Oklahoma electrical problems

Ponca City, Stillwater and Enid Oklahoma home inspector finds more electrical problems while using thermal imaging camera during the course of a home inspection than Oklahoma certified master inspectors find without the use of a thermal camera:D

Maybe true, but how do you know? To know that, you’d have to see every report generated for all sales transactions (we know you don’t see that) and you’d have to re-inspect each one to see what they missed.

Just advertising did I find a sore spot, I am innocent until proven guilty;-)

Ok Kenton lets test your CMI ability or any other CMI that wants to jump in with comments Image one and three has a problem that my granddaughter could see but look at image two and tell me if you see a problem that should be listed in your report as a repairable item . This includes Nick who is a CMI with a infrared certification??? Go for it guys:p;-) strut your stuff:D

I was trying to figure that out before I saw this post. Based solely on the image, I can’t say I see anything.

Educate me ol’ wise one :smiley:

P.S.

I’ll be out working today, so I may not be able to return to this thread until this evening.

Loose wire connection at double pole breakers resulting in a temperature differential between the phase. Re-tightening the lugs should fix this issue before it escalates to bigger problems.

If that is your statement and are you sticking to it. I will wait for some more responses not saying your wrong or right just going to wait;-)

2nd pic, top breaker looks like a bit of gradient on upper lug of 2 pole breaker as well as significant diff in temp between two

Without knowing anything else… re-torque

A semi-WAG, don’t shoot me

edit.

Also, SP8. What gives? Tried to move screen around on tablet a bit… what is that attachment? At Buss? Prob nothing, can’t tell

I don’t remember about SP8 its an old image I would have to go back and look at the digital it just appears to be some sort of double tap

Ok here is the digital on that mess it was from back in Nov of 2012

It worked though, right?

Gawd, what a mess… there is an easy button for that, it’s in the Yellow Pages under Electricians

It’s pretty obvious that there are imbalances in the double-pole breakers, but without more information we can’t say if it’s loose connections or the equipment being supplied.

The top one (Sp2 & Sp3) could easily be a MWBC with two entirely different loads being supplied.

So I stayed away from the “loose connection” answer simply because I’m expecting more.

I’ll check in again between my 2nd and 3rd appointments…

Charley,
what were the amp readings for the two legs?

The amps were the same on both legs kitchen oven and remote cook top two different breakers

so Charley are You trying to tell us You are qualified to remove peoples shorts ?

You guys that do electrical thermal knew the answer to this just like Marcel G posted loose connection and it does not matter if you are a CMI or a Newbie you won’t find these problems with a infrared thermometer because most won’t take the time to go over each and every breaker. I load the panels and shoot the images in 5 minutes or less and move on. I treat it just like a commercial panel

I had a business partner once who was a licensed electrician and on the side of his truck was the logo (let me remove your shorts) but that is as close as I ever got to that;-)

First image: Thermal pattern observed is characteristic of a loose or high resistance connection. Need to see load readings to go with it. It’s an incomplete story without matching IR and visible images of the same subject and load reading, throw in camera settings too for proper reporting and we can do something with it. Too bad the focus is off. Don’t have the info needed to determine if we can compare to similar component at similar load, nor do we have an actual ambient reading. We can infer that ambient is probably ~80+/-, which would place the exception in the NETA priority 1 category.

Second image: Not enough info or image coverage to determine load vs connection or both. Some may not be an exception at all. Based on ambient, terminals #1 and #9 are NETA Priority 2 and terminal #11 is NETA Priority 3. Breaker 1/3 is also showing elevated temp at the line side (i.e., bus) connection. I would not guess as to the cause of these exceptions based on available info.

Third image: There is a secondary heat source affecting this image, probably solar loading. Note the difference in temp at the mid point of the bundle of conductors at the lower portion of the image. You can also distinctly see the difference in temperature from the upper to lower surface of the conductor at a single point along its length. Right hand terminal looks hotter, but that may also be solar influenced. Can’t draw any conclusions from this image. You need a parasol. :cool:

I’ll be quiet next time you’re making a point… :smiley: But always happy to learn!

BTW

At least (or I think) there is a good understanding of what a Spot (10:1 or whatever) IR Thermometer is for.

Any possibility these new gadgemetron-thingy-IR devices can hurt credibility?

Yes I personally think it is going to kill the credibility I have already seen some on this board saying they can not wait for the I Phone to hit the market so they too can be thermographers. Its gona hurt the profession in some ways but in other ways it will help. I have no problem going to court as a witness against a Iphone wanta be;-)