In August 2022, David Dawson contacted me to ask if my company Rubicon Drones Ltd, could help with the Cosy Thame project that he was leading on behalf of the Thame Green Living initiative. The aim of Cosy Thame is to help residents reduce their heating costs and carbon footprint. I was only too happy to donate my services to such a worthy cause.
David was keen for the residents of Thame to see imagery of how much, and from where, heat was potentially leaking from their homes into the atmosphere and thus being wasted. By using one of my fleet of commercial drones that has a mounted thermal camera (that converts infrared data into an electronic image) I would be able to provide imagery to show surface temperatures, that are represented by different colours (see images below).
Five neighbourhoods within Thame were selected (based upon differing building constructions and that also gave sufficient safe clearance space for take-off and landings). After carrying out the required on-site inspections, flight planning and letter-drops to inform local residents, night-time aerial filming took place throughout November and December 2022, in sub-zero temperatures to ensure optimal thermal readings.
On 2 March 2023, Cosy Thame organised a feedback session at the Town Hall to discuss the findings and to offer advice. The event was recorded and can be found on YouTube: https://bit.ly/CosyThameFeedback
The aerial thermal imagery taken by my drone, as well as imagery taken at ground level using a handheld thermal camera clearly showed homes that were either well-insulated or were experiencing, to varying degrees, unwanted heat loss that required further inspection/attention.
The following link shows an extract of some of the aerial thermal imagery:
It was a great pleasure helping such a local worthy cause: to increase awareness and knowledge, and hopefully reduce unnecessary energy loss. Using modern-day technology such as my thermally capable drone allowed us to capture imagery of several large areas of Thame in a short space of time to the benefit of the community. Here’s hoping Rubicon Drones can continue to help in the future.
