Discuss Thermal imaging camera / forum sponsor in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

JD6400

-
Mentor
Arms
Reaction score
742
I phoned the forum sponsor ( Test meter UK ) last week about a earth leakage clamp meter , and after receiving very helpful and informative response it led me to purchases an equally well specked but several hundred pound cheaper one , than I had originally had in mind.
I then went on to purchases a Flir E5 thermal imaging camera .
Not only did they split the delivery , free of charge between our office , for the clamp meter and my home address for the camera , when the camera arrived it as missing around one hundred pounds worth of free accessories and after phoning them on Friday afternoon , with out a single quibble they have dispatched them and they arrived this afternoon ( Monday) .

I could have got the camera at our wholesalers cheaper , but the service that was provided from Test Meter UK far out way this !


And the camera is truly the mutts nuts !
I can see it becoming one those tools that makes you wonder how you ever managed without it !
 
Last edited:
I phoned the forum sponsor ( Test meter UK ) last week about a earth leakage clamp meter , and after receiving very helpful and informative response it led me to purchases an equally well specked but several hundred pound cheaper one , than I had originally had in mind.
I then went on to purchases a Flir E5 thermal imaging camera .
Not only did they split the delivery , free of charge between our office , for the clamp meter and my home address for the camera , when the camera arrived it as missing around one hundred pounds worth of free accessories and after phoning them on Friday afternoon , with out a single quibble they have dispatched them and they arrived this afternoon ( Monday) .

I could have got the camera at our wholesalers cheaper , but the service that was provided from Test Meter UK far out way this !


And the camera is truly the mutts nuts !
I can see it becoming one those tools that makes you wonder how you ever managed without it !
Remind me to buy my new meter from them then lol
 
Remind me to buy my new meter from them then lol

It is not always about the bottom line though , Mike .
I had already asked our usual wholesaler for information on both products but they could only read the blurb , just the same as me .
I would say that Test Meter offered a value added service that was still good value for money .
 
And the camera is truly the mutts nuts !
I can see it becoming one those tools that makes you wonder how you ever managed without it !

A godsend for fault finding on large energised equipment. Far more suited to industrial/heavy commercial work than any domestic stuff!!

First you need to be taught how to use a thermal imaging camera and then learn how to read and/or make sense of the images shown on the screen. It's definitely not a straight out of the box and use for anyone that has never used one before. So i hope the unit you purchased came with a free tutorial course (Many of them Do)....
 
I am still getting to grips with it and understand exactly what you mean about , how to interpret the information it produces .
It could have a role on domestic stuff , but would be limited .
It will be put to use on the grain handling and PV side of our work , for both breakdown and planned maintenance tasks , and for this I would say that it is already on its way to justifying it's purchase price , just after this week alone !
But as you say , using it correctly needs to be mastered , with out a doubt .
 
The manufacturers courses are well worth the time spent on them, as you'll never quite get to grips with interpreting the information on screen by yourself, operators need training. I take it that your purchase didn't come with a training course package included??
 
No , not that I am aware of .
It is more cyber based and not face to face , one of my jobs this week end is to explore just how good this is !
If all else fails , one of our clients has offered his brothers services who has a thermal imaging inspection business , if we need extra training.
 
Believe me, you'll need the training if you ever want to be proficient with thermal imagining inspections. So snap up this guy's offer of on site training....
 
For inspections on live switchgear or bearings I found an infrared thermometer far better than a camera.
At £2K they’re not cheap but finding a problem before it becomes a plant outage more than made up for the cost.
 
An assessor I had for a scheme had one (he ran a commercial testing company as well as moonligting as an assessor).

he said he saved a truck manufacturing factory 10 grand a month off the leccy bill by identifying needlessly energised circuits feeding some heaters overnight, with it.

I thought it was a good example of the kind of savings that can be made for larger installations, and with those figures in mind, a one off payment for a survey probably paled into insignificance.
 
The last time I used one was to prove that harmonic distortion was overheating the neutral conductor on a transformer.
 
For inspections on live switchgear or bearings I found an infrared thermometer far better than a camera.
At £2K they’re not cheap but finding a problem before it becomes a plant outage more than made up for the cost.

I can't see how an infrared thermometer can better detect/locate and compare in on site conditions than a thermal imaging camera. TI cameras take all the guess work out of things by showing the components being tested and the surrounding area as one complete thermal image showing multiple temperature points any of which can selected and expanded . Any abnormalities being clearly seen within that thermal image....


Thermal imaging cameras are in a class of their own compared with infrared thermometers, and why they cost substantially more than them too. 2000 quid is like a basic entry level TI camera, to which the better to top of the range models can go up into the 30k and beyond....
 
I am still getting to grips with it and understand exactly what you mean about , how to interpret the information it produces .
It could have a role on domestic stuff , but would be limited .
It will be put to use on the grain handling and PV side of our work , for both breakdown and planned maintenance tasks , and for this I would say that it is already on its way to justifying it's purchase price , just after this week alone !
But as you say , using it correctly needs to be mastered , with out a doubt .

Thank you very much for the positive feedback, I'm glad that you were happy with the service that we provided.

I've pasted a couple of links below which will enable you to enrol onto a couple of online tutorials which will 1) familiarise you with the principles of thermography (reflective temperatures, emissivity values etc) and 2) familiarise you with using the camera you have kindly purchase from us.

Both online courses are constructed by the ITC which are FLIR's training division.

Principles of thermography:

Infrared Training Center E-LearnIR Portal - Course Catalog


And then this one for the camera:

Infrared Training Center E-LearnIR Portal - Course Catalog


Hope this helps, let me know if you have any further questions :)
 
It is not just the expensive stuff that Test-Meter bend over backwards to help us lot out with. Anything I've bought from them, they have been brilliant with service and price. Monday just gone I got my MFT calibrated and Mr.C took me to their test bay and showed my how they calibrate test equipment, never seen it done before and found it very interesting.

These guys really know their stuff, any help needed regarding test equipment just give them a call. They are always happy to help.
 

Reply to Thermal imaging camera / forum sponsor in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock