Anyone know of any lend-lease, or round-robin borrowing groups for FLIR/IR cameras?

[AtheistCrusader]

I'd like to go through my house with a fine toothed comb looking for leaks of heat or cold, inside and out. I can't really afford to drop ~2 grand or more on even a used Fluke thermography camera.

Are there any groups or whatnot (like the 'Freecycle' or 'Buy Nothing'/Stone Soup type groups) that lend around this type of equipment?

I'm working on the conservation end of the energy problem, and want to button the house up a bit more. Any information around this would be hot, so to speak.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Dunno bout that, but my utility company has a program where they will send someone out

to do that sort of check-up on your house for you, so they can tell you where you need to increase thermal efficiency. I don't recall if it's free or a small charge, but it certainly wasn't all that much. you might give your own utility a call if you haven't already checked into that.

[mackdaddy]

2. You might look at these new true ir cameras for Android/Iphone

These look similar in performance to the $2k Flir cameras I purchased a few years ago for a class I was teaching. An incredible deal $199 if you happen to have the right smartphone.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/25/hands-on-with-the-199-seek-thermal-smartphone-infrared-camera-yes-really-actually-this-is-amazing/

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/seek-thermal-infrared-camera-iphone-android/

[caraher]

3. Yes, get one of the new smartphone-enabled units if you can

I bought a FLIR ONE for iPhone 5 and have made extensive use of it. The thermal resolution is not as good as the FLIR i7 I bought a few years ago, but it's convenient to use and you can employ a growing array of apps for analysis. They even have FLIR Tools as a smartphone app now (and although they quote a limited temperature range for the FLIR ONE, you can actually analyze images with sub-freezing temperature values in FLIR Tools - they just won't display in the imaging software).

Also, the "professional" cameras are getting cheaper, too. Just yesterday I got an ad for a $500 unit that was comparable to the $2k devices of just a few years ago. I think their big push to enter the consumer market may have led to economies of scale that make them much more affordable.

There are lease/rental programs and have been for years, but these all cost more than simply buying a FLIR ONE or SEEK Thermal. (BTW, the SEEK camera does have a superior thermal imaging sensor, but my impression is that the FLIR software suite is better developed, and the original FLIR ONE does a better, though imperfect, job merging optical and thermal images.)