Infra red temp gun source?
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eitak
Well-Known Member
Normal range for human is between 36 and 37.5/38 degrees Celsius. . if your temp was 31 you would be pretty messed up!!
bigfella77
Well-Known Member
Just out of curiosity, how is everyone checking the accuracy of there I.R thermos?
cement
Very Well-Known Member
Don't get confused with temps inside the body and temps of the skin. The skin is always a lower temp especially outside in the middle of winter or after a swim in cool water!
Duke
Very Well-Known Member
With science!
Grab a pot of distilled water. Bring to the boil. Check temperature.
AND
Grab a cup of crushed ice. Add water until you get a slushy type mixture. Let it stabilise for a few minutes. Check temperature
You might have to be patient and/or repeat a couple of times. Taking IR readings from a liquid can be tricky due to reflections.
With science!
Grab a pot of distilled water. Bring to the boil. Check temperature.
AND
Grab a cup of crushed ice. Add water until you get a slushy type mixture. Let it stabilise for a few minutes. Check temperature
You might have to be patient and/or repeat a couple of times. Taking IR readings from a liquid can be tricky due to reflections.
So I assume you've taken into account how your altitude and barometric pressure affects the boiling point and melting point?
abnrmal91
Very Well-Known Member
So I assume you've taken into account how your altitude and barometric pressure affects the boiling point and melting point?
Come on we don't need to get to technical. I doubt he is living in a vacuum, were water boils at room temperature, but with a decrease in atmospheric pressure the boiling temp decreases. If you were to test it at sea level it should be 101.3 kPa atmospheric pressure.
You should get a accurate enough reading. Lol
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slim6y
Almost Legendary
A good way to calibrate or check accuracy is to point at melting ice in a slurry - it should be 0'C or as close to. Pointing at a forehead will give a reading below 37'C - 37'C is an internal temperature - not an external one. And as said earlier, 34'C would be quite acceptable. However, if it was set to Fahrenheit I'd be checking to see if your mum was a zombie.
bigfella77
Well-Known Member
With science!
Grab a pot of distilled water. Bring to the boil. Check temperature.
AND
Grab a cup of crushed ice. Add water until you get a slushy type mixture. Let it stabilise for a few minutes. Check temperature
You might have to be patient and/or repeat a couple of times. Taking IR readings from a liquid can be tricky due to reflections.
Whats wrong with turning on your oven to 100c and pointing it at that?:lol:
slim6y
Almost Legendary
Only good if you put the water in it too
And incidentally - distilled water won't boil at 100'C unless standard atmospheric pressure, so you may as well just use tap water to save the hassle!
bigfella77
Well-Known Member
Only good if you put the water in it too
And incidentally - distilled water won't boil at 100'C unless standard atmospheric pressure, so you may as well just use tap water to save the hassle!
Why do you need to put water in it too? Should be 100c if its set to 100c wouldnt it?
slim6y
Almost Legendary
oh, at first I thought you might be kidding - and as the internet doesn't allow sarcasm or humour to be heard, I'll just assume you were joking... But for those without the keen eye for a humour biting post, I'll elaborate that an oven is about as accurate as a thing that isn't as accurate as a thing that is more accurate....
Anyway - two ways around that...
One... use an alcohol thermometer that also reads 0'C in a slurry and 100'C at boiling point...
Then use that same thermometer to get the oven to 100'C - using the incredibly accurate dial on the oven... Then use the infra red thermometer to test that oven
they should be similar(ish).Don't be fooled though - a digital read out is merely precise, not accurate!
Only a well calibrated instrument can be accurate no matter what the display reading!
Jonno from ERD
Very Well-Known Member
Get a Raytek temperature gun. I have had mine 7 years, it's travelled all over the country and it's very accurate. Not cheap at around $250 but brilliant quality, much better than what the shops sell. You can get them from places that sell bearings.
Noncontact Infrared Themometers - Fluke 60 Series - Raytek.com
Noncontact Infrared Themometers - Fluke 60 Series - Raytek.com
Damn, mixing up slurries etc, you still wont be exact. Boil some water on a stove and when it has steam coming from it, it will be close enough to 100 degrees, get an ice cube out of the fridge and it should be close enough to 0 degrees for all purposes to do with reptiles. Unless you are breeding for particularly males or females in your incubator, this level of preciseness is not necessary. If you really want to have it tested, take it to NATA and have it tested, but it shouldn't be necessary.
From memory, a IR gun doesn't tell you the air temp anyway, it tells you the temp of a solid object. If you point it through the glass of your enclosure it will either tell you the temp of the glass or the back wall. Neither of which is any good anyway. Neither is controlled by the t/stat. The t/stat only controls the temp at the sensor point.
The end result is that the guns are a good guide only, if you want accuracy, put the sensor/bulb of a thermometer at the height of the reptiles head where it spends most of its time. The t/stat sensor should also be located there.
