If I was buying for my own use I would get one of the inexpensive smartphone connected cameras - Seek Thermal or FLiR ONE. On the ebuild forums JSHarris has the former, you should be able to see his images in his blog.

I don't think those are "professional" grade so how well they'll work for imaging lots of houses in high detail I'm not sure...

Remember there are also transition groups around you can hire from, or pay for hiring from plant firms. I paid £130ish last year for a weeks hire of a FLIR i3. It worked but very narrow field of view. I would definitely purchase the above cameras for a bit more these days.

Posted By: dazdreadNot sure how data protection factors into this Steamy tea, there will be no PII on there for external consumption just a thermal image of a house.

Has this ever been tested in court? I don't think the data protection act was drafted with thermal imaging in mind. My personal view is that thermal imaging has more in common with conventional photography than with, for example, tuning into somebody's wifi (the next bit of the electromagnetic spectrum). But there could be ingenious legal arguments either way.

The only intention is to display the street view of the house so the same as Google street view in that respect.

The idea is to team up with a new project started here offering help to homeowners by contacting and referring homes with obvious issues. Any internal images would be the property of the home owner or stored in a private account that they would have to subscribe to.

Still wondering if there are any camera recommendations out there.

You can borrow mine but it is only half mine, I live in the central Thames valley.

How about satellite ir

Thanks Steamy tea, the second organisation is already registered, I will enquire further before we do anything.

Hi gravelld. We are going to apply a grant for the whole thing, I have ear marked £6K on the application but would rather spec and cost the appropriate camera before making the application.

Thanks for the offer Tony but we are in Leicestershire and I don't think our budget stretches to launching a satellite... just think of the pollution!

Our council (Shropshire) have recently done aircraft based thermal mapping of the big towns in the county, with the aid of a government grant. See http://shropshire.gov.uk/private-sector-housing/aerial-thermal-survey-for-shropshire/ , the interactive map is at the bottom of the page.

As far as I can see it's a complete waste of time and resources. For instance, apparently one of the most efficient building in Bridgnorth is St Mary Magdalene's Church, together with the disused aluminium works.

Knowing the outside temperature of a building does not relate to its efficiency.

Posted By: SteamyTeaAn aerial picture on a snowy day may be more useful.

But nowhere near as useful as knowing the INTERNAL temperature at the time the photo was taken!

billt, your link doesn't open anymore, I suppose Shropshire Council have taken it down.

Whilst wasting a bit more of my life on the interweb, I found this on Gizmag - might interest anyone looking for a cheaper FLIR camera

http://www.gizmag.com/flir-thermal-camera-scout-tk-tg130/41228/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=3de83d4b25-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-3de83d4b25-92177821

Billt, that is exactly the kind of map I would like to create. With some usage data to eliminate false positives that map could be very useful... Hmm, a job for a drone maybe?

gravelld, where abouts are you based... if this comes off then you could certainly have access to it.