Yes, you are.  No, it’s not the scary kind.  It’s infrared radiation and all things (above absolute zero) emit some amount. 

By identifying hotspots and irregular heat signatures, infrared thermography helps prevent electrical fires, reduces downtime, and extends the lifespan of equipment, ultimately saving costs on repairs and replacements.

Yes, infrared thermography is completely safe and non-contact, meaning it does not interfere with the operation of your equipment, making it an ideal choice for regular maintenance checks.

It is recommended to perform infrared thermography every year or every 6 months, depending on the critical nature of the equipment and the environmental conditions of the facility.

Infrared thermography can detect a variety of issues such as loose connections, overloaded circuits, imbalanced loads, and insulation failures, all of which could lead to significant electrical problems if left unchecked.

Our cameras have several thousands of infrared sensors that detect and measure radiation emanating from an objects surface.   The camera converts those thousands of data points into a 2-dimensional representation of the image and it’s surface temperatures.  

Walls? No.   

Clothes? 😒 No!   

Glass?  No, not even glass (with the IR cameras we use at Kelvin).  Keep in mind that the camera sees the surface temperatures. (In fact, glass can get tricky for a new thermographer due to reflections and various environmental factors.  Yet another reason official surveys should only be done by certified thermographers.) 

IR viewing windows aren’t like normal glass.  They’re made of unique materials (germanium, zinc selenide, barium fluoride, etc) whose crystalline structures are transmissive to IR radiation.  IR windows allow us to see into switchgear panels and view buswork, bolted connections, etc without the need to remove panel covers.  They are an NFPA70E godsend.   

Thermography has a few other limitations.  We’re limited to surface temperatures so we can’t see into things.  We have to rely on heat transfer from internal components to the surface.  Luckily, a lot of things in the environments we go into are good thermal conductors.   

The camera doesn’t like reflective surfaces either, things like polished stainless and chrome.  But, we thermographers have some tricks to make it work if we need to.   

Better!  Night vision requires some amount of visible light and then it amplifies it thousands of times.  Thermal imaging requires no visible light at all.  

Yes, visible light has no affect on it at all.   

All kinds of things!  Most of the time, our company uses IR thermography for condition monitoring applications.  We observe mechanical and electrical components and buildings looking for problems that may exist now or in the future.

•  Our company specializes in the use of handheld cameras to inspect commercial, industrial, and municipal electrical systems.  We also inspect a lot of mechanical systems, looking at things like bearings, gearboxes, boilers, furnaces, pipes and storage tanks.  We perform insulation surveys on pipes and storage tanks.  We use IR in conjuction with ultrasound monitoring to perform steam trap surveys.
• We do “building envelope” inspections looking at roofs, foundations, walls, and around windows and doors. We can see insulation problems, moisture intrusion, and even identify structural issues and building deficiencies.  We once found a possum the size of an english bulldog in someone’s attic.
• We also have 2 drones with thermographic cameras that we use to inspect power lines, substations, roofs, solar panels and towers.

We send our instruments out to be calibrated annually. We also do our own verification checks at our shop every 3 months or if a camera gets bumped or dropped.