Thermal Impressions: Low Emissivity Electrical Lug Inspection.

A often overlooked predictive maintenence job is he inspection of electrical lugs. In this example I will inspect the lugs within my outback fm80 mppt charge controller.

Just 3 screws and the panel is off. Now the insides are visible for inspection.

My beloved seek thermal xr camera will be used to perform the inspection.

OK here is a side by side visual and infrared view. Notice the lugs are shiny aluminum. This is not good for thermography. Instead I pay attention to the cables immediately at each lug. As per the thermal image there are no hot spots and all seem within acceptable temperatures.

Using a thermal camera it is very easy to perform electrical inspections.