heat imaging

[Rewire]

Ideal rep was at the supply house yesterday and he had a digital camera that took heat image and regular digital photos, the 3500.00 price tag made me put it back but I was thinking their could be a market for doing inspections. Any one own somethingh like this and what uses have you found

 

[Mule]

Ideal rep was at the supply house yesterday and he had a digital camera that took heat image and regular digital photos, the 3500.00 price tag made me put it back but I was thinking their could be a market for doing inspections. Any one own somethingh like this and what uses have you found

If your talking a IR camera, they have come way down in price. There is a market for that work, but mostly for having the data analyized...field work scanning work doenst pay very well as its pretty competitive as they send a low budget guy out take pics. If you become a NETA shop, its best

 

[charlietuna]

Like any other facit of our trade--you get payed for what you know! the camera is only the start of your knowledge..................

 

[Mule]

Like any other facit of our trade--you get payed for what you know! the camera is only the start of your knowledge..................

I set in on a 2 hour short seminar by Bill Snell at a NETA conference in New Orleans a few years back. Very interesting trade..... done IR imaging at a refinery for 3 years, did the reports, repairs, whole nine yards, but I was just good enought to be dangerous.... very time consuming...NETA has temperature differential charts for severity, which is what I used....

I learned the term "emisstivity" the hard way,:grin:

 

[Rewire]

I couldn't think of good everyday use for it although I enjoyed playing with it.They get them down to a hundred bucks I might buy one.

 

[Mule]

I couldn't think of good everyday use for it although I enjoyed playing with it.They get them down to a hundred bucks I might buy one.

Outside of industrial electrical uses where downtime justifies the cost.......on the resi side, thermal heat loss for insulation contractors, would sell insulation like a cash register IMO....Home owners would freak out, seeing the heat loss on their home....

 

[charlietuna]

Sure sounds like your certified -- three years is a lot of field experience -- especially in a refinery?????????

 

[Mule]

Sure sounds like your certified -- three years is a lot of field experience -- especially in a refinery?????????

three ANNUAL inspections is what I meant to say......No seriously, this trade gets far more technical, I just did switch gear, and low voltage(480) buckets, Mmm, like around 400-600 starters, breakers, disconects.....reports take far longer that the pics...extreemly repetitive....

There are some REAL IR folks on this forum that are NETA certified and do it as a profession......I was just a wana-be

 

[brian john]

I have been involved in IR for 25-26 years. It is doable, but there is more to performing IR than just buying a camera. You get what you pay for. Our first camera was in the $52,000.00 range they have come down in price since then, last camera 3 years ago was 32,000.00.

My IR technicians are certified Level I-III, my report reviewers are also certified. A good report takes 2-3 hours to review and process what I see from the Johnny come lately's are weak reports, poor pictures and bad recommendations.

 

[zog]

I set in on a 2 hour short seminar by Bill Snell at a NETA conference in New Orleans a few years back. Very interesting trade..... done IR imaging at a refinery for 3 years, did the reports, repairs, whole nine yards, but I was just good enought to be dangerous.... very time consuming...NETA has temperature differential charts for severity, which is what I used....

I learned the term "emisstivity" the hard way,:grin:

I am at NETA right now, just finished dinner with some IR guys talking about this issue, most NETA companies are getting out of it becasue they are getting priced out by untrained guys doing IR scanning with 1 person not removing covers and no certifications. No more monet to be made there due to these guys doing it for nothing,

 

[Mule]

I am at NETA right now, just finished dinner with some IR guys talking about this issue, most NETA companies are getting out of it becasue they are getting priced out by untrained guys doing IR scanning with 1 person not removing covers and no certifications. No more monet to be made there due to these guys doing it for nothing,

I dont doubt it a bit, Im working for a client right now doing electrical work, and he told me someone bid $600 doing his turn key, travel and everything, and believe me they are out in the boonies....and this place is huge, like 6-8 super walmart stores in size.....

Ask those guys if they remember the NETA conference in New Orleans (same year as Katrina) probably met some of them.....

 

[charlietuna]

Been doing IR since 1989--first camera cost me $38,000.00 . Have tried several new cameras over the years but none can compare with the sensitivity of my original camera -- so i never upgraded to the new light weight units. It is not necessary to remove panel covers if you have the right camera. A poor connection will be easily seen by the camera an then we remove the cover to investigate further. It is so sensitive that the heat generated inside a transformer and travels up thru the flex feeding a panel can be seen as a glow inside the panel thru the cover. Now disconnects, starters,switchgear,etc., we open. Years ago we were doing a hospital, and a nurse stopped me in the hallway after seeing our camera. She took me in a room where the same camera is used to detect medical problems.. The new cameras are very tempting since they are light weight and much of our work requires hauling equipment up and down stairwells to access elevator machine rooms and chiller equipment on roofs. But i couldn't trade the accuracy for that convienance.

 

[brian john]

Been doing IR since 1989--first camera cost me $38,000.00 . Have tried several new cameras over the years but none can compare with the sensitivity of my original camera -- so i never upgraded to the new light weight units. It is not necessary to remove panel covers if you have the right camera. .

Only issue we had with the old cameras is parts and software.

We remove all covers necessary that allow a COMPLETE view of all equipment.

 

[zog]

We remove all covers necessary that allow a COMPLETE view of all equipment.

Agreed, you cannot do a proper scan with covers on, has nothing to do with sensivitity of the camera, it is the reflection and emmistvity issues that not removing the covers causes.

 

[charlietuna]

I have the 522L Inframetrics Unit and have never had an issue with it. I have converted the old poloroid camera to digital and have a method of recording problems that works for me and has saved a lot of report time. The report is ready to be typed as soon as the scan is complete and of course we maintain an office copy of everything we report , for our future use and for those customers that always lose theirs. It is bulky and a back breaker at times, but i am spoiled at it's sensitivity. In 1996 they sent me a new unit, completely digital to field test, i tried it on two jobs and sent it back when the camera couldn't see what was an obvious problem.....

 

[zog]

You need to remove the panel covers, period, think you would have learned that in 20 years. What is your certification level? What delta t specs do you use for recommendations?

 

[rt66electric]

neat gizmos

neat gizmos

My semi retired mentor and I purchased an IR camera. Its the neatest thing since apple butter. He had shoulder surgery and can't get up the ladders as well as he used to, and thought IR inspectio would be the way to GO.
In the real world it has not made us much money. We have used lots of word of mouth but have not had any luck. Lots of people are interested in building/insulation scans, but havent been able to seperate them from their money.