From memory, a IR gun doesn't tell you the air temp anyway, it tells you the temp of a solid object. If you point it through the glass of your enclosure it will either tell you the temp of the glass or the back wall. Neither of which is any good anyway. Neither is controlled by the t/stat. The t/stat only controls the temp at the sensor point.
The end result is that the guns are a good guide only, if you want accuracy, put the sensor/bulb of a thermometer at the height of the reptiles head where it spends most of its time. The t/stat sensor should also be located there.
Not sure if this was mentioned, but go to TEMPGUN.COM $30 will get you an accurate temp gun, $35 will get you one a little upgraded with features such as a laser sight and a tighter measurement field. These temp guns are used in Zoos and parks alike and well worth the money. Once you buy one of these, you wont look any further. Had the PE1 For just over two years, bought the PE2 a few months ago and its my new best friend
gillsy
Very Well-Known Member
That's the one I have, in the little leather pouch. Works a treat, and is accurate to within about 1c.
slim6y
Almost Legendary
I disagree about the slurry - the slurry is the most accurate way of calibrating most thermometers - or at least checking the validity of their output. A slurry will always be at around 0'C - where as an ice cube could be anywhere from -12 to -2'C - and almost unlikely to ever be zero until melting.
My washing up water has steam coming off of it - and I would not trust rubber gloves to protect me from 100'C water, so I conclude steamy water is not 100'C. However the first part of that statement i correct, at the point water has begun boiling (fairly rapidly) you've reached 100'C.
It's also funny - I can ask almost any (non science) adults and school children - what causes the bubbles in the water - and almost all say air!!!
They are in fact steam - pockets of gas where the water has turned to steam, become less dense, rise and exit the water - hence boiling.
However, I do agree that an IR thermometer is good for surfaces - we used to use them for soil temperatures at the surface.
But I am not sure what Hornet is using the IR thermometer for - so I can only assume he has a decent use for it
Moreliavridis
Well-Known Member
Fluke temp gun! Can't go wrong you can pick them up from electrical wholesalers for about $250
Actually by definition a slurry must be a couple of points above 0. Water temp will drop and when it reaches 0 will stop decreasing in temp and start to change state into ice, therefore a slurry will contain water at above 0. If you take an ice cube out of the fridge and put it on the counter and give it a couple of seconds, water will start to form. At this stage the surface of the ice should be starting to change state at 0 and an IRgun should show 0. Really this type of method can still only give an accuracy of 2-5 degrees either way. If the IR gun takes the temp of the ice through the water it will be lower. If it takes the temp of the water, it will be above 0. You need to take the temp as the water is changing to ice, where the temp is constant and the water is changing state. This is the same for boiling point. To get it any more accurate you would have to get it tested professionally by NATA.
At the end of the day this degree of accuracy is only needed in labs and for fridgies, not for a reptile enclosure that has a 10 degree temperature gradient from 1 side to the other. Being able to check the temp of a surface is handy and can be fun but the T/stat is sensing the temp of the air going past it, not the surface. The best way of checking temps in an enclosure is to use a bulb/sensor/probe and that will also come down to the accuracy of the thermometer, but at least it is checking the air temp.
The steam coming off washing up water means that some parts of the water have been over 100 degrees and started to boil, probably in contact with the heating element and under pressure the gas/steam has been compressed into solution. When the water comes out of the tap, the pressure is reduced and the gas expands and comes out of solution, creating small bubbles of steam. Same as the bends in diving.
At the end of the day this degree of accuracy is only needed in labs and for fridgies, not for a reptile enclosure that has a 10 degree temperature gradient from 1 side to the other. Being able to check the temp of a surface is handy and can be fun but the T/stat is sensing the temp of the air going past it, not the surface. The best way of checking temps in an enclosure is to use a bulb/sensor/probe and that will also come down to the accuracy of the thermometer, but at least it is checking the air temp.
The steam coming off washing up water means that some parts of the water have been over 100 degrees and started to boil, probably in contact with the heating element and under pressure the gas/steam has been compressed into solution. When the water comes out of the tap, the pressure is reduced and the gas expands and comes out of solution, creating small bubbles of steam. Same as the bends in diving.
slim6y
Almost Legendary
I agree - the slurry isn't perfect... but by slurry i also didn't mean adding water to the ice, i meant holding the ice in a container melting... which is essentially what you said...
Water can vaporise without boiling - look after a rain shower and the water on the road 'steams' up and vaporises - essentially, providing the water temperature exceeds the air temperature, evaporation can occur. Enough evaporation is often confused with steam - though the make up is the same (H2O) the way they became gases is quite different.
Water can vaporise without boiling - look after a rain shower and the water on the road 'steams' up and vaporises - essentially, providing the water temperature exceeds the air temperature, evaporation can occur. Enough evaporation is often confused with steam - though the make up is the same (H2O) the way they became gases is quite different.
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