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Bowtie Engineering’s infrared (IR) thermography finds electrical hot spots, loose connections, and overloaded circuits before they cause outages or fires — and it’s performed with your building in service, so there’s no disruption to power. What sets Bowtie apart: on every IR job, you also get a report of any and all code violations we find while the covers are open, at no extra charge. That gives you time to make repairs before they become outages, with everything documented and available through the BowVue™ platform.
Infrared thermography is a non-contact inspection that uses a thermal imaging camera to detect heat that shouldn’t be there. In electrical systems, excess heat is the earliest warning sign of a problem — a loose connection, an overloaded circuit, a failing breaker, or an imbalanced load. Because these faults get hotter before they fail, an IR scan catches them while they’re still repairs, not outages. It’s the first basic step in an electrical maintenance program and, because it’s done with equipment energized and in service, it requires no shutdown.
Every finding is photographed with its corresponding thermal image and documented so you can prioritize repairs by severity. No shutdown required.
IR thermography only works when equipment is energized and under load — heat only shows up when current is flowing. That’s an advantage: Bowtie performs the inspection while your facility runs normally, so you get a complete picture of your electrical system’s health without scheduling downtime or interrupting production.
When our technicians open your electrical panels to run the thermal scan, they’re already looking at your equipment up close — so we document any and all code violations we find while the covers are open and include them in your report at no extra charge. Most providers scan for hot spots and stop there. Bowtie gives you a second layer of value on the same visit: a heads-up on code issues so you can fix them on your schedule, before they become outages, failed inspections, or safety incidents. Everything is documented and available through BowVue™.
Infrared thermography is the first step in a complete maintenance program. It tells you where the heat is; a full NFPA 70B maintenance program acts on it with testing, cleaning, and repair. Most clients run IR inside Bowtie’s broader electrical maintenance service, so findings feed directly into scheduled work and your compliance records.
An infrared survey means opening covers. While ours are open, our technicians document every code violation they find, and you receive that report at no additional charge.
Most providers scan, report the hot spots and leave. You get the thermal findings and nothing else, even though the panel was open in front of them. The code violation report gives you time to plan repairs before they become outages, and surfaces findings you would otherwise only discover during an inspection. It costs nothing beyond the survey you were already having done.
Heat is the first symptom of almost every electrical failure and it appears long before anything is visible or audible. An infrared survey finds it while the equipment is still working.
Loose or deteriorating connections, which are the single most common finding and among the most preventable. Overloaded circuits carrying more than they were designed for. Phase imbalance, where load is distributed unevenly and one leg runs hotter than the others. Failing circuit breakers showing thermal signatures at the contacts. Degraded terminations and corroded lugs. Undersized or damaged conductors. Failed elements in a fuse bank.
Each finding is photographed in both visible light and infrared, so the report shows what was seen alongside where it was.
Annually is the common baseline, and many insurers require an annual survey as a condition of coverage on commercial and industrial property. Check your policy, because a missed survey can affect a claim.
More frequent surveys are worth considering for equipment serving critical loads, for facilities that run continuously, for systems that have recently had work performed on them, and for equipment in harsh operating environments.
Because the survey is performed with your building in service there is no shutdown to schedule and no production lost. That is what makes it the practical first step in a maintenance program.
A written report with the thermal image and matching visible light photograph for each finding, the temperature differential recorded, the equipment identified, and a clear priority against each item so your team knows what needs attention now and what can be scheduled. The code violation report is included. For clients on a service contract, findings load into BowVue alongside the rest of the electrical record.
Bowtie’s infrared thermography finds electrical hot spots before they cause outages — performed in-service with no downtime, and every job includes a free report of any code violations we find while the covers are open.
No. IR thermography is performed with your equipment energized and in service — heat only appears under load — so there’s no disruption to power or production.
It detects excess heat from loose connections, overloaded or imbalanced circuits, failing breakers, deteriorating insulation, and overheating transformers and motors — problems that get hotter before they fail.
Yes. While the panel covers are open for the thermal scan, Bowtie documents any code violations we find and includes them in your report at no additional cost, so you can address them before they become outages or inspection failures.
Most facilities benefit from an annual IR scan, with more frequent inspections for critical or high-load systems. Bowtie sets intervals as part of your NFPA 70B maintenance program.
Yes. Infrared inspection is one of the condition-assessment methods a documented NFPA 70B maintenance program relies on, and Bowtie documents each scan for your compliance records.
