Short answer: often, yes, but it has to go through the site’s change process. Imaging itself changes nothing, yet removing covers on live switchgear, UPS or PDUs is usually treated as work on critical equipment, so it needs an approved method statement. Avoid surveying inside a maintenance window where load has been transferred: equipment off load shows nothing useful.
Change freezes often land around year end, just as annual surveys fall due. Whether the survey can go ahead, and whether it is worth doing then, depends less on the camera than on how the site classes the work and what the load is doing on the day.
Low risk, but still a change
The thermographer never touches the equipment. The camera works from a safe distance and nothing is switched, isolated or reconfigured. The step that carries risk is the cover coming off a live panel, and on most data centres that sits under the site’s own permit and change control, carried out by the site’s or the maintenance contractor’s authorised person. That is why a survey usually needs a change request even when nothing about the installation changes.
What the change request usually needs
- A method statement and risk assessment for the survey route, written to the site’s format.
- An equipment list by hall, room and panel reference, so the change covers exactly what will be opened.
- Who opens each cover, and how long they are available for.
- Stop criteria: what happens if an alarm sounds or the site status changes mid-survey. The answer is simple: covers go back on and the survey pauses.
- How a high reading is escalated on the day, normally to the duty engineer straight away, with the decision on any action staying with the site.
Why a maintenance window is often the wrong time
It is tempting to slot the survey into an existing maintenance window, because the permits are already open. But a connection only shows a problem when current flows through it. If one side of the supply has been taken off load for the maintenance, the equipment on that side has nothing to show, and the other side may be carrying more than its normal share. The images then describe the maintenance condition, not normal operation. A survey under normal running load, with the load recorded at each panel, gives readings you can compare year on year.
Load is why timing matters. On a London data centre build, our commissioning thermography measured 16 busbar sections above 80°C under test load, the highest 103.5°C at a tap-off. Those readings were taken with current flowing; with the busbar off load, the camera would have had nothing to see.
When covers can’t come off during a freeze
Some sites allow no live cover removal at all while a freeze is on. The options are then infrared windows where they are fitted, imaging what can safely be seen with covers on, or splitting the survey: covered items now, the rest once the freeze lifts. Whichever route you choose, the report should list every item that was not imaged and why, so the gap is visible rather than assumed.
Who should do it
A certified thermographer who is used to working inside data centre change control, alongside your authorised person. Our thermographers are ITC Level 3 and Ti is a Level 3 certified company. Anything that needs attention is explained on site, and the report usually follows the same or next working day.
More on live data centre surveys: data centre electrical thermography, switchgear thermography, annual PPM thermography, busbar thermography at commissioning, who opens the panels and the 7 electrical risks that cause data centre downtime.
Frequently asked questions
Can imaging trip or disturb live equipment?
No. The camera makes no contact and switches nothing. The only step the site needs to control is opening and closing the covers.
Can the survey run overnight in a low-risk change slot?
Yes, as long as the equipment is carrying its normal load at that time. The report should record the load at each panel either way.
What happens if a high reading is found during the freeze?
We tell the duty engineer on site straight away, with the image, the measured temperature and where it was taken. What happens next is the site’s decision under its own process. Ti inspects and reports; it does not carry out repairs.
Talk to us: +44 20 3885 7464 · sales@thermalimaging.co.uk · send us your site details
About the author: Rachael Browning is General Manager of Ti Thermal Imaging, which carries out electrical thermography surveys for data centres, FM portfolios and industrial sites across the UK and UAE. Ti’s work has featured on BBC News and ITV.