Eastern Iowa Inspection Services

Home Inspection Heat loss can manifest itself in many ways in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, or North Liberty Iowa. The picture to the right is the result of heat loss through a bedroom wall that has a door which leads to a side attic that is similar to a 1 1/2 story home’s attic.

Without insulation in sufficient amount to resist the transfer of heat through the wall, (“R” Value), the heat from the home is escaping into the side attic and causing a perfect outline of the attic area to manifest itself in the frost on the roof. This was a neat find during the home inspection. The apparent fingers leading upward from the outline are soffit baffles that penetrate the upper attic, as they should.

 This is a thermal imaging picture of heat loss due to cold air infiltration from a poorly insulated window. The bright spot is a ceiling mounted heat register that was actually blowing well over 91 degrees when this shot was taken. The bullseye is showing 59.7 degrees. That is a lot of cold air moving to the interior of the home to show up that cold on the Thermal Imaging picture. Whether this shot was taken during an inspection in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls or North Liberty it is still a problem and fortunately for the home owner a relatively simple fix. Just use this thermal image, remove the window trim and insulate the deficient area as needed.

Heat loss occurs whether we like it or not. What we have to do is determine how it’s going to happen.

In this Home Inspection case, the builder of the sun room decided to install the vapor barrier improperly. In this region of the country a vapor barrier needs to be installed towards the conditioned space so that the insulation can dry to the exterior. This installation has resulted in warm interior air moving through the insulation and colliding with the cold vapor barrier. We all know what happens when warm air hits a cold surface. The moisture in that warm air condenses onto the cold surface and in this case the result was mold growth.

These are but three examples of heat loss. There are many more examples that can be shared and many more scenarios that occur. I hope that you gain a better understanding of how a home and the way it is insulated can be a benefit or detriment to you the owner and how having a Home Inspection or Thermal Imaging done by Eastern Iowa Inspection Services is always a benefit.

Tags: Heat Loss, Home Inspection Cedar Falls IA, Home Inspection Cedar Rapids IA, Home Inspection Waterloo IA, thermal imaging