Professional contractors and tradespeople use thermal imaging devices to detect potential problems behind walls and in equipment on a regular basis. The temperature mapping allows them to find issues such as water damage, electrical malfunctions and energy leaks.

It’s a gadget the weekend home improvement warrior would love to have. The problem is that thermal imagers are too pricey for the typical homeowner.

Now, Hema Imaging has developed an affordable thermal imager for the homeowner’s tool box. “It’s a device we think solves a lot of problems,” says founder Erik Beall. “It’s a pretty general purpose, value-added diagnostic tool.’

Beall developed the HemaImager when his first daughter was born more than two years ago. He became paranoid she was going to develop SIDS and became obsessed with taking her temperature. Temperature mapping turned into a hobby of sorts, and the MRI physicist created the HemaImager.

Hema Imaging’s first version of its HemaImager used a smart phone to map different problems. After an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign last summer, Beall re-thought the device and made it a self-sustaining computer model. “You can track temperature changes by its face,” he explains. “We have 20 different scripts that are easy to modify. Everything is incorporated into one device.” And updates are as easy as finding a USB port.

Many of the imager’s components will be manufactured in Cleveland. After looking into manufacturing costs in China, Beall found it was actually cheaper to go local. “Going overseas, you have to go through a middle man and there are time delays,” says Beall. “Locally, there are a number of people here who make sense. There are several injection molders and several manufacturers of electronic circuit boards and they are all very, very competent.”

In addition to the cost savings, Beall says it made sense to keep manufacturing local. “Northeast Ohio is a good environment for finding people and finding sources for people who make these components,” he says. “We’re committed to staying in the Cleveland area for as much as we can do.”

Beall will be showcasing his imager at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas January at CWRU’s Blackstone Launchpad and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation booth. At the same time he will be re-launching a Kickstarter campaign with his new model. Last time he raised $156,000, short of his $205,000 goal. This time his goal is to raise $100,000.