Please Note: This work is optional. If you passed the written examinations, you are eligible to receive a Certificate of Completion. If you choose to perform this Practical Examination—and submit high-quality work—you are eligible to receive a Certificate of Achievement. If you plan on doing the field work, please state that fact in an email to [email protected] and also include the brand and model of your thermal imager.

Please note there is field work listed for each application (electrical, mechanical, building and roof). FIELD WORK IS ONLY NEEDED FOR ONE APPLICATION. We suggest you do the field work for the application that you normally use the imager for (electrician should do electrical, energy auditor should do buildings, etc.)

Approximate Module Length: 2.5 Hours

Now that you know how to use your imager, what makes a good image, and what to look for, it is time to conduct some field work with your thermal imager. The following exercise helps determine which type of certificate you will receive. This module requires that you use your own thermal imager to inspect several things. Your score will be based on 100 points.

Part I: Capture High Quality Thermal Images of the Following Items:

1. Conduct a Camera Functionality Check

To start off, please first do a tear duct/functionality check with your thermal imager and save the image. You will need someone to look at for a target. Remember to set-up your camera parameters properly including emissivity and background temperature values. Need a quick refresher? Click this link to review the functionality check reading assignment from earlier in the course.

2. Capture and save images of the following items. All items can typically be found around the home or office​

A) Get three equal sized paper or Styrofoam disposable cups and fill (about a ½ full) one with hot water and one with cold water and some ice cubes, and the last one with tepid/ambient water. Line up all three next to each other (order: left to right, hot-ambient-cold) placing them about an inch apart. Hot tap water is sufficient for this task. Please do not boil or otherwise excessively heat the water for this exercise. Using the Ironbow color palette (Iron or Brightness on some IR cameras), take the following series of thermal images, being certain to keep all three cups in the field of view at the same time. Do NOT isolate the cups from one another in the field of view. If your camera only displays images in grayscale, please feel free to utilize your IR camera software to produce a final series of images in the Ironbow palette:

• Hot Cup (on the left) – Adjust Level/Span until all the colors of the palette are seen on the hot cup only. Both the ambient and cold cups may be saturated, and that is fine. We are concentrating on the best image of the hot cup.
• Cold Cup (on the right) – Adjust Level/Span until all the colors of the palette are seen on the cold cup only. You should be able to tune the image to see where the ice cubes touch the cup. Both the ambient and hot cups may be saturated, and that is fine. We are concentrating on the best image of the cold cup.
• Tepid/ambient Cup (in the middle) – Adjust Level/Span until all the colors of the palette are seen on the ambient cup only. Both the hot and cold cups may be saturated, and that is fine. We are concentrating on the best image of the tepid/ambient cup.
• All 3 cups together – Adjust Level/Span until you get the best "overall" image that shows fluid levels in the cups.

B) You may need to “refresh” the hot cup by reheating or replacing the water, so it is fairly hot. Measure the temperature of the side of a paper or Styrofoam cup that contains no more than one inch/2.5 centimeters of hot water. Be sure to put the spot temperature or crosshair in the center of the hot spot on the side of the cup. Save a thermal image and note/report the temperature reading you record at each the following distances. Notes: Distances are approximate:

• 3.5 feet or 1 meter
• 10 feet or 3 meters
• 30 feet or 9 meters

For this exercise please use a different color palette than ironbow and use an emissivity setting of .9 and a background temperature of 70 F (21 C) at each distance. If your thermal imager does not provide a means to adjust either emissivity, background or both, disregard adjusting these settings, but still complete the task. Please explain why the temperatures are not the same in all three measurements.

C) Take two small sponges and wet one and leave one dry. Put each one in a separate sealed Ziplock bag. NOTE: remove ALL air from the bag when sealing. Place them out in the sun for one hour. NOTE: If you cannot use the sun, you could warm them up in a low-setting oven (IMPORTANT: No so hot that the Ziplock bag melts!) or use a hair dryer for 5-10 minutes, moving it back and forth to achieve even heating. Once both bags/sponges have been sufficiently heated, bring them inside and lay them side-by-side and wait approximately an hour. As they lay side-by-side, lay a piece of paper over both. NOTE: make sure the paper is in solid contact with the Ziplock/sponge. You may want to hold/weight the paper down to make sufficient contact. Take an image of the paper where the sponges are underneath it. Then remove the paper and take another image.

D) Take two images of a thermally reflective object; one where you can easily see a reflection, and another image of the same object without that reflection. Please explain what you had to do to prove it was a reflection.

E) From the inside of a building/home, look at an exterior wall and first use the “auto” feature in your imager, and record an image. Then switch to “manual” and try to tune the thermal imager so you can find the framing members--and maybe even the nail/screw heads. Please record both the temperature of the inside wall as well as the exterior wall for us to determine the Delta-T you had when taking the image. If you can see them in one of the two images, you can skip the next step F).

F) If you cannot see any framing members, please explain why you cannot. Then proceed to take two images. You will need a hot cup of liquid. Place the hot cup of water on a flat, emissive surface, such as a counter. You may need an assistant to help you, but you do not have to use one. After placing the hot liquid down, QUICKLY put your handprint right next to the cup and take an image in “auto”. Then move the cup away from where you just worked, and make another QUICK handprint, using “manual” level and span and get the best image of the handprint you can, and save it.

G) Find or create an object that is very hot (~300°F or more/ ~150°C or more), such as a stove burner, the inside of an oven, etc. Take two images; one in range 1, and the other in range 2, and optimize the image the best you can for each range. Please list the temperatures limits of both range 1 and range 2. Please explain the differences in the two images. If your camera has only one range, or it is done automatically, please state that fact.

Part II: Create a Basic IR Report

Create a Basic Report using the saved images listed above. They should include:

1. One functionality image
2. Four cup images (each cup optimized in its own image, then one with all 3 fully visible)
3. Three temperature measurement of cups at different distances
4. Two images of the sponges (one with and one without paper over them)
5. Two images of the same object-one with and one without a reflection
6. Two images of a wall (OR a cup of hot liquid next to a handprint), one in auto and one manual
7. Two images of a very hot object, one in range 1 and one in range 2

So, the report should include a total of 16 images with various explanations. The report should be in either Word or Adobe PDF format. This report can be very basic but should have a description of each image, and any explanation that needs to be done.

Once complete, please submit it to the following email address [email protected] with a subject line of “Infrared Field Work for Online Training Course—your name”. After we have reviewed and graded the report, we will let you know of the results.