What should an electrical thermography survey cover at a commercial glasshouse or vertical farm?

Short answer: the supplies that keep the crop growing: the main boards, the contactor panels switching the grow lights, irrigation and fertigation pump panels, vent and screen drives, climate control and dehumidification supplies, and the pack-house and cold store boards. It is surveyed live, timed for when the lights are on, because that is when the heaviest load is flowing.

Why growing sites are heavy electrical users

Supplementary lighting turns a glasshouse into one of the largest electrical loads on a rural network. Hundreds of fittings are switched in blocks by contactor panels, often on long cycles through the winter. A vertical farm takes this further: every crop layer is lit, and the air handling and dehumidification run around the clock. Add irrigation pumps, vent motors, thermal screens and a pack-house with chillers, and a lot of production depends on a handful of boards.

What is surveyed

Incoming supply and main boards, including any board added when lighting was extended.
Grow-light contactor panels: contactors, terminals and outgoing cables for each lighting block.
Irrigation and fertigation: pump panels and their drives.
Vent, screen and gutter drives and their control panels.
Climate control: supplies to the climate computer, fans, air handling and dehumidifiers.
Pack-house and cold store: distribution boards, refrigeration panels and conveyor supplies.

When to survey

With the lights on and the pumps running. In a glasshouse that usually means the lit period in the darker months, which can fall early morning or overnight; in a vertical farm the load is steadier, so a normal working day is often fine. Panels are opened one at a time by the site’s electrician or authorised person. Nothing is switched off, and the crop stays on its programme.

Reading the images honestly

Growing sites are warm, humid places. Panels near the lamps sit in a high ambient temperature, sun through the glass can heat enclosures and reflect off bare metal, and many panels have anti-condensation heaters fitted that are warm by design. None of that is a fault. Readings are taken from surfaces that give a true reading, compared like for like with a matching contactor or terminal on a similar load, and recorded with the load at the time. Each finding is given as the measured temperature and the difference in °C, with the panel and circuit. Ti reports what was measured; your electrical contractor decides what to do about it.

What you get

A report with a thermal and visual image for each finding, its location, and a list of anything that could not be opened or seen. Surveys are carried out by ITC Level 3 thermographers, and Ti is a Level 3 certified company. The same layout is used each year, so a grower with several sites, or several glasshouse blocks, can compare results over time and plan work around the crop calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Do the lights need to be switched off for the survey?

No. They need to be on. The survey only shows heating where current is flowing.

Can the survey be done at night?

Yes, if that is when the lights and pumps are running. The visit is planned around your lighting schedule.

Is the building itself imaged for heat loss?

Not in an electrical survey. This covers the electrical supplies only.