Should a data centre be thermally surveyed again after a load increase or a new customer goes live?

Yes, for the parts that now carry more current. A poor connection only shows heat when current flows through it. Equipment imaged at light load may look clean until real IT load arrives. Once a new customer or hall is live and the load has settled, survey the switchgear, busbar and PDUs feeding it and compare with the baseline.

Why the last survey may not tell you enough

Many data halls run well below their design load for months or years after handover, while customers move in. A survey carried out during that period is a true record of how the system behaved on the day, at the load it carried on the day. It can’t show how a joint will behave at a load it hasn’t yet seen. Heat at a poor connection rises sharply as current increases, so a connection that showed nothing unusual at light load can become a clear finding once the hall fills.

What changes when a new customer goes live

More current through shared equipment. The new load is carried by the main switchgear, the busbar trunking and tap-off units, the UPS output and the PDUs serving that space, not just the new rack PDUs.
New connections made on a live site. Fit-out often adds tap-offs, breakers and cabling to equipment that is already in service. Each new joint is a new place for a fault.
Different load across phases and paths. A new customer’s load may sit unevenly across phases or between A and B supplies, which changes where heat appears.

When to survey

Survey once the new load is in service and steady, not during migration or ramp-up, when the reading reflects a moment rather than normal running. Where a survey is planned anyway, it makes sense to time it after a significant customer has gone live rather than just before. Every image should carry the load at the time it was taken, so the next survey can be compared fairly.

Compare with the baseline

The most useful comparison is against the commissioning or previous survey of the same equipment: same references, same measurement points, recorded load. A finding is reported as a measured temperature, where it was taken, and the difference in °C from a matching reference. If an estimated figure at another load is given, it is labelled as an estimate and shown next to the measured value.

A good baseline makes this possible. At commissioning on a London data centre build, our thermography found 16 busbar sections over 80 °C under test load, the highest 103.5 °C at a tap-off unit, all located and recorded before handover. That kind of record gives every later survey something to measure against.

What Ti does and doesn’t do

Ti Thermal Imaging inspects and reports. Our ITC Level 3 thermographers image the equipment live, with nothing switched off, and reports are produced on site. The site’s electrical contractor investigates and carries out any work.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to survey the whole site after a new customer goes live?

Not always. The priority is the equipment whose load has changed: the supply path from the main switchgear to the new space. The rest can stay on its normal survey cycle.

Can the survey be done while the customer is live?

Yes. The survey is non-contact and carried out with everything in service. Covers are opened by the site’s authorised person under its own permit system.

Is a load bank test a substitute?

A load bank test at commissioning is the best time to image new equipment under load. It doesn’t cover connections added later on a live site, or how the system behaves with the real IT load.