About the Platform
Who is MyHEAT?
MyHEAT is an Albertan company known for empowering urban energy efficiency by helping to address one of the biggest hurdles faced when engaging homeowners about energy efficiency – its invisibility. We’ve helped millions of home and business owners visualize and compare heat loss across entire cities. For more information, visit the About Us page.
How do I contact MyHEAT about bringing this technology to my community?
If you are interested in bringing MyHEAT to your community, send us an email at solutions@myheat.ca to request a demo.
How does MyHEAT’s process work?
MyHEAT’s process starts with airborne thermal data collection.We integrate key benefits of a world-class thermal sensor, with patented processing methods that utilize computer vision and machine learning. With industry leading data fidelity and acquisition capabilities over traditional airborne cameras, thermal data can be collected for entire cities over the course of a few days.
The collected data is processed to reveal individual building’s heat loss details, as well as comparable energy efficiency metrics over an urban area. Our proprietary process includes an industry first—the ability to automatically correct for local changes in temperature, microclimate and elevation so all buildings are evaluated as if they were collected at a single instance in time. This allows us to compare urban heat loss over different dates as well as between houses, communities, and cities.
For more information, visit our Technology Overview page.
How is the heat loss data presented?
MyHEAT provides heat loss data on public or private platforms. We work with partner organizations and clients to determine the best solution for offering heat loss data in their area.
Public platforms visually compare neighbourhood heat loss details enabling users to compare their homes to others in their community, driving competition. Private platforms enable direct and personalized engagement, supporting robust program evaluation. Both platform options present users with personalized heat loss details on unique home profile pages and enhance the customer journey with directly relevant and personalized content.
Heat Loss Maps
What is a HEAT Map?
A HEAT Map is an aerial thermal image of a building that indicates potential heat loss areas. The rooftop heat loss image is mapped to the full-scale of colours shown, with red indicating the hottest temperature measured and blue indicating the coolest temperature measured.
Why do most houses 'look the same'?
This is because the temperature difference of the roof is mapped to the full spectrum of colours shown. As a result, every home will have some blue and some red. For example, one house may have a temperature range between 7°C and 12°C and another may have a range between 10°C and 13°C. Our visualization assigns blue to the coolest temperature and red to the hottest then stretches the colour scale to each individual roof. The images may appear similar at first glance, but there is a larger temperature difference between the blue and red areas.
Why aren't the HEAT Map and aerial image aligned properly?
Simply because they come from two different data sources. The HEAT Map is provided by MyHEAT, while the aerial image is provided by Google Maps. It’s the image of your house as seen in any version of Google Maps. We are currently working to improve this alignment.
What are the 'grey' areas in the HEAT Map?
The grey areas represent the raw thermal data around a home that have been processed with a smoothing (i.e. blurring) algorithm, so as to provide more focus on the detailed HEAT Map colours of your home.
Heat Loss Ratings
What is a HEAT Rating?
A HEAT Rating is a value assigned to a building that compares heat loss to others in the community on a scale of 1-10. The higher the rating, the higher the heat loss. HEAT Ratings are generated through a machine learning process that assesses and sorts buildings based on unique thermal attributes of the roof.
How accurate is the HEAT Rating?
The world-class thermal sensor used to capture your homes heat loss is highly accurate to 0.05°C. Collected data is processed with proprietary algorithms to reveal individual building’s heat loss details, as well as comparable energy efficiency metrics over a town or city. Factors that can impact the accuracy of a HEAT Rating include:
- The size of the house, with larger houses typically losing more heat than smaller houses,
- How well the roof material is classified (as this affects an important thermal characteristic known as emissivity),
- How well vegetation over roofs are classified, and
- How well we can fit home boundary information (i.e., GIS building polygons) to the corresponding thermal image of the home – for which we have developed world-class patented technologies.
Why doesn't my house have a HEAT Rating?
If your home does not have a HEAT Rating, it may be due to:
- Vegetation covering more than 40% of your roof,
- Missing thermal data, or
- Incorrect home boundary information (i.e., GIS building polygons).
I have an efficiency score or rating for my building from an energy evaluation. Is this the same as a HEAT Rating?
A HEAT Rating considers energy being lost from the roof of a building from a bird’s-eye view. While we have found a correlation with energy use, the HEAT Rating is not a direct indicator of the home’s overall efficiency. We recommend contacting a local energy expert to receive a detailed assessment of your home’s overall energy performance.
Data Collection
How is the data collected?
