A thermographic survey finds problems that have not happened yet. A loose termination, an overloaded phase, a failing bearing — all of them get hot before they fail, and all of them are visible through a thermal camera weeks or months before anything trips. Done properly it is one of the cheapest pieces of preventive maintenance available. Done badly it produces a folder of pretty orange pictures and no decisions.
The single most important condition: load
A thermal survey of an unloaded switchboard is close to worthless. Heat is generated by current, so a connection carrying nothing looks perfect no matter how loose it is. As a rule of thumb, aim for at least 40 percent of normal operating load, and record the actual load alongside every image.
This is the thing most likely to make a survey a waste of money, and it is usually decided by when the survey was scheduled rather than by the thermographer. Book it for a working shift, not a shutdown.
What we need from you
- Safe access to energised equipment, and whoever holds the permit
- Panels open, or infrared windows fitted — thermal cameras cannot see through steel covers
- Normal operating load, with the actual figures at the time of the survey
- Single-line diagrams or asset lists, so findings can be tied to identifiable equipment
What you get back
A report listing every anomaly found, each with a thermal image, a matching visible-light photograph, the temperature rise above reference, the load at the time, and a severity ranking with a recommended timescale. The ranking is the part that matters: a 15 °C rise on a lightly loaded circuit and a 15 °C rise on a fully loaded one are not the same finding, and a report that does not distinguish them is asking you to do the analysis yourself.
The point of the report is not to tell you what is hot. It is to tell you what to fix first, and what can wait until the next shutdown.
Findings are ranked in four bands, from monitor at next survey through to isolate and repair immediately. Anything in the top band we tell you about on site, on the day — not three weeks later when the report is typed.
