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Thermal Drone in Commercial Building Inspection - Update

vkm083185

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I posted before I got the Bebop Thermal in the mail, that I hoped to use it for D.O.E. Energy Audits and Thermal Industrial Building assist auditing. I have now used the drone on 3 different occasions. Here is my assessment of it's capability as pertains to my needs (i.e. energy auditing assistance):

1) If you are looking for Hi-Res imaging with tea-on radiometry, don't bother. This drone never advertised itself as such, and definitely isn't. However...

2) ENERGY AUDITING: INDUSTRIAL
The Bebop Thermal did help out on ll three occasions. The first was an older restaurant that needed some roof upgrades. The owner wanted to know where she was losing the MOST energy, so she could fix that part of the roof first. On a cooler day, we turned up the heating units and easily found the "leaking" energy in the roof covering systems. It did a heck of a good job for it's relative low-res capabilities. Next was yet another restaurant. They had roof leaks. Fortunately I was able to fly the roof immediately after hard rain. The leaks were again quickly located by turning on the heating units inside t he structure and flying quickly over, locating the water penetration points (which were cooler than the rest of the roof areas). Finally, a small industrial plant wanted to find HVAC energy drain and receive their Certified D.O.E. Energy Score. I used the drone to show exterior energy weak points/drain(s) along with other work. It was fairly impressive for the client as infrared goes.

OTHER THINGS I HAVE DONE WITH THE BEBOP THERMAL

1. Locating a septic pond (not a tank) was fairly easily done in this cooler weather.

2. Locating feral hogs feeding in my neighbor's field (that was kinda fun).

3. Locating an armadillo at sunset.

4. Locating a pack of coyotes (yep, I live in Texas, lol).

MY ASSESSMENT

For what I ask of it, the Bebop Thermal will do just fine. It will always locate warmth easier in cooler weather. It DOES need a fairly wide temperature differential at any height above about 50'. penetration into very dense trees, foliage, etc, is only nominal. Otherwise, it's a lot of fun!

Oh., and the software works as advertised, along with the Galaxy Tab S3. It works great with my unit.

Happy droning, y'all!

Kevin
 
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I posted before I got the Bebop Thermal in the mail, that I hoped to use it for D.O.E. Energy Audits and Thermal Industrial Building assist auditing. I have now used the drone on 3 different occasions. Here is my assessment of it's capability as pertains to my needs (i.e. energy auditing assistance):

1) If you are looking for Hi-Res imaging with tea-on radiometry, don't bother. This drone never advertised itself as such, and definitely isn't. However...

2) ENERGY AUDITING: INDUSTRIAL
The Bebop Thermal did help out on ll three occasions. The first was an older restaurant that needed some roof upgrades. The owner wanted to know where she was losing the MOST energy, so she could fix that part of the roof first. On a cooler day, we turned up the heating units and easily found the "leaking" energy in the roof covering systems. It did a heck of a good job for it's relative low-res capabilities. Next was yet another restaurant. They had roof leaks. Fortunately I was able to fly the roof immediately after hard rain. The leaks were again quickly located by turning on the heating units inside t he structure and flying quickly over, locating the water penetration points (which were cooler than the rest of the roof areas). Finally, a small industrial plant wanted to find HVAC energy drain and receive their Certified D.O.E. Energy Score. I used the drone to show exterior energy weak points/drain(s) along with other work. It was fairly impressive for the client as infrared goes.

OTHER THINGS I HAVE DONE WITH THE BEBOP THERMAL

1. Locating a septic pond (not a tank) was fairly easily done in this cooler weather.

2. Locating feral hogs feeding in my neighbor's field (that was kinda fun).

3. Locating an armadillo at sunset.

4. Locating a pack of coyotes (yep, I live in Texas, lol).

MY ASSESSMENT

For what I ask of it, the Bebop Thermal will do just fine. It will always locate warmth easier in cooler weather. It DOES need a fairly wide temperature differential at any height above about 50'. penetration into very dense trees, foliage, etc, is only nominal. Otherwise, it's a lot of fun!

Oh., and the software works as advertised, along with the Galaxy Tab S3. It works great with my unit.

Happy droning, y'all!

Kevin

Thank you for the report. Good to hear it works for you.

Regards Leif.
 
I found it works quite well for the money and the software integration is very clean . I have attached PDF of some scans I did couple months ago over our complex. We found that the contractor had not insulated the vaulted ceiling at all.

Nice product. I was able to pick up hot spots from 100 ft on on golf course I live on.
I need to try to capture our coyotes or other critters.
 

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