Should EV charger and battery storage supplies be included in an electrical thermography survey?

Yes. The boards, isolators and cable terminations that feed EV charge points, and the AC connections of a battery storage system, are electrical equipment like any other and can be imaged live. The condition that matters is current: survey while vehicles are charging or the battery is charging or discharging, so those connections are working when they are imaged.

Why these supplies get missed

EV charging and battery storage are usually added after the building is finished, by a specialist installer with its own maintenance contract. That contract tends to cover the chargers or the battery units themselves. The building’s annual electrical thermography survey covers the original switchboards and distribution boards. The new sub-mains, distribution boards and isolators in between can end up on nobody’s list.

They are often some of the hardest-working circuits on site. A bank of car park chargers or a depot of fleet chargers can draw heavy current for hours at a time, every day.

What can be imaged

The distribution boards and sub-mains that supply EV charge points
Isolators and switch-disconnectors at the chargers and at the board
Cable terminations on the supply side, including in feeder pillars
The connection point of the EV or battery supply into the main or sub-distribution board
The AC side of a battery storage system: its switchgear, isolators and connection into the building or the site supply, where these can be safely opened

Covers are opened by the site’s authorised electrician or the system’s maintenance contractor. Battery modules and anything inside a manufacturer-sealed enclosure stay with the manufacturer’s own monitoring. Anything we can’t safely see is listed in the report as not inspected, with the reason.

When to survey

A connection only shows its condition when current flows through it. For EV chargers, that means booking the survey for the time of day when most vehicles are plugged in, which for a fleet depot may be early morning or evening rather than mid-afternoon. For battery storage, agree a window with the operator when the system is charging or discharging. The report records the conditions at the time and the current where the equipment shows it, so the next survey can be compared like for like.

What we’ve seen on site energy equipment

Supplies added to a building later deserve the same attention as the original boards. On a commercial warehouse with rooftop solar PV, our ITC Level 3 thermographer recorded an apparent temperature of 195.0 °C at the main isolator supply connection in a roof-level PV distribution board, with ambient at 24.0 °C. It sat on equipment outside the building’s usual survey route. The finding went to the site’s maintenance team for electrical investigation. Ti inspects and reports; it does not carry out repairs. Read the case.

How to add them to your survey

Tell us at booking that the site has EV charging or battery storage, where the supply boards and isolators are, who holds the keys to car parks, compounds and plant rooms, and when the equipment is busiest. We add them to the asset list, image them at the right time, and report them in the same format as the rest of the site. The FM team, the installer and the insurer then all work from one document.

Frequently asked questions

Isn’t this the charger installer’s job?

Check the maintenance contract. Many cover the charge points and their software but not the boards and sub-mains that feed them. If it isn’t clear, include the supplies in your electrical survey.

Can the chargers themselves be imaged?

The supply terminations and isolators can. Inside the charger, follow the manufacturer’s rules on who may open it.

What if nothing is charging on the day?

The report records the load at the time. Lightly loaded connections tell you less, so it is worth re-imaging those boards at a busier time.