Published 2023-10-17

Every year, a large number of individuals and businesses suffer from water damage. In 2022, Swedish insurance companies handled a total of 35,205 water damage claims. Almost 60% of water damage was caused by aged pipes and fittings, followed by leaking appliances in kitchens and leakage through waterproofing in wet rooms.

According to the industry organization Säker Vatten, water damage costs property owners and society several billion kronor every year (6 and 10 billion respectively in 2020). An effective way to prevent a further increase in these costs is to detect water leaks at an early stage. Using a thermal imaging camera.

Pipe leakage in underfloor heating systems is a fault that can occur both in new construction and during renovation. Usually you can see signs of this by the fact that the pipes are not getting warm or that there is simply little or no pressure in the expansion tank.

If you suspect a water leak in your underfloor heating, you can do the following: turn off the heating and let the pipes cool down. Then run the underfloor heating again. Measure with a thermal imaging camera. You should see fairly quickly if and where there is a water leak in the system. The leak shows up as a “floral pattern” on your thermal image. With that knowledge, you won’t have to carve up the entire floor. Instead, you only need to open a smaller floor space, which saves a lot of time and money.

Suitable thermal imaging cameras

Pssst! Did you know that a thermography course is included when you buy a thermal imaging camera from us?

Read more about our thermography course here

Published 2022-12-11

Here are excerpts from the National Archives’ regulations and general advice on the indoor climate in archive premises (RA-FS 2013:4) and our measurement solutions that help you document your archive climate.

Chapter 8 Protection against harmful climate and environmental impacts in archive premises

1 § The archive premises shall be adapted to the documents stored there in terms of temperature, relative humidity, air purity and other environmental factors. Only materials that do not adversely affect the documents may be used in the archive room and its construction, finishes and furnishings. Documents shall not be exposed to light other than that necessary for their care and access. Documents that may adversely affect each other should be kept separate.

2 § The archive room must not be in direct contact with the outdoor environment. The entrance and pedestrian or transport route to the archive premises shall be equipped with an airlock. An airlock need not be provided for the emergency escape route in the outer wall of the archive room if the emergency escape route is intended only for emergency evacuation.

3 § The air temperature and relative humidity in the archive premises shall be kept stable and continuously monitored. The checks and any actions taken shall be documented.

General advice: In general, a lower storage temperature increases the lifespan of documents provided that the humidity can be kept at an appropriate and constant level. Diurnal variation of air temperature should not be greater than ± 2 °C. For relative humidity, the diurnal variation should not be greater than ± 5 %. For the long-term storage of documents, the air temperature and relative humidity of the archive room should have the following values.

Material	Air temperature	Relative humidity
Paper	≤ 18 °C	35%
Magnetic data carriers	≤ 15 °C	30%
Optical data carriers	≤ 18 °C	35%
Black and white films and images	≤ 18 °C	30%
Color films and images	≤ -5 °C	30%
Nitrate film and negatives	≤ 2 °C	30%
Acetate film	≤ 2 °C	30%
Microfilm (security copy)	≤ 12 °C	30%

Solutions to document the climate in your archive

Here are two examples of product ranges that fit well in archives. Give us a call on 031-704 10 70 if you need more info or if you need a more customized solution. You can also send us your questions via our form.