Detecting source of draughts/cold spots

[DAPPH]

I've refurbished my bathroom. Walls, floor and ceiling are insulated with Celotex. The window is the original double glazed unit. It's sealed airtight around the window frame to the walls. Even so if you stand by the window it's colder but there's no draught. Cold bridging I think it's called.

As in the window is simply not as well insulated as the surrounding wall.

Doesn't help it's North facing.

View attachment 375599

Any moist warm air in the bathroom will start to condense on the cooler glass and roll down the glass & bounce off the window cill, if the rads on it might warm it a bit and start a thermal current cycle so you'll always feel an air movement by th window where the rad is.
Sometimes due to a thermal air current happening due to the heat froma rad a slightly cooler air can be felt across the room from a rad too.

Even with our argon gas filled triple glazing throughout our bungalow & a tripple glazed letterboxless front door there is still a very slight noticeable cooler air dropping down windows inspite of a radiator being under them & the trickle vents fully shut off

 

[Ross365]

Is this link any good for thermal imaging off your phone ?

13 Best Thermal Imager Apps for Android & iOS | Freeappsforme - Free apps for Android and iOS

Use your gadget as a thermal tool easily! Try these cool thermal imager apps. Free download for Android and iOS devices

freeappsforme.com

Do any phones have thermal image sensors? Maybe you can connect an external unit but not heard of anyone doing that.

 

[Onoff]

if the rads

Since "finishing" the bathroom and despite the masses of insulation around it it is freezing in there. Neither the towel rail under the window or underfloor heating are actually plumbed in. They just exit as long tails into the "bomb site rest of the house". They actually end in the most central room in the house where I plan to put a UFH manifold under the stairs etc. I need to dig that floor up though.

Back in the bathroom and I've compromised the airtight layer in the ceiling's vapour control layer by fitting 4 downlights, 2 speakers and a 9kW body dryer in the ceiling. With hindsight I should have cross battened and done a dropped ceiling. Less volume to warm up etc. I do have plans to address all these routes for warm air to escape and draughts to get in! That will reinstate the airtight layer.

In no rush to connect and fire up the body dryer tbh, what with the price of leccy!

If I had of done a drop ceiling I could have avoid that silly line of 2" rip tiles at the ceiling too! My tiling tbh let the whole project down.

 

[chunkolini]

Katabatic airflow?
Cold air builds up in a space then flows downhill.
I get it in my house, sit on the stairs and I can feel it on my bald head every now and again. My bathroom is bloody freezing.
In the Alps it causes strong valley winds. Very dangerous to us paradanglers.

 

[bigegg]

Smoke matches have thermal buoyancy, not really good for what you want

Drop me a pm and I’ll send you the really McCoy

Thank you!
Hopefully I've managed to find someone on FB with a "flir" imager.
If not, I'll be in touch.

 

[bigegg]

Katabatic airflow?
Cold air builds up in a space then flows downhill.
I get it in my house, sit on the stairs and I can feel it on my bald head every now and again. My bathroom is bloody freezing.
In the Alps it causes strong valley winds. Very dangerous to us paradanglers.

Interesting...

Could that be mitigated by a fan to disperse the cold air?

 

[bigegg]

Do any phones have thermal image sensors? Maybe you can connect an external unit but not heard of anyone doing that.

I tried a few of these apps this morning.
They either need an external thermal camera, or are just a colour filter giving a false image.

 

[Gareth J]

It's not really a "draught" per se.
It's just a feeling of "cold" from a particular direction.

Not enough to disturb a candle flame.

I'll give a "vape" a try.

The wind is currently N/E. A different direction to normal and it's colder than it has been. The back of your hand is very effective at finding incoming draughts around windows/doors/skirtings etc.

Could be, as mentioned, simply convection down cold surfaces.

What about your floors? Suspended timber ground floor? With the chilly external temps, your house will be trying to act as a chimney. Any gaps at floor level will let cold air in to replace hot air flying out of loft hatch/bathroom vents/trickle vents etc.

Similarly, the floor space between 1st and second floor. Every breach into the cavity (or outside) will permit cold air, that'll squeeze through floor gaps.

Even plug sockets/light switches. Put the back of your hand to a downstairs plug and see if you feel a cool jet.

....worst of all, are your walls dot and dab plasterboard? Google "plasterboard tent". Bloody housebuilders.

 

[bigegg]

The wind is currently N/E. A different direction to normal and it's colder than it has been. The back of your hand is very effective at finding incoming draughts around windows/doors/skirtings etc.

Could be, as mentioned, simply convection down cold surfaces.

