What information do you collect?(i) We only collect mid-wave thermal infrared energy (3-5 microns) emitted from the surface of the features (i.e., houses, roads, vegetation) composing the scene at the time of acquisition. (ii) We do not collect, or have access to any information regarding the number of occupants in a house, their age, gender, race, income, or the occupancy status of the home. The thermal camera we use does not see through windows, roofs or walls (see #3 below). For more information, please view our Privacy Terms.
When was the thermal image taken?The most recent thermal dataset was acquired on May 13-14, 2012 at night (between 12:30AM - 5:30AM) from an aircraft (flying at 150+ Knots) using the state-of-the-art TABI-1800 sensor (i.e., a $550,000+ thermal camera developed by ITRES). The thermal image of your house was collected at a single instance in time. Please note that this website does not provide real-time data.
What kind of detail does the thermal image show?The TABI-1800 sensor has a thermal resolution [i.e., ability to detect the smallest temperature differences to 5/100ths of a degree Celsius (i.e., 0.05 °C)] and a spatial resolution that is dependent on the flying height of the aircraft above the ground. We currently show data with a 1m spatial resolution on the free HEAT website. This means that every pixel composing the detailed house images, represents an area on the ground 1m x 1m in size, with a single temperature, or waste heat value associated to it.
What about the satellite and street level imagery?The satellite and street level imagery are provided directly from Google and implemented through the use of the . To the best of our knowledge, the Calgary satellite image was recently updated (2013) for most parts of Calgary, while the street view images were last updated in 2012.
What other resources do you use?Cadastral information from October 2012, such as property boundaries, house polygons, livable area above ground, and home age are provided by the City of Calgary and publically available on the website. We also have (2012 and 2013) orthographically corrected color and near infrared air photographs of the City of Calgary (at a 30cm spatial resolution). Additionally, several studies such as the Urban Archetypes Project, Community Case Study: The City of Calgary (2009) and the Energy Mapping Study (2008) were used.
Do you report any suspicious activity based on the waste heat of the homes?No, that is not our role.
Can I define roof materials for more than one home?Yes, you can define roof materials for multiple homes. If each person identifies a few rooftops in their neighbourhood and/or community, all the rooftop materials in the City of Calgary will quickly be defined. This information will help us improve the accuracy of the waste heat measures leaving homes and communities, as well as HEAT Scores and energy models. Identifying roof (and other) materials supports emissivity corrections. We may even be able to host a competition based on participants correctly identifying roof materials.
Why do I see a green tick mark on some homes?The green tick mark indicates that a user has submitted roof material information about that specific home using our VGI roof material tool.
Why is my home not available to view on your website?(i) Please note that the free HEAT project currently focuses only on single dwelling residences, as individual house boundaries can be defined, and unique information related to the interior of these boundaries can be provided. Commercial, municipal, and multi-residential buildings have been excluded for now. (ii) It is also possible that your home was not included in the original City of Calgary GIS Cadastral data, or that there was an error with the data of your house. If you provide us with simple information regarding your home (e.g., age, living area, and building type) we will do our best to update your online thermal house information in a timely manner. (iii) We are currently working on expanding to the full City of Calgary. Please sign up to be notified when we launch.
I can't see the list of communities or the heat map. What's going on?We are using the latest web technologies in our project to provide you with a high-quality web-based user experience. It is possible that you may be using a browser that is not supported by our application. For the best user experience, we recommend using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer 9 or higher. If you are still experiencing issues with the previously listed browsers, please contact us.
