Thermal Imaging Electrical Inspections
A loose or degraded connection inside a switchboard heats up under load long before it fails. A thermal scan finds it while it's still a repair rather than a fire, and it's done live with nothing shut down.
What a Thermal Scan Finds That Nothing Else Does
Electrical connections degrade slowly. A terminal that was tightened correctly ten years ago can loosen through thermal cycling and vibration, and as the contact area reduces, resistance rises and the connection starts generating heat.
From the outside, nothing looks wrong. The board looks normal, the lights work, nothing trips. The heat builds under load, and the failure mode when it finally comes is either an outage or a fire.
A thermal camera shows that heat directly. We scan the board under normal load and see immediately which terminals, breakers or busbar connections are running hotter than they should be relative to everything around them.
Crucially, this happens with the installation live and running. Nothing gets shut down, which is why it works for businesses that can't afford an outage just to have someone look.
What We Actually Look For
Reading a thermal image well is more than pointing a camera and calling anything warm a fault. Plenty of components run hot legitimately, and a report that flags every warm contactor is noise rather than information.
What matters is comparison and context. A terminal running significantly hotter than the identical terminal on the adjacent phase carrying the same load is a finding. A contactor running warm because contactors run warm isn't.
So we look at phase-to-phase comparison across the same circuit, at how a component compares to its identical neighbours, at the load being drawn at the time of the scan, and at whether a temperature makes sense for that type of component.
You get a report with the thermal image, a matching standard photo so you can see what you're actually looking at, the location, and a plain-English assessment of what it means and how urgent it is.
Who This Is Genuinely Worth It For
Thermal imaging earns its keep where an electrical failure has real consequences, or where the installation carries serious load.
- Businesses where an outage stops trading or production
- Medical, dental and allied health premises with equipment that can't lose supply
- Disability and aged care accommodation
- Rental portfolios and commercial property, as part of a maintenance program
- Any installation with heavy or continuous load, including workshops and light industrial
- Older switchboards that have never been inspected internally
- Any board that has had a history of tripping, heat marks or a burning smell
- Installations that have had significant load added, such as solar, EV charging or new plant
How It Pairs With RCD Testing
These two checks cover completely different failure modes and are best done together in the same visit.
RCD testing confirms that if current leaks to earth, the supply disconnects fast enough to protect a person. It says nothing at all about whether a connection in your board is cooking itself.
Thermal imaging finds the overheating connection. It says nothing about whether your shock protection works.
Doing both at once means one visit, one report covering both, and a genuine picture of the installation's condition rather than half of one.
What Drives the Price
We aren't going to publish a headline figure that turns into something else once we're on site. What we'll do is tell you exactly what moves the number, so you can see where your job is likely to sit before you call.
- The number of switchboards and distribution boards to be scanned
- Site size and how many locations need attending
- Whether it's a one-off inspection or a scheduled maintenance program
- Whether a formal written report with images is required
- Whether RCD testing or other compliance work is done in the same visit
- Any remedial work identified, which is quoted separately once you have seen the findings
Quotes are free, fixed, and state what's included and excluded. If we think something might turn up once we open things up, you hear about it before we start rather than on the invoice.
Call 0435 006 420Where We Do This Work
We service all of Adelaide. Being based in Wynn Vale, these are the suburbs we're in most often and where we can usually get to you fastest. Pick yours for local detail, and if you are somewhere else in the metro area, just call and ask.
Common Questions About Thermal Imaging Inspections
No, the opposite. The installation needs to be live and under normal load, because heat only shows up when current is flowing. That's one of the main advantages for businesses, since there's no shutdown required.
Annually is the common interval for commercial and higher-consequence installations, often aligned with other compliance testing. For a home it isn't routine maintenance, but it's well worth doing once on an older board or if there has been any history of tripping or heat marks.
A report with the thermal image, a matching standard photo of the same location, the load conditions at the time, and a plain-English assessment of what each finding means and how urgent it is. Not a pile of images with no interpretation.
No, and a report that says so isn't worth much. Plenty of components run warm legitimately. What matters is a connection running hotter than its identical neighbour carrying the same load. We assess in context rather than flagging everything above a temperature threshold.
Yes, and it's the sensible way to do it. The two checks cover completely different failure modes, and doing both in one visit gives you a full picture of the installation for one attendance rather than two.
It isn't routine home maintenance. It's genuinely worth doing once if you have an older switchboard that has never been opened, a history of nuisance tripping, or if you have recently added a big load like solar or EV charging.
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Owner-operated, licensed and insured. Justin quotes the job, does the job, and answers the phone afterwards.