Sustainability is a major goal for the UK, with everyone from the average homeowner to industrial business owners exploring multiple ways to reduce their carbon emissions and be at least a carbon-neutral participant in the economy.
To accomplish this, business owners need to assess their company’s energy usage for how it is sourced and how efficiently it is used. Thermal imaging cameras are effective tools for revealing energy usage so you can improve it. Read more about how these tools and thermal imaging surveys will help improve our economy’s sustainability below.
Thermal Imaging Surveys Improving Building Sustainability
The internal sensor’s ability to read IR radiation is the key to thermal imaging. The infrared radiation emitted from locations is read by the camera’s sensor and then combined with the data from the visual camera to create the final result. This can be achieved with many different thermal colour palettes, but generally, most people are familiar with Rainbow HC colour images. Each colour is assigned to a temperature making visualising the location of warm areas much more intuitive than using isolated readings from an IR thermometer.
Thermal imaging surveys are a service we provide at Thermascan to reveal an incredible amount of information about energy usage by tracking how heat travels around a building. This can be related to many areas, including industrial facilities, HV power generation and plumbing, but the most popular survey is a standard building survey.
Thermographic building surveys can assess how heat escapes from your building in various ways, such as insulation quality. These surveys are also useful for diagnosing an emerging problem as you can quickly find the root of any issue non-invasively.
Reducing Heat Waste Protecting the Environment
Windows make it easy for your valuable heat to leave the building. Creating a strong thermal envelope will ensure that your heat remains in your building longer and reduces the heat you need to generate to create a pleasant environment for your team and potential customers. A thermal survey will reveal if specific areas of losing heat at an unnecessary rate as well as show areas where insulation is failing. The lost heat will be revealed on a thermal imaging survey as excessively hot; these weak spots can be fixed later.
Similar results relating to a business’s HVAC and cooling systems can be presented. Companies that generate excessive heat will need an effective cooling system to compensate. With thermal imaging, air leaks in ducting can be spotted that could contribute to an inefficient system ventilation system. Additionally, the performance of air conditioning units can be assessed quickly and alert the user if the cooling unit needs maintenance or repairs.
Thermal Imaging Energy Audits
A thermal imaging energy audit evaluates a structure's energy productivity using our thermal imaging cameras to distinguish areas of heat loss or gain. There are two ways that an energy audit can go; firstly, the previously mentioned goal of assessing a building’s thermal envelope. Secondly, there is condition monitoring of machinery or electrical systems.
How Electrical Systems Are Audited
Thermal cameras will reveal the condition of working electrical systems in the same non-invasive manner mentioned earlier. This is particularly helpful for conducting thermographic electrical surveys as they can be reviewed without shutting down those systems.
On a small scale, a building’s electrical board can be viewed with a thermal camera to reveal the heat of the energy passing through working connections. This energy should be consistent across safe working electrics, but worn or damaged ones will reveal unusual amounts, such as a cool connection revealing that no electricity is passing through those connections.
On a larger scale, HV power thermal surveys are also assessed similarly, and the ability to use a handheld thermal imaging camera to review your facility quickly makes maintenance checks far faster and safer. Ensuring that your systems function correctly is one of many steps towards energy efficiency. With energy efficiency, your business will need less power, which means less environmental impact. Acoustic imaging cameras are also used in surveys conducted at power utilities. Whilst thermal imaging is effective at reading the IR radiation of worn machinery or electrics, acoustic cameras can detect harmful discharges amongst the electrical systems. Issues such as PD (partial electrical discharge) lead to equipment failures and costly downtime at your facility.
Renewable Energy Maintenance Surveys
Thermal imaging is an excellent tool for maintaining various equipment used to source renewable green energy. For example, green energy generators such as wind turbines and solar panels are highly effective for creating a sustainable future. This equipment involves a collection of complex mechanical parts that must be monitored, assessed, and repaired regularly to ensure that they work efficiently; these maintenance checks are where our thermal and acoustic imagers will assist.
For example, thermal imaging cameras monitor solar panels and review the ones that need maintenance. Unfortunately, most businesses install their panels in hard-to-access locations, making maintenance difficult. In addition, solar panels will degrade over time as internal power cells break down and reduce the efficiency of their power generation. Hand-held thermal cameras can easily assess the condition of solar panel cells and alert the observer to any damaged components, especially when compared to the additional panels surrounding them. By ensuring these generators function at peak efficiency, increasing green energy will replace non-renewable sources that harm the environment and make our economy greener each year.
UK Thermal Imaging Surveys
All our thermal imaging building surveys are conducted by certified level two certified field engineers who carry out detailed surveys to BREEAM standards (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) which is essential for detailed thermal building surveys.
When assessing electrical systems, our expert team will conduct a separate electrical thermographic survey dedicated to providing condition data on any electrical system you manage.
Before surveying your premises, we will do specific checks that need to be done to ensure the results are accurate. Once the thermographic survey has been carried out, a full detailed report of our findings will be given to you tailored to meet insurance standards and to present areas you need to work on for increased energy efficiency. The audit's findings can be used to make changes that will make the building more energy efficient and cut down on energy use and emissions of greenhouse gases. If you have any questions about how one of our surveys will help you increase your business’s sustainability, contact us today, and we’ll discover how your business can improve.