Thermal "Street View"

[Scott Wood]

The Google street view is going thermal. Well sort of.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technol ... udits.html

treehugger.com has an interesting post on a company using drive by thermography to evaluate energy loss of the building.

[Ben H]

No way to prove the data is accurate and up to date. People by Great Stuff and Insulation every day of the week.

[Bill Kibbel]

Kyllo v. US

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... ol=99-8508

[tim5055]

Kyllo v. US

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... ol=99-8508

This is only restrictive of government action, i.e. the police. Unless there is a specific prohibition in state law, private companies can do it all day (night) long.

[Scott Wood]

Regarding up to date, you are correct that some homeowners "upgrade" the envelope and the data is historical. The intent is to show those who are not aware of the energy losses of their building(s) the areas of most concern and a possible loss (or gain when fixed) that the "leak" provides.

[Bill Kibbel]

Kyllo v. US

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... ol=99-8508

This is only restrictive of government action, i.e. the police. Unless there is a specific prohibition in state law, private companies can do it all day (night) long.

It just reminded me of the Supreme Court ruling.

If they actually go through with this, they'll be fighting perpetual privacy invasion lawsuits.

[Rocon]

This is very interesting. Are they getting the search warrant based on temperature only?

For example last year on a project in Florida I found several of the units (6% of the units observed) had no insulation in the attic. Meaning the insulation installers had overlooked the attics six years earlier at time of construction. Meaning the insulators has missed the particular. This condition is actually fairly common in multifamily construction. I have seen this in several cities.

I am sure that a police officer with an IR camera who sees hot attics in the winter would assume that there were a lot of grow houses in these projects. What if they served a search warrant on one of those units? How would you like to have a police officer show up and do the search based on a heat signature?

[tim5055]

This is very interesting. Are they getting the search warrant based on temperature only?

I am sure that a police officer with an IR camera who sees hot attics in the winter would assume that there were a lot of grow houses in these projects. What if they served a search warrant on one of those units? How would you like to have a police officer show up and do the search based on a heat signature?

Generally, no the warrants were not issued based on heat signature alone. Many times they got a subpoena to look at electric bills as well. But, as the supreme court ruling Bill posted says, IR is a no go any more for the police.