Thermal Imaging for Labs and Cold Storage, Where a Failure Costs the Most
In most buildings, an electrical failure means a repair bill and a bad afternoon. In a lab or a cold storage building, it also puts at risk everything the power was protecting: product that has to stay cold, samples that may not be replaceable, and work that has to start over.
That changes how you should think about inspection. When one failure costs that much, finding a problem early is worth more than it is almost anywhere else. Here is what a thermal scan looks for in these buildings, why it does not have to shut them down, and what to plan for the power that has to stay on.
Heat shows up before the failure does
Heat buildup can signal a loose connection, an overloaded circuit or failing equipment, and it shows up before those problems turn into an outage. PECO's thermographers use FLIR infrared cameras to find that heat in the equipment that carries the most current: electrical panels, breakers and disconnects, motors, control panels and switchgear.
That is the whole value in a building where downtime is expensive. The camera finds the connection that is starting to go while it is still a scheduled repair, instead of the reason the freezers stopped.
PECO already works in these buildings
Labs, cleanrooms and production spaces are on the list of facilities PECO's thermal imaging serves, along with food processing and cold storage buildings and warehouses. PECO has worked in laboratories and data centers, and its thermographers are FLIR-certified and NFPA 70B-certified.
These are not easy buildings to walk through. A contractor who has worked in them before spends the visit on the equipment, not on learning the building.
The scan happens while the building keeps working
A lab or a cold room usually cannot close for a day so someone can look at the panels. It does not have to. PECO inspects active, occupied facilities, and coordinates with operations and property managers to keep the inspection safe and low disruption during regular business hours.
The people inside keep working, and the report still covers the equipment that matters.
The report lets you plan the repair around the work
In a building like this, even a repair has to be planned around what is running inside. PECO's report comes back with annotated thermal images, notes and recommendations, so you know what the problem is and where it sits before anyone opens a panel.
That turns the fix into a scheduled job on a day that suits the work, instead of an emergency on a day that does not. And because PECO is an electrical contractor, the same team can handle the repairs the scan turns up.
A scan finds trouble inside; a generator covers the outage outside
A thermal scan protects you from the failures that start in your own equipment. It does nothing about the power going out on the street. For that, the answer is backup power.
PECO installs generators for labs and cold storage sites, where critical systems need power without a break, as an authorized Kohler installer that also works with Generac. See PECO's generator installations.
Start with the room you would least want to lose
You do not need to scan everything at once to learn where you stand. Start with the room where a failure would cost the most, and let what the scan finds there set the pace for the rest. PECO is based in Woburn and inspects facilities throughout Greater Boston, the North Shore and Eastern Massachusetts. See what PECO's infrared thermal imaging inspections cover.
Call PECO at (781) 938-6000 to schedule a thermal scan of your lab or cold storage building.
