This article appeared as the front page feature story for the Look! section in the January 16, 2007 edition of the Meriden Record-Journal

By Ralph Hohman Record-Journal staff

James Quarello of Wallingford holds an infrared camera that he uses to perform energy audits through his business, JRV Home Inspection Services.

WALLINGFORD - James Quarello's infrared camera looks sort of like a yellow flashlight with a BlackBerry strapped to its back. At about $10,000, it's a lot more expensive than either. The camera is a business investment, one that Quarello hopes will pay for itself through the energy audits he performs as part of his business, JRV Home Inspection Services.  

"Three percent of the population is your customer when you work as a home inspector," Quarello says. "When you're doing energy audits, you've got everybody."  

For his customers, he says, the audits can pay for themselves in energy savings and increased home value, and sometimes in tax rebates for energy efficiency improvements. And he says thermography using the infrared camera (which records a spectrum of light wavelengths too long to be seen by naked human eyes) is a big improvement over "smoke pencils," which are also used to isolate drafts.  

Through his camera, Quarello can see cold spots represented as dark areas, isolating areas where insulation is insufficient around windows, in ceilings and walls, around switch boxes or anywhere. The infrared images are visible on the camera's screen before he shoots the digital picture, and he can use a number of color palettes. Quarello prefers black-and-white, saying it best shows contrasts between warm and cold spots, and he has clients turn up their heat about 10 degrees above normal when he does an energy audit, to create more of a visual difference between cold and warm.  

Quarello says he took a training course to learn how to use his camera, and he follows up with conventional photographs and a physical examination to plot out cold spots.  

"After a while you can tell what it is," he says of the infrared photos, " but you don't want to assume."  

The technology, which is also used for night vision cameras and optics, has been around for decades, and has lots of security and military uses. FLIR Systems (http://www.flir.com/), makers of the infrared camera Quarello uses, announced last week that it had entered into a $26.4 million contract with Bell Helicopter to outfit the aircraft with thermographic reconnaissance equipment for the U.S. Army. The company markets a line of home inspection cameras for businesses, which can isolate water leaks and trouble spots in wiring as well as cold areas. Quarello bought his camera about 10 months ago, and they've dropped in price since then.  

The military, rescue and security capabilities of thermographic cameras might be impressive, but Quarello's customers just want to save money on their heating bills.  

One client with whom he has an upcoming appointment has been baffled by an air leak.  

"He's done everything, and he doesn't know where the cold is coming from," says Quarello, who's betting he can find it with his camera.

James Quarello

JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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