Thermal bridging images

This is visible as soot on the inside of the kitchen ceiling of our lean to extension.The soot lines on the ceiling track the roof joists. It is yet to be confirmed, whether the thermal bridging is happening from within the kitchen or within the roof void. The marks seem to be worse by the back doors where we also dry the clothes on the radiator. We recently found the soot does wipe off. Yet the fluctuating heat and sudden drops of temperature in the kitchen have us wondering about insulating and ventilating effectively.
Being a large lean to kitchen we hope to live mainly in this part of the house once we have fixed the fabric first!! It’s clear we need to strike the balance between insulation, ventilation and moisture.
FLIR1384 FLIR1385 FLIR1386 FLIR1387 FLIR1388 FLIR1389 FLIR1390 FLIR1391

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Really interesting photos. I wonder if the “soot” is actually a small amount of black mold? (Sorry you’ve probably already though of this) It could easily be growing on the areas where moisture is condensing on the colder parts of the ceiling affected by the cold bridges. Have you thought about a dehumidifier to manage some of the moisture, particularly from drying clothes? We bought one for clothes drying in the winter and it works great. Put it in a small room with the clothes on a clothes horse and it traps a lot of the humidity coming off them. No more condensation on the windows and the laundry dries loads faster.

Thanks Matt.
Definitely we need to get rid of the moisture from drying clothes. I’m still practicing at putting my understanding of what is happening with the moisture into words :grin:… I think you explained perfectly what I understand to be.happening !
I like the idea of a dehumidifier :+1:
Additionally, I know we need to address insulation in the kitchen. I am learning a lot about insulation and airflow lately. I know these lessons will be ongoing as I continue along our retrofit journey.

Interesting. I have wanted to do an IR survey of our house for a while. How did you lay your hands on an IR imager to get these?
I think they a re tad expensive to buy, but it would be great if there was one to borrow via CarbonCoop ( @cc_staff) or to hire for a couple of days

I can send you more information about the specifics of this in a private message if you would like. For the benefit of everyone though, we do have a thermal imaging camera which is available for all Carbon Co-op members to borrow for free (although if you can’t pick it up from us we might ask you to cover the return part of postage).

Anyone who is keen to borrow it can just send me an email at membership[at]carbon.coop and I will send you more information and the calendar to book a slot.

That would be great. I suspected it’s over in the Manchester area and I’m over near Hull; during out postage won’t be a problem however.

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Thermal bridging? should this happen on an insulated door < 2 years A+ rated?