Infrared Inspection for Electrical faults.

As a Certified Infrared Thermographer, in addition to my normal moisture leak detection services, I am often called on to scan electrical systems for faults and incipient problems.

Similar to when a person becomes ill and runs a fever, and electrical system will alert you to problems thermally with overheated connections, wiring and devices.  These thermal anomalies  seen in electrical panels and wiring systems will quickly point you at problem areas like bad connections or overloaded conductors.

Frequently these overheat conditions go unnoticed until there's an actual fire and the subsequent investigation points to the cause of the fire as being in overloaded or overheated electrical circuit. This is not the best time to discover the problem!  

Recently I completed a full electrical system scan on a large commercial building in downtown Los Angeles. This building was constructed in 1927 and not surprisingly, some of the original electrical equipment and and old cloth insulated wiring was still in place and actively being used.  Can you say fire hazard?  

This electrical system certainly was with this old, deteriorated insulation on the electcal wires and glass fused subpanels that had oversize 30 amp fuses installed in the place of 15 amp fuses.  

This practice essentially turns the wiring itself into a fuse!  Since the fuse itself doesn't blow and break the circuit and stop the current flow, the wires themselves just overheat to the point of insulation failure and a short. This often burns the wire in two, breaking the circuit. Unfortunately it doesn't always burn in two and break the circuit. Instead, it just shorts to the electrical conduit in which it is run and turns that into a live conductor. Woe be it for the person that walks up and touches this conduit or electrical panel while they are grounded.  At that point their body becomes the conductor.  How fast can you dance?

Here are a few photographs of some of the things I discovered during this inspection:

These are only a few of the many issues I located during this inspection.  It only takes ONE to burn down a building!

Think about having your home or business thermally scanned for problems and avoid a nasty surprise.

Contact Infrared@HomeInspection-LosAngeles.com to schedule an inspection in the Los Angeles area.