The new Black & Decker TLD100 Energy Saver Series Thermal Leak Detector is a great way for consumers to help reduce their home’s energy consumption and save money by finding and fixing thermal leaks. Conserving energy and improving your home’s efficiency is what Black & Decker is really focused on with their new easy to use Energy Saver Series of tools. Statistically, heating and cooling can account for 50% of your energy usage. When your home has thermal energy leaks, your electric bills will end up being higher. The trick with thermal energy leaks is that they can be hard to find. This is where the new Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector comes in.
Testing and Usage
Our test tool arrived in typical retail packaging and inside the box was the tool, instructions and a 5 step guide to finding and fixing basic energy leaks. The tool feels well made and sturdy and fits in the hand easily. The Thermal Leak Detector features an easy to read LCD and the detector displays temperatures in either Fahrenheit or Celsius. There is a small switch inside the battery compartment on the back to allow switching from degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius. A 9V battery is required to power the tool but is not included. Along with the tool there is a handy 5 step guide to fixing basic energy leaks and which offers guidance on doing everything from caulking to weatherproofing windows and doors. If you are creative you can come up with some other uses of this tool like checking the temperatures of your refrigerator and freezer.
Using the Black & Decker TLD100 Energy Saver Series Thermal Leak Detector was very easy. Simply “point and shoot.” What you do is first take a temperature reading of a surface inside your home that will serve as your benchmark. Next, start taking readings around your home in places like around doors and windows, at the tops and bottoms of walls and around ceiling light fixtures. This tool gets fun to use! When you point the Thermal Leak Detector towards a surface that is within your set of limits for your benchmark temperature, the Energy Saver Series’ light shines green on the surface. This tells you it is “good” or the right temperature. If you point the Thermal Leak Detector towards a surface and it glows red, then that means the surface is warmer then the benchmark. If it glows blue, it means the surface temperature is lower than the benchmark you set.
The next big question is how can you use this information? For example, let’s say it is in the middle of the summer, and your benchmark surface temperature is 73 degrees F. inside your home. You then take the Thermal Leak Detector and start to point it at different things and when you come to your front door, you notice that it starts to glow red around the perimeter of the door and the temperature on the monitor is reading something like 79 degrees F. What this means is that you are having infiltration of hot air from the outside around the door and chances are that either your door is warped or the weather strip seal needs to be replaced.
(Which means that the hot air from the garage is coming into my house!)
Conclusion
We liked the Black & Decker TLD100 Energy Saver Series Thermal Leak Detector a lot because it was intuitive and easy to use. Conserving energy is sometimes a tricky undertaking, especially when you can’t see what is happening. This tool is cool (no pun intended) because, for many, the color changing ability of the built-in light will make it easy to see what is happening. For our performance rating we gave this tool a 8/10 since it is unique, as compared to other infrared remote temperature detectors, and it does what it is supposed to do with relative ease. For our value rating we gave the tool an 8/10 because, while we have seen some less expensive models, none offer the features built into this one. Remember that an efficient home will stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter and potentially can save you some significant money if you discover and repair the energy leaks in your home.
