Putting Heat Loss on the Map

A bird’s-eye view with Energy Made Visible™

Imagine if you could see an aerial map showing exactly where buildings in a city were losing energy. This was the idea that inspired Dr. Geoffrey Hay from the University of Calgary to begin his six years of award-winning and peer-reviewed research that lead to the creation of MyHEAT.

MyHEAT uses thermography and machine learning to create powerful, city-wide visualizations of energy escaping from homes and businesses. Our unique platform offers geographic insights for energy efficiency opportunities and empowers homeowners to take action with personalized heat loss data.

How does thermal infrared heat loss mapping work?

MyHEAT quickly and economically collects aerial thermal infrared imagery across entire cities. Data is collected with a plane flying over a city at night, under strict environmental conditions. It takes three nights to collect data for a city the size of Calgary, Alberta (825 km²).

The data then undergoes a proprietary process to reveal an individual building’s heat loss details, as well as comparable metrics across a town or city. MyHEAT has the ability to automatically correct for local changes in temperature, microclimate, and elevation. This means all buildings can be compared as if they were collected at a single instance in time.

The result of this process is the creation of personalized HEAT Maps and HEAT Ratings for each building in a city, which can be offered to customers through a public or private platform.

HEAT Maps show potential heat loss areas from a bird’s-eye view. Red areas show the hottest temperatures measured, or heat loss areas, and blue shows the coolest.

HEAT Ratings offer a relative measure of how much heat a building is losing compared to others in the neighbourhood and city.

Learn more about how it works at myheat.ca/technology.

How is it used?

By empowering users with the tools to investigate and compare potential heat loss in their home, MyHEAT helps the public to make informed decisions about home upgrades. We engage the human spirit to leverage the power of competition, encouraging homeowners to take action.

Additionally, our platform offers easy to use spatial insights on efficiency opportunities. With mass-scale thermal data at their fingertips, program implementers can inform program design, identify target customers who may benefit from a home retrofit, and elevate customer engagement through MyHEAT’s public or private platforms.

Make changes at home today that will have a global impact tomorrow.

Written by:
Daygan Fowler, Energy Efficiency Program Manager at MyHEAT