What about your floors? Suspended timber ground floor? With the chilly external temps, your house will be trying to act as a chimney. Any gaps at floor level will let cold air in to replace hot air flying out of loft hatch/bathroom vents/trickle vents etc.

Similarly, the floor space between 1st and second floor. Every breach into the cavity (or outside) will permit cold air, that'll squeeze through floor gaps.

Even plug sockets/light switches. Put the back of your hand to a downstairs plug and see if you feel a cool jet.

....worst of all, are your walls dot and dab plasterboard? Google "plasterboard tent". Bloody housebuilders.

If only it were that obvious. .
Solid floors except living room. That's suspended timber, but it's floorboards>3mm ply>lino>laminate flooring. No gaps.

Proper plastered walls, straight to brick.
All the sockets are in dado trunking.
Internal doors have rubber seals, and brush draught excluders.
Vents on the doors are all closed.
I've been round every single possible gap and can't feel any discernible "cold spot".

 

[nickk]

I can send my wife round,she’s found them all in a house I’d lived in for years,I never knew they existed ,she can even tell you if they have an itch.

 

[Trevorleach]

Any moist warm air in the bathroom will start to condense on the cooler glass and roll down the glass & bounce off the window cill, if the rads on it might warm it a bit and start a thermal current cycle so you'll always feel an air movement by th window where the rad is.
Sometimes due to a thermal air current happening due to the heat froma rad a slightly cooler air can be felt across the room from a rad too.

Even with our argon gas filled triple glazing throughout our bungalow & a tripple glazed letterboxless front door there is still a very slight noticeable cooler air dropping down windows inspite of a radiator being under them & the trickle vents fully shut off

I have found the best thing about triple glazing is the peace and quiet when they are shut.

 

[Gareth J]

If only it were that obvious. .
Solid floors except living room. That's suspended timber, but it's floorboards>3mm ply>lino>laminate flooring. No gaps.

Proper plastered walls, straight to brick.
All the sockets are in dado trunking.
Internal doors have rubber seals, and brush draught excluders.
Vents on the doors are all closed.
I've been round every single possible gap and can't feel any discernible "cold spot".

Fair enough! Although, on your suspended floor, you may still get an airpath around skirting. Unless the area is very well sealed.

Similarly, do you know what's around the walls in the first floor void? I don't know what's going on in ours yet, but there's often enough draught to knock the rubbish bath panel off, if the outside door is opened up. I'm working my way around.

I can send my wife round,she’s found them all in a house I’d lived in for years,I never knew they existed ,she can even tell you if they have an itch.

Can you send her around to chat to my wife? We currently ventilate bathroom/bedrooms by opening a window. For a period. Working on a simple "window open = door closed" rule at the moment. But it's not going very well.

 

[Nomad]

I use a cheap (£10) infa-red pen type thermometer, paid for it's self many times over the years - including confirming the fault in cold room was a dormer window that had had zero insulation. After peeling back the plasterboard and adding celotex the room was a lot warmer

ir digital pen thermometer at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[slim_boy_fat]

We have a very shallow angled roof and getting in to that space on your belly is hard.

Borrow a small child for an afternoon.

 

[pedrobedro]

Fair enough! Although, on your suspended floor, you may still get an airpath around skirting. Unless the area is very well sealed.

We had a howling gale through the gap between floor and skirting above the north facing air bricks in our front room. I went round it with gaffer tape and it was different again.

 

[Gareth J]

We had a howling gale through the gap between floor and skirting above the north facing air bricks in our front room. I went round it with gaffer tape and it was different again.

I remember, as a kid, in my grandparents house with open fires, if you opened the door to a room when it was windy, the fitted carpet would lift/float

 

[DAPPH]

Borrow a small child for an afternoon.

Or use blown shredded fibre for the insulation. My dad's early Victorian semi had numerous roof planes , blown fibre was the only option to insulate the whole roof void . they did a good job too.

 

[DAPPH]

Borrow a small child for an afternoon.

Isn't that too Jimmy Saville these days ?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Isn't that too Jimmy Saville these days ?

Hadn't even considered that aspect, I'm not 'woke'.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Can you send her around to chat to my wife? We currently ventilate bathroom/bedrooms by opening a window. For a period. Working on a simple "window open = door closed" rule at the moment. But it's not going very well.

You too? I have shown her the sopping wet wall opposite the bathroom door and have tried to explain cause and effect until blue in the face. Every time she goes in there, the door is left open and if I have left a window open after a bath, it gets closed. She still whinges about the wall of course.