Maplin are currently doing an IR thermometer for £29.99 + delivery. On
orders £30 its free delivery, and if you've already signed up to their
email list, you can get £2 off £5 orders or something similar - certainly
low enough for this purchase. Price will go back up to £49.99 on 24th Dec
it seems.

Looking at the specs of the one at CPC people have posted, it looks
similar - +-2% of reading or +-2 oC accuracy though it has 0.5 degree
resolution rather than 1 degree on the CPC one. Oh, and the Maplin's one
range is higher - but who really would be using a cheap thermometer for
270 degrees?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/mod...moduleno=36598

or

http://custom1.farnell.com/cpc/produ...%5 Fid=275626

I've ordered one and I'll see how it goes. Finally gave in after spending
10 minutes trying to get a pipe thermometer onto a boiler output pipe which
was in a confined and hot space and then waiting for ages whilst it settles
and then doing the same on 7 rads and then having to put it back onto the
boiler again...

Hopefully it'll work as described.

Incidentally - is there any way of using it to measure a room's temperature?
I realise it measures surface temps - just wondered whether it could be used
to measure a room's air temp as well - doubt it - but worth asking.

Thanks

D

David Hearn wrote:

Hopefully it'll work as described.

It does - it's very good.


Incidentally - is there any way of using it to measure a room's temperature?
I realise it measures surface temps - just wondered whether it could be used
to measure a room's air temp as well - doubt it - but worth asking.

No. Your best bet is to measure the temperature of something
sitting on a shelf/table.

--
Grunff

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 11:37:44 +0000, Grunff wrote:

David Hearn wrote:

Hopefully it'll work as described.

It does - it's very good.


Incidentally - is there any way of using it to measure a room's temperature?
I realise it measures surface temps - just wondered whether it could be used
to measure a room's air temp as well - doubt it - but worth asking.

No. Your best bet is to measure the temperature of something
sitting on a shelf/table.

Agreed.
The only drawback is that you will get a very wrong reading from
shiny/metal surfaces. I find that a couple of turns of sparky tape applied
to a pipe will sort the problem.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 12:39:01 +0000, "Ed Sirett"
wrote:

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 11:37:44 +0000, Grunff wrote:

David Hearn wrote:

Hopefully it'll work as described.

It does - it's very good.


The only drawback is that you will get a very wrong reading from
shiny/metal surfaces. I find that a couple of turns of sparky tape applied
to a pipe will sort the problem.

I bought one a few weeks ago to assist with rebalancing my system
after I'd added some new rads and altered some of the pipe layouts.

It was much easier than my previous attempts with flying-lead
thermocouple junctions thingies on a DVM.

I would also add that it is essential to get the measuring device very
close to the pipe to get a repeatable reading - the measuring area
diverges to 100mm at 1m, so even 150mm (6 inches in old money) away it
will be reading an area that's the same as a 15mm pipe; so 150mm away
and you will pick up some of the background areas too. And I doubt
that the laser spot is that well aligned.

I started my balancing attempts by measuring the temp at the bottom
corners of the double convector rads for this reason, but I found I
was getting very inconsistant results. I still cannot explain why, but
I found readings close up to (dirty!) copper pipes were fine.

And, its great fun measuring the temperatures of all sorts of things
around the home! A "boy toy" as SWMBO describes it :-)

Oh - I got my order above £30 by buying a maplin catalogue CD for
£1.50 IIRC.
Tim Hardisty.
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