Data is collected using a thermal sensor attached to the bottom of an airplane. MyHEAT collects mid-wave thermal infrared energy emitted from the surface of the features (i.e., houses, roads, vegetation) composing the scene at the time of acquisition. For more information, visit our Technology Overview page.
When was the data collected?
Our flyovers take place in the spring and/or fall. This allows us to meet our strict environmental requirements for acquisition. Data is collected at night to minimize solar effects on building temperatures and under cool, dry, and low-wind speeds conditions. Visit your home profile page to see when the data was collected for your specific area.
Is the data collected in real time?
No, the data is not collected in real time. The HEAT Map of your house was collected at a single instance in time. Additionally, the HEAT Map and Rating do not reflect any upgrades or changes made after the date that the data was collected.
Interpreting the Information
Does the HEAT Map or HEAT Rating represent my home's energy consumption?
No, neither the HEAT Map nor the HEAT Rating represent consumption. The HEAT Map represents potential heat loss areas. It can help you identify where you may be wasting energy due to warm air escaping your home.
The HEAT Rating is not an energy efficiency rating, though it is correlated with energy consumption. Consequently, homes with higher heat loss tend to consume more energy, while homes with low heat loss tend to consume less energy.
I don’t agree with this information, is it wrong?
While there are several factors that may impact the accuracy of the HEAT Rating, disagreeing with the information doesn’t necessarily mean that it is incorrect. We always recommend that you treat your HEAT Map and HEAT Rating as an indicator of potential heat loss, not a diagnosis. It is important to consider your knowledge of the building and how it is used. For instance, changes made to your home after the collection date will not be reflected on the map so you may not see the result of a retrofit if it was made after the HEAT Map was created.
Once you’ve viewed your information, we recommend doing some additional investigation. Visit our Case Studies page to see example homes where further investigation helped homeowners uncover hidden problems shown on their HEAT Map. It is possible that you’ve uncovered a hidden problem in your home.
If you still have questions, send us a message and we can look into the matter.
What should I do next?
There are a number of steps you can take to reduce the amount of energy your home is wasting, including:
- Contact your local utility or government agency to learn more about rebates that may be available for energy efficiency improvements.
- In Canada, you can contact a local service organization to schedule an EnerGuide home evaluation which will provide you with expert advice and a personalized retrofit plan. Find a service organization to schedule an appointment. In the U.S.? We recommend visiting the Professional Home Energy Audits page on the U.S. Department of Energy’s website to learn more about home energy audits.
- Implement no or low-cost improvements such as:
- Adjusting your thermostat or install a programmable thermostat that will automatically adjust to your schedule,
- Caulk and weatherstrip windows, doors, and baseboards that leak air. Look for air leaks to seal around plumbing, ducting, or electrical penetrations as well. If you have a chimney, make sure the flue damper is closed when it is not in use.
- Purchasing energy-efficient window coverings to curb heat loss from the windows while improving the coziness and comfort level of your home. Install shrink-wrap plastic to the interior of windows in the colder months.
- Avoiding running your bathroom or kitchen ventilation fans longer than necessary to prevent outside air from replacing inside air.
Privacy
Can you actually 'see' into my house with this data?
No, the thermal camera we use does not see through windows, roofs, or walls and we cannot identify any people or contents within the home. We do not collect information regarding the occupants in a house, their age, gender, race, income, or the occupancy status of the home. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
I don’t want my house shown on the map. Can I remove my house’s HEAT Map and HEAT Rating from this site?
Yes, please send us a message with your house address and we will remove it within 1-5 business days.
Finding your home
Why is my address different from the one I searched?
Our map search is powered by the Google Maps API while the house addresses in our database come from multiple sources such as local governments, or through open data catalogues. In most cases, the addresses are very similar. However, the street type may vary depending on the source. Please send us a message if you would like to report an error with your address.
I can't access my building, why is that?
MyHEAT offers both public and private platforms in different regions across North America. If you live in a region with a public map, but cannot find your building, it may be excluded due to data quality concerns. Additionally, MyHEAT is focused on single-family buildings for the cities available on our public maps. Multi-family resident and commercial buildings are not currently included on our standard platforms. Private platforms in a region are created for custom projects with local organizations.
Please send us a message if you:
- Live in a single-family residence and your house is not in a region with a public map, or
- Believe that you should be able to view your home on a private platform in your region, but are unable to do so.
Additional Questions
My question is not listed here. How can I contact you?
We are continually adding answers to frequently asked questions. However, if your question is not listed here, you can send us a message and we will respond back to you as soon as possible.