Approach for external measurements of the heat transfer coefficient (U-value) of building envelope components using UAV based infrared thermography

A high share of heating energy consumption by buildings is due to poorly insulated building envelopes. Identification of poorly insulated building envelopes is still a challenge. Nowadays, remote sensing equipment has become increasingly inexpensive and accessible. This paper evaluates the potential of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carried equipment for quantitative analysis of the thermal properties of building envelopes. A comprehensive uncertainty analysis of the U-value measurement is conducted. In the uncertainty budget, an error in temperature measurement with IR camera contributes the largest share of uncertainty. Additionally, IRT measurements are compared with the heat flux meter (HFM) method.