Should multi-storey car park lighting and ventilation boards be included in an electrical thermography survey?

Yes. Car park lighting boards run for long hours and are easy to survey live. Ventilation and jet fan panels are different: the fans often run only on demand, so the survey needs a time when they are running, usually a test run arranged by the site team. Plan both into the same visit and record the load for each board.

Why car parks get left out

Car parks are often treated as an add-on to the main building. Their boards sit in small plant rooms, on ramps or on open decks, and they are easy to forget when a survey is scoped from a drawing of the main switch room. Yet they serve lighting that runs most of the day and fans that matter most when something goes wrong.

What gets imaged

Car park lighting distribution boards and lighting control panels
Jet fan and ventilation control panels
Smoke ventilation control panels, with the site’s agreement and its own test procedure
Barrier, pay station, CCTV and lift supplies
Sump pump and drainage pump panels
EV charger supplies. See EV charger and battery storage supplies.

Getting the fans under load

A thermal image only shows connections that are carrying current. Many car park fans run at low speed, or not at all, until air quality or a fire alarm signal brings them up. A fan panel surveyed while the fans are idle shows very little. See what load a survey needs.

The usual answer is to survey the fan panels during a run the site already carries out, such as a routine fan test, or a manual run arranged by the site team for the visit. Any test of smoke ventilation or life safety systems is run by the site’s own competent person, to its own procedure. The thermographer images the panels while the fans are running and records what was running at the time.

Access and conditions

Covers are opened by the site’s authorised electrician under its permit to work, and the car park stays open. Open decks bring wind, damp, dust and low winter temperatures, all of which affect readings. The report notes the conditions with each image. See surveying outdoor equipment in UK weather.

What the report shows

Each board is reported with where the reading was taken, the measured temperature, the reference, the difference in °C and the load at the time. Panels that could not be surveyed under load are listed, so they can be picked up on the next fan test rather than marked clear.

Proof from our own work

Surveying under real load is the rule on every site we work on. 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.

Ti inspects and reports. Any finding is investigated and put right by the site’s electrical team or contractor.

Frequently asked questions

Can a car park be surveyed while it is open?

Yes. The boards are surveyed live from plant rooms and service areas, and nothing is switched off.

Do the fans need to be running?

Yes, for the fan panels. A panel with idle fans carries little current, so arrange a test run during the visit.

How often should car park boards be surveyed?

Usually once a year, in the same visit as the rest of the building. See comparing results year on year.