A pretty thermal image is not a diagnosis. Without recorded load, emissivity and severity criteria, the report cannot support a maintenance decision.
Thermographic inspection is the predictive tool with the best cost-benefit ratio in electrical installations. It is also the most poorly executed, because the apparent barrier to entry is low: all you need is a camera.
A report that supports a decision must record the load current at the moment of measurement. A hot spot at 30% load means something completely different from the same spot at 90%. Without that data, there is no way to extrapolate behavior at rated condition.
Emissivity and reflected temperature must be declared. Polished copper busbar and PVC-insulated cable have very different emissivities; using the camera's factory default on both produces errors of tens of degrees.
Severity criteria must be explicit and comparable across campaigns. We work with classification by delta-T over the reference phase and over ambient, with intervention deadlines tied to each band.
Finally, the real value shows up in the trend. A single campaign points out problems; a historical series shows which connection is degrading and lets you schedule the intervention for the next shutdown, instead of reacting to a failure.
