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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly find draughts in your home.

Most people should hand this to a purpose-built tool.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

30 minutesto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill needednone

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsNo priced alternative is listed in the available tool data.

If this goes wrong: you seal a ventilation opening, miss a hidden defect or spend money treating the wrong location.

What to actually do

  1. Use a tool built for this

    The route this page recommends

  2. Do it yourself

    Second choice

    A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open a chatbot and paste the supplied prompt, filling in the home details, affected rooms and when the draught is strongest.
    2. Inspect each affected room in the order the chatbot gives, taking clear photographs of windows, external doors, letterboxes, skirting, floor edges, fireplaces, loft hatches and pipe or cable openings.
    3. Use a strip of tissue or thin paper to check one suspected gap at a time, recording the location and whether the movement changes when doors, windows or extractor fans are opened or closed.
    4. Paste the photographs, observations and test results into the same chat and ask the chatbot to update its ranked list without adding assumptions.
    5. Compare each suggested repair with the location in your home, leaving ventilation openings unobstructed and stopping where the advice involves damp, structural damage, gas appliances or electrical wiring.
    6. Seal only suitable minor gaps, then repeat the paper test and record whether the draught has changed; contact the named competent professional for anything concealed, damaged or uncertain.

    Prompt

    Help me find likely draughts in my home without pretending you can detect them remotely. I will provide room details, photographs and results from safe checks. Ask for any missing information before ranking the likely sources. Consider windows, external doors, letterboxes, floorboards, skirting boards, loft hatches, fireplaces, pipe and cable openings, and gaps around services. Distinguish unwanted draughts from deliberate ventilation. Give me: 1) a room-by-room inspection order, 2) safe ways to test each suspected location without using a naked flame, 3) a ranked list of likely causes based only on the evidence I provide, 4) low-risk repair options, and 5) clear signs that I should stop and contact a competent builder, joiner, window fitter, heating engineer or other appropriate professional. Do not claim certainty, recommend blocking vents, or suggest a repair where damp, damage, gas appliances or electrical wiring may be involved. Home details: [type and age of home, if known]. Rooms affected: [rooms]. When the draught is noticed: [conditions]. Photos and observations: [paste here]. Test results: [paste here].

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

  3. Hand it to a person

    The distant third

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot feel the temperature or movement of air and cannot inspect the parts of a wall, floor or roof that are hidden.
  • It cannot reliably distinguish a draught from intended ventilation when the photograph and description do not show the whole setup.
  • It cannot confirm that a gap is safe to seal near a gas appliance, flue, electrical cable or ventilation system.
  • It cannot carry out the inspection, make a repair or accept responsibility if the suggested cause is wrong.

What caps this at PARTLY: physical presence, judgement under ambiguity and stakes of error.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output1
Inputs2
Verification2
Liability1
Effort delta1
Total7 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT find draughts in my house?
It can help you make a room-by-room inspection plan and interpret observations you provide. It cannot feel the air, see inside concealed spaces or confirm the source without you carrying out checks.
How do I find where a draught is coming from?
Check windows, external doors, letterboxes, skirting, floor edges, fireplaces, loft hatches and service openings one at a time using a strip of tissue or thin paper. Do not use a naked flame, and do not block ventilation openings while testing.
Can AI tell me how to stop a draught?
It can suggest low-risk options for obvious gaps, such as suitable draught proofing around a door or window. It should not decide that a vent, flue or opening near gas, electricity, damp or structural damage is safe to seal.
When should I call someone about a draught?
Contact a competent builder, joiner, window fitter, heating engineer or other appropriate professional when the source is hidden, the opening is damaged, or gas appliances, flues, wiring, damp or required ventilation may be involved. Arrange an inspection if simple checks do not identify the source or the problem persists after a suitable minor repair.

Nearby answers

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Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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