The Home Crowd

In London, military-grade thermal imaging is currently being used to measure the heat loss in homes during a cold winter night. The thermal maps are then merged with traditional maps, and homes were given a color code, from red properties being the worst offenders of energy efficiency to blue properties which were more efficient.

(Interactive Haringey Heat-Loss Map)

Outside of comparing your heating bills to your neighbors who live in comparable homes, are there many useful tools to judge your home’s energy-efficiency? Seems like this would be a great wake-up call to the occupants of an inefficient home. Of course there are simple and inexpensive fixes such as weather-stripping and plugging the various leaks your home may have. And then there are major projects such as efficient door and window replacement and installing proper installation, however, they require a more robust budget. The intention of this such map however, is to “shame” the residents into undertaking home improvements.

-From the Times Online UK,

Making the information available to the public is intended to raise awareness of how much energy is being used needlessly, putting up bills and contributing to global warming.

It is hoped that homeowners with high wastage levels will be shamed into improving the property’s insulation.

Almost 60 per cent of a household’s heat is lost through uninsulated walls and lofts, according to the Energy Saving Trust (EST), costing the average home up to £380 each year.

Insulation is estimated to reduce each home’s carbon emissions by about two tonnes annually.

Hmm… Shame wouldn’t be the angle I would throw at the public. But saving money? There’s a global common denominator right there!

In London, of course, it’s common for heating to be the big issue, but here in the U.S., and most notably around summertime, cooling and the loss of conditioned air would be the big efficiency factor. I’m not sure the thermal imagine spy planes would work as the entire map might look more of a red blob, than any sort of distinguishing map.

However, maybe we can convince the good people from the Google fleet that have been photo-cataloging every street in the country to make a second pass with some sort of imaging photography that could point out our home’s trouble spots. Zero in on that window leak! Find a better weather seal for that entry door! Get the damn kids to quit leaving the refrigerator door open! Okay, that last one is a bit of a leap, but my father would’ve been the first to sign up for that.