See Where Your House is Leaking Heat

Get a free Heat Survey to diagnose heat loss in your home. Find out if there is a Community Heat Team in your area and book a Heat Survey. Take steps towards saving money, staying warmer and reducing CO2.

What is a Heat Survey?

A thermographic heat survey is a great way to see with your own eyes where you are losing heat.

The survey is a free one hour process with a Community Heat Team volunteer. The volunteer takes a series of images of the inside of your home with a thermal camera.

After the survey you you will get a pdf report containing the thermographic images from the survey and any potential issues identified.

How does it work?

  • Map of Community Heat Teams in Scotland

    1. Find your local Community Heat Team

    On the map or the drop down, find your local heat team. If there is no local heat team, perhaps you’d be interested in starting one ?!

  • 2. Choose a date and time

    Choose a suitable date and time online or email via the form to arrange. The visit takes about 1 hour in total, and needs to be on a cold, dry, calm evening and after dark. This is because a thermal camera requires a significant temperature difference between the inside and the outside to be able to ‘see’ the heat loss.

  • 3. Heat Survey Appointment

    When your Heat Team volunteer arrives, they will take external and internal measurements of temperature and humidity. They will then use the heat camera to take thermal images of the inside of your house. It is totally up to you which rooms you want them to look at. If you would like to, you will be very welcome to try using the thermal camera yourself.

  • 4. The Heat Survey Report

    After the survey your Heat Team volunteer will send you a pdf report containing the thermographic images from the survey and any potential areas of abnormal heat loss identified. Our Heat Team volunteers can provide basic energy efficiency advice, but will offer you a referral to Home Energy Scotland for any further technical investigations or funding questions.

  • 5. Take action to reduce heat loss

    There may be some ‘quick win’ actions identified that you can carry out yourself, such as basic draughtproofing. Other potential action might require more specialist advice. We can offer you a referral to Home Energy Scotland for any further technical investigations or funding questions. Take a look at our Take Action page for signposting of other options too.

Book a Heat Survey

Types of heat loss

  • Heat Surveys - A damp spot in the ceiling

    A damp spot in the ceiling

  • Heat Surveys - Drafty Front Door

    Drafty front door

  • Heat Survey - Poorly lagged pipes

    Poorly lagged pipes

  • Heat Surveys - Ventilation Heat Loss

    Ventilation heat loss

FAQs

What are the benefits?

The survey might identify some quick wins - simple things to fix that will make an immediate difference - but may also identify bigger opportunities to reduce your heat loss that require more investigation. Overall, your Heat Teams aims are to help you save money, stay warmer and healthier, and reduce CO2 emissions.

Why survey after dark?

The visit needs to be on a cold, dry, calm evening and after dark during the winter months, as we require a significant temperature difference between the inside and the outside to be able to ‘see’ the heat loss. This means that if the weather is unseasonably warm, very wet or windy we may need to contact you to re-arrange. Apologies in advance if we have to do this - It’s something outside our control!

Can I borrow a thermal camera?

If you are interested in carrying out your own Heat Survey, your local Community Heat Team may be able to offer a short-term loan of a thermal camera.
To help you get the most from the camera and get useful results, your Heat Team will share a short video providing basic pointers and guidelines for a ‘DIY Heat Survey’.