INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY
Photography and captions by Todd Holland, with help from Gary Hartwell and Rob Nicholson.
Smith College Green Team

Cold hands warm heart?  A visual depiction of Raynaud's Phenomenon. 

WHAT IS INFRARED (IR) THERMOGRAPHY?

Infrared allows us to see what our eyes cannot. Thermal energy is emitted by all objects as infrared radiation, not visible by the human eye but perceived as heat. Infrared thermography uses a camera with an expensive germanium lens to "see" the infrared, and the camera assigns visible colors to the images to represent its temperature profile.

These images are presented here, with colors used for a visual map of surface temperatures.

Lunchtime basketball at Scott Gym.  Note how well the heat signature of the players is reflected off the polished wood floor.  Hotter than they ought to be?

DIFFERENT CAMERA SETTINGS

These images show the same view of a bicycle parked outside McConnell Hall, from visible to infrared. 

100% visible

75% visible, 25% infrared

50% visible, 50% infrared

25% visible, 75% infrared

100% infrared

100% infrared w/ scale: note how warm the large single-pane glass is on this cold (12ºF) day

CAMPUS CENTER

South Entrance.  The surface temperature of the doors is 37.4ºF, outdoor air temperature is about 18ºF.

Campus Center Carroll Room windows.  Note the glass walls are not significantly colder than the brick walls of the adjacent John M. Greene building.

Campus Center 2nd floor.  The aluminum frames of the windows are warmer than the glass.

Campus Center 2nd floor.  The walls are significantly colder (27.0ºF) than the windows, which means better insulated. 

John M. Greene, notice the warm chimney on top. 

John M. Greene might look better insulated than the all-glass walls of the Campus Center, but 33.0ºF wall temperature on an 18ºF day means plenty of heat loss

ENGINEERING BUILDING (GREEN BOX)

The "green metal box" Engineering Building may not be much to look at, but thermally it's beautiful.  Note the small air leaks at the joints along the top of the panels.

Engineering Building, you can see by the different window temperatures who likes a warm classroom. 

BASS HALL

Can you find the open window on this frigid January day?  Hint, it's on the 4th floor.

SABIN REED BRIDGE

On this cold day the brick face of Sabin Reed is as warm (meaning poorly insulated) as the glass entry doors to the Campus Center. 

LYMAN PLANT HOUSE

One half of this greenhouse is warmer than the other. Succulent house on the left, Show house on the right. The hot strip across the top of the image is two greenhousees behind these.

Fern house left, Palm house on right.

Roof of Palm house.

Roof of cool temperature greenhouse.

New corridor outside potting room. Can you spot the radiator? 

Palm house window above outside entry. Prettiest window on campus? 

MORRIS HOUSE

It's rumored to bewarmer on the upper floors.  See for yourself. 

is that why this window's open? 

This bricked-up opening does not have the same insulation as the rest of the wall. 

Warm air issuing from the attic vent. Possibly the whole house's bathroom exhaust.

This brick wall looks to be fairly well insulated. 

Can somebody shut this window? 

HUBBARD HOUSE

Warm blotches left by late afternoon sun. 

LAWRENCE HOUSE

Interesting streaked pattern made by late afternoon sun. 

A window cracked in a dorm.  The red horizontal line above the sill is where it's open and gushing heat.  Any guesses what the blue (cold) vertical line on the right is?
Highlight the area between parenthesis for the answer: (Copper down spout)

NEILSON LIBRARY

Hiding behind the trees. 

Some warm spots from the sun. 

WRIGHT HALL

Warm walls peeking through the trees.