10 Reasons Every Homeowner Should Own a FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera

Once upon a time, thermal imaging cameras were reserved for high-stakes military operations and large technology companies. In today's day and age however, with advancements in the technology, you can own a powerful thermal imager that connects easily to your phone or tablet, allowing you to investigate potential problems around the house or areas for improvement in your home, just by pointing your smartphone camera. Sure, if you’re a renter with a great relationship with a prompt and courteous landlord, there may be little to no reason to invest in thermal cameras for your smartphone. Frankly though, does such a relationship really exist? So for any homeowner or conscientious renter who wants to make their life infinitely easier, it might be time to consider the FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera.

The FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera is a powerful little device. It allows you to see beyond what the eye can do, into the infrared spectrum. This means that you can diagnose problems in your home, marking the differences in temperature directly from your smartphone's home screen. By just pointing the camera at your walls, sink, ceiling, and devices, you can see a real time representation of what’s going on behind the scenes. You can measure temperatures around the home and locate areas that may need more insulating, spot devices or areas of your home that are draining excessive energy, inspect electrical panels, and even tell if there are blockages in your pipes, without having to get into the nitty gritty when something goes wrong. These cameras offer a convenient, user-friendly way to investigate and improve your home, and maintain your peace of mind as a homeowner (or renter, for that matter).

It's easy to use.

The camera works by connecting to your smartphone via the built-in lightning connector. The reversible device can then be simply attached through either the front- or back-facing camera, even over a phone case. Once your device is charged and hooked up to your smartphone, all you have to do is open the app. Through the app, the device will show you the distinct energy signatures of whatever you point it at. This is done in a fairly intuitive way, with heat signatures corresponding to colors on a spectrum of blues to oranges and reds, representing cold to hot respectively. The device can also display spot meters to tell you the exact temperature of an object in the field. The FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera contains a thermal imaging sensor which sends data to the app and processes the information, displaying the picture in high image detail on your device’s screen.

We live in the age of apps. Nowadays, most things can be done through your smartphone, and people rely more and more heavily on that very device to navigate through daily life. Simply put, apps make things easier. That's why the FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera makes things easy by operating through a smartphone app, so you don't have to go through the complicated process of installing massive software or buying several external devices just to use the technology. You simply have to hook up the device to your phone, download the app, and you can immediately get to work diagnosing and locating problems in your home. Or you can mess around with some of the coolest, state-of-the-art technology out there right now.

It's great for homeowners.

The FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera is a useful tool for just about anyone who lives or works in a home. It allows homeowners to investigate the energy use in their home, and spot potential and current problems before they become disasters. It can even make simple jobs like diagnosing pipe blockages as easy as taking a picture. This makes it an extremely valuable tool for a wide range of people, especially homeowners or people who work professionally in home repair or related fields. Thermal imaging can turn hours of fiddling around blindly into just a singular moment of pointing a camera towards the drywall and locating the problem in an instant.

And can save renters a ton of money on unforeseen costs.

This thermal imaging camera is targeted primarily to homeowners, but they are not the only ones who can benefit from this exciting technology. Since this camera can snap pictures of the thermal data, it can even be a useful tool for renters moving into a new place who want to take a look at the potential problems with the home before committing to a lease. This handy little device will allow you to pinpoint areas of the house or apartment that needs repairs that are at risk of becoming a more serious issue, protecting you from those costs down the road should your landlord decide you are somehow responsible for damage that existed invisibly before you even decided to move in. So, these thermal imaging cameras can be a powerful tool for just about anyone, from dedicated homeowners to casual DIY-ers who don’t want to be outsourcing all of their home issues.

It's customizable.

In addition to great specs, you can also customize the display in terms of color to match your preferences and needs depending on what you’re looking for (some colors are easier to spot, for example, and so this tool can benefit the device’s utility as well as your personal preferences). Because of the high energy requirements of this device, its battery life isn’t exactly on par with your Macbook Air, but very rarely (if ever…) would you need to use this device for prolonged periods of time without any opportunity to charge it.

It's super cool.

Okay, when you're buying a big piece of technology like this, you probably can't justify a purchase solely based on how cool it is, but it's hard to deny that. In addition to the practical benefits of the FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera, this device is pretty cool. When I think of thermal imaging, I think of spy thrillers and futuristic spaceships, not checking out how cool my cat looks in infrared. At an incredibly affordable price for thermal sensing tech though? This device can offer all the practical usefulness of a thermal imager, as well as the undeniably fun prospect of pointing it around and learning something new about your world.

It's relatively inexpensive.

State-of-the-art technology like thermal imaging might seem like the kind of thing that would cost an arm and a leg and be pretty inaccessible to your average homeowner or renter, but that's not actually the case. The FLIR ONE Pro gives you all the aforementioned benefits for under $300. Many thermal imaging devices of comparable quality, with even lower resolution, will run you upwards of $1,000, but this device is incredibly affordable and will pay for itself in no time by saving you time and money on your home repairs and diagnostics.

It features great resolution images.

Thermal imaging cameras of this kind come in a range of price and quality. The popularity of the FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera Pro LT is surely in part due to its awesome specs relative to its cost. The thermal resolution of this camera offers a 160x120 image, which significantly surpasses that of many of its competitors whose offers stand at as much as $1,000 for a lower resolution. The sensor can detect temperatures ranging from negative 20 degrees to 120 degrees Celsius, or negative 4 degrees to 248 degrees Fahrenheit. This range will cover just about anything in your home, except maybe your oven on pizza night.

There are pretty minimal downsides.

Having thermal imaging technology on your mobile phone is the stuff of the future. As such, a new and innovative technology to finally reach the masses can have its downsides. One common complaint among the FLIR ONE Mobile Thermal Imaging Camera users is that the app can be somewhat slow and tedious at times. However, keeping in mind the massive amount of data being processed by this technology, this complaint is only to be expected. Furthermore, as technology advances more and more quickly, these issues will surely be resolved over time. All in all, this technology offers an incredible opportunity for any homeowner or renter at a pretty low price for the wide-ranging capabilities you're getting.