerous with that, it would become a obsession 😂…£200 today is £50 in four years for a new product equivalent, although the latest will offer even more and be better. Good luck with the new home.

[@gaztambo139]

I wouldn’t be keen spending that sort of money on a product that relies on the continued development of an App. Fast forward 5 years and perhaps the App no longer works on the latest iOS, and perhaps TOPDON will have stopped writing interfaces for this model. Possibly they will continue writing for your purchase indefinitely, but that’s usually not the case. I’ve had a kickstarter thermal imaging camera that had an app for a while, but they stopped developing for new iOS versions and now it’s a paperweight.

[@gavinmoore8024]

Predator! 😂

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

Chickens like spiders.

[@MrEV]

We should have had the chickens at the front of the house when we trimmed the wisteria recently. It was a house spider fest. Erghh!

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@@MrEV The predator colour mode chicken was very funny!

[@MetaVIRTUAL]

Dude, massive no no. Don't show your house online. Burglary guides are dangerous Love the channel. It's your fault I brought an EV 😂

[@MrEV]

Thanks for your concern. And thank you!

[@typxxilps]

It did not work with our Xiaomi phones, none, only with the Samsung Galaxy S7 tablet which is not really usefull cause running around with a 12 inch tablet to make photos is horrible. So , not for everyone will this topdon work, same for the other thermal cam we had ordered before, can not remember, but the best one in the 400€ price segment, which had a 256 x 256 sensor . infiray P 2 Pro and another letter I can not remember. Similiar issue, but this time vice versa which meant Xiaomi worked, but Samsung S24 did not.

[@yieldtothenight]

r/TVTooLow 🙂

[@IDann1]

Why have you got your wife's Phone?

[@MrEV]

You're referring to the pink case? I got it because it matches my logo. And I like magenta, dammit! 😀

[@Rufus2005f1]

The thermal camera made for a slightly revealing image of your wife lol

[@MrEV]

Oops!

[@PapaSmurfBowen]

You have bought a white elephant there, you need a massive refurb.

[@MrEV]

It's actually far less work than we had to do at our previous two houses (which were barely liveable when we moved in). But yes, it's not going to be cheap, but there's a lot of potential. And we're in a lovely area so that's a bonus.

[@PapaSmurfBowen]

@mrev ahhh fair enough. Maybe I was a bit harsh and dramatic but I think your channel deserves dramatics as it’s so good . I think it’s a great property but if you are up for the work you can do something special. Good luck. You should do some specials in the work you do on house when you up the windows. Tech and heating in house. You can put your special family spin on it.

[@MrEV]

@@PapaSmurfBowen A lot of work, but all good fun. Certainly no shortage of content opportunities!

[@PapaSmurfBowen]

@ yes. We will be there to watch your diverse channel. Good luck.