Thermal Imaging Temperatures

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krist003

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Although we hire this service out on projects that call for it, we bought a Milwaukee thermal imager ($2,200) for our own use as an electrical contractor. We sometimes get into service work or troubleshooting where a quick scan with a thermal imager would save us a lot of time to identify hot spots.

My question is, what temperature range is acceptable for lugs and wires in a panel, transformer, etc.? I would assume since the rating of lugs or wire could be 75 or 90 degrees that anything above this temperature needs attention. Am I off base here? I know there is a lot more to it and there are extensive training programs for thermal imaging that cover what the data collected actually means. But since we are not interested in providing this service or using it too often (only for our own projects), is there a reference guide or cheat sheet we could use just to help us know acceptable and unacceptable temperature ranges for certain things?

For instance, I just checked a panel and found a 3-pole breaker that is 101 degrees while the rest are around 80 degrees. I assume that this is a concern and could be a loose connection.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Try to state the temperature units each time when you are mixing units. I hope that your breaker measurements are degrees F.
I would certainly want to check the connections including the bus stab, although it could just be that the actual load current on the one circuit is higher.
If the air temp around the panel is 50F the difference in heating corresponding to 101 versus 80 will be a lot less than for the same breaker temps with an air temperature of 75F.
 
Thanks Zog, that NETA table is useful and very interesting.

Goldigger, sorry I confused you with two different units of measure. I should have mentioned that the ambient air was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The readings were also in Fahrenheit. I am going to go back and determine the delta between similar components and the air temp.

This is kinda fun; I love tools. But don't worry, we wont be out there on the streets claiming we know how to use thermal imaging; I know there is a lot more to it. That is why there are certified thermographers. This will just help us trouble shoot and check our work. Not to mention that our jobs that require thermal imaging are always to be done by a third party. So I am just looking for some key points to get a baseline and help gather info.

Any other key point for a novice are greatly appreciated. Thanks again
 
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