Japanese living houses mainly consist of wooden elements in high-temperature and moist conditions. To modify the hot and humid environment, a conventional old house was partially rebuilt and repaired. Especially in the winter season, a diagnostic thermographic test was used to find deteriorated and leaking parts of interior and exterior walls. Macroscopic deteriorated parts were checked again in detail. The deteriorated element was then removed. During the reconstruction process, a new solar heat and air conditioning system using a silica-gel adsorber and underground water was installed to cool and warm up the living room. Thermography tests of this remodeled house show that room temperature is always constant and mild to human beings, especially in the winter. Temperature and heat flow distribution of flowing air in the living room was measured using thermal net and wire methods. Leaking thermal streak flow of the gap was locally visualized by the IR radiometer and a highly sensitive video camera. It was verified that IR thermography is a useful measuring instrument to check thermal defects of a house.

Date Published: 21 March 1994
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 2245, Thermosense XVI: An International Conference on Thermal Sensing and Imaging Diagnostic Applications, (21 March 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.171153

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2245:
Thermosense XVI: An International Conference on Thermal Sensing and Imaging Diagnostic Applications
John R. Snell Jr., Editor(s)