On Tuesday, February 27th, at 9 am, we commenced with a thermographic workshop. The air temperature in Ljubljana was 5°C, so all inhabited structures were heated. The first structure we thermographically examined was The Faculty of Electrical Engineering. On the north side, the façade is almost entirely flat, except for the windows at the end of the corridor on each floor. However, the thermographic camera reveals much more. The thermographic photograph clearly shows panels between individual floors simply due to heat leakage.
We proceeded to the building housing the national operator of the electricity grid in Slovenia. There is also a lot that could be done at their facility from a thermography point of view.
Continuing with the inspection of an extensive facility mostly occupied by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate, and Energy. Since it is a relatively newer building, we did not anticipate issues that would be detected with thermography.
The only noticeable heat loss in this case was detected at the air vents (pyramid-shaped) from the underground garage, which is justified and logical.
Our journey continued along one of the main thoroughfares into Ljubljana – Tržaška Street – a path over two thousand years old leading to the center of Ljubljana. Along this route, several older buildings exhibit heat loss. We documented and recorded these structures.
At Trg mladinskih delovnih brigad (MDB square), we encountered a very interesting building relevant to our research. It is an extensive and relatively older building. The most interesting fact for us was that the building had recently undergone extensive energy renovation (including European funds). Upon our professional inspection, we found that the renovation was done correctly (and the funds were thus justified). Unfortunately, the behavior of its users has not changed. On the fourth floor, someone felt warm, and instead of lowering the heating level, they opened the window wide.
We continued our excursion along Groharjeva Street, where we found that the Italian Embassy is located in a modest house that has not been thermally renovated.
The situation is much worse in the much older villa across the road, which houses the Slovenian Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
In the following, our path led us along Jamova Street. Here, we experienced the biggest disappointment of our professional excursion. With a thermographic camera, we examined a large building from the 1970s that houses the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Unfortunately, this building is far from being an example of good construction, as heat leakage is visible.
Finally, we tested thermography on cars. The most noticeable are the tyres and, of course, the passenger compartment.
Guess which photos are of electric cars and which are of internal combustion cars (immediately after use)?
This article is also available in Slovene language at the following link http://www.s3k.si/novice/termografska-delavnica-2/
