Can an electrical thermography survey be carried out in a shopping centre or retail store without affecting trading?

Yes. Thermography is non-contact and done with the equipment live, so nothing is switched off. In a shopping centre or store, the main switchrooms and plant rooms are usually back-of-house and are best surveyed during trading, when the load is highest. Boards on the sales floor are planned around quieter hours, one cover open at a time.

Why survey during trading, not after closing

A thermographic survey needs current flowing to show a poor connection. After closing, lighting, heating and cooling are turned down and much of the load disappears, so a connection that runs hot at three in the afternoon can look normal at midnight. For most retail sites the best time is a normal trading day, with the back-of-house areas surveyed while the store is busy.

Back-of-house and front-of-house

Most of the electrical equipment worth imaging sits out of the public’s sight: the LV intake and main switchboard, rising mains, landlord distribution boards, plant room panels and car park supplies. These can be surveyed with no effect on shoppers. Boards on the shop floor or in public corridors are done early in the day or in quieter periods, with the area kept clear while a cover is off and the site’s authorised person present.

What a retail survey typically covers

LV intake, main switchboard and sub-main distribution
Rising mains and landlord distribution boards serving the malls and units
HVAC plant panels and air handling unit supplies
Lift and escalator controllers and their supplies
Refrigeration plant and cold store panels in food retail
Car park lighting boards and EV charger supplies

Landlord and tenant boards

In a shopping centre the landlord’s equipment and each tenant’s equipment are usually separate responsibilities. Agree before the visit which tenant boards are in scope and who arranges access to each unit. Our page on tenant distribution boards covers how to split it.

Plan around peak trading

Many retailers restrict contractor work in the busiest weeks before Christmas. Booking the survey earlier in the autumn means any findings can be investigated and repaired before peak trading puts the heaviest load on the installation. Ti Thermal Imaging inspects and reports; the site’s electrical contractor carries out any repairs.

What the report gives the centre manager

Each finding is located on its board and circuit, with the measured temperature, where on the component it was taken, the reference it was compared against and the load at the time, so the contractor knows exactly where to go. The discipline is the same on every site. On a London data centre build, commissioning thermography by our team found 16 busbar sections reading above 80 °C under test load, the highest 103.5 °C at a tap-off unit, each one located and imaged so it could be put right.

Frequently asked questions

Will any shops lose power during the survey?

No. The equipment stays live throughout. Covers are opened by the site’s authorised person under the site’s permit system and closed again before moving on.

Can the survey be done at night instead?

Night work is possible for areas that cannot be reached during trading, but readings are only meaningful where the circuits are still carrying a representative load.

How often should a shopping centre be surveyed?

Most commercial sites survey annually. The interval is set by the site’s own risk assessment and its insurer.