Switchgear and busway thermal
Lensnode T cameras with fixed views of connections, through IR windows or from mounting positions agreed with your electrical engineer, reporting temperature rise per connection, against load.
Data centers & critical power
Find the hot connection before it finds you
We install fixed radiometric thermal cameras on switchgear, busbars and BESS containers, and condition sensors on UPS and cooling equipment, so a loosening connection shows up as a trend rather than an outage.
What goes wrong
A year is a long time between thermal scans
Most electrical failures in critical power announce themselves as heat. A bolted connection loosens with thermal cycling, a lug corrodes, a breaker contact wears, and resistance rises until the joint runs hot. Periodic infrared surveys catch some of these, but a survey is a snapshot: one day, one load level, often with covers removed and the crew in arc-flash PPE. A connection that starts degrading the week after the survey has months to get worse.
Some assets are hard to survey at all. BESS containers are sealed, crowded and often remote. Outdoor substations sit in weather that a handheld camera and a technician would rather avoid. Medium-voltage gear may need an outage window before covers can come off.
Cooling is the other half of uptime. A failing fan bearing in a CRAH unit, a chiller compressor running rough or a pump losing efficiency rarely trips an alarm until it fails, and in a dense hall the margin between a cooling fault and a thermal event is short.
Applications
Continuous switchgear thermal monitoring and more
PDUs and remote power panels
Pulsenode C clamp-on nodes measure load, phase imbalance and harmonics on each panel, with thermal views of main lugs where they can be seen.
BESS containers
Thermal views of racks, busbars and connections, with condition sensors on the container HVAC, complementing the cell-level data your battery management system already reports.
UPS systems
Cabinet and battery-string connection temperatures, plus input and output harmonics and cooling-fan condition, trended continuously rather than at each service visit.
Cooling plant
Pulsenode W vibration and temperature on CRAH and CRAC fans, chillers, pumps and cooling-tower fans, with diagnostics that name the likely fault.
Outdoor substations
Gatepoint XT, rated for −40 to 70 °C, with Lensnode T views of transformer bushings, disconnects and cable terminations in weather that keeps people away.
Recommended stack
The critical power stack, asset by asset
| Application | Hardware | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Switchgear and busway | Lensnode T (640 × 512 radiometric); Gatepoint G4 or XT | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
| PDUs and remote power panels | Pulsenode C; Lensnode T on main lugs | Facility & Energy Monitoring |
| BESS containers | Lensnode T inside the container; Pulsenode W on HVAC; Gatepoint XT | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
| UPS systems | Lensnode T; Pulsenode C on input and output | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
| Cooling plant | Pulsenode W on fans, pumps and compressors | Predictive Maintenance |
| Outdoor substations | Lensnode T with sun shield; Gatepoint XT | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
Environment and compliance
Maintenance programs, measurement physics and the network
- Electrical maintenance programs. Since its 2023 edition, NFPA 70B has been a standard rather than a recommended practice. It calls for a documented electrical maintenance program, with maintenance intervals set by an assessment of each asset's condition, criticality and environment. Whether it applies at your site depends on your authority having jurisdiction, insurer or contracts. Continuous thermal data gives that program a running record between scheduled inspections; it doesn't replace the program or the qualified people who carry it out.
- Load matters. A connection's temperature rise only means something against its load. We pair thermal readings with current from Pulsenode C nodes or your existing metering, so a joint running warm at 30% load is flagged differently from the same reading at 90%.
- Emissivity. Bare copper and aluminum reflect more than they emit and read colder than they are. We measure on high-emissivity surfaces, such as insulation, painted parts or applied targets, and document each measurement point.
- Outdoor sites. Gatepoint XT handles −40 to 70 °C. Lensnode T is rated −20 to 55 °C, so outdoor cameras get sun shields and, in the most extreme climates, heated or ventilated enclosures.
- Network. Nothing needs an internet connection. Gatepoints are hardened in line with IEC 62443 practice and hand data to your power or building management systems over Modbus TCP, MQTT, OPC UA or REST. See Edge & OT Security.
Honest fit
When continuous thermal is worth it, and when it isn't
A good fit when
- Sites where outage windows for opening switchgear are hard to schedule
- BESS fleets and unstaffed or remote substations
- Facilities with contractual uptime commitments where one electrical fault is very costly
- Cooling plants where fan and chiller failures have caused thermal events
Probably not when
- Small sites with easily accessible gear, where an annual survey meets your program's needs at lower cost
- Cell-level battery monitoring. That is the battery management system's job, and we complement it rather than replace it.
See it in context
Switchgear thermal watch and the services around it
Continuous thermal on switchgear and BESS
Lensnode T and Gatepoint XT watch medium-voltage switchgear and BESS containers. In the modeled scenario, connection faults are flagged weeks before a periodic IR survey would have found them.
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Continuous Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring
Fixed radiometric thermal for switchgear, busbars, BESS containers and substations, with load-aware alerting.
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Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring
Vibration, temperature and motor-current monitoring for fans, chillers, pumps and cooling towers.
Read moreFAQ
Questions we hear often
Does continuous monitoring replace our annual IR survey?
Not automatically. That depends on your electrical maintenance program and on what your authority having jurisdiction and insurer accept. What continuous data does is show which assets are trending, so surveys and outage windows go where they matter. Our comparison of continuous thermal and periodic IR surveys covers the trade-offs.
How accurate are readings on bare busbars?
On bare, shiny metal, not very, for any thermal camera, because low emissivity makes the surface read colder than it is. We measure on high-emissivity surfaces or applied targets, record each measurement point, and alert on temperature rise and trend rather than on a single absolute number.
What touches our network?
Gatepoint gateways on a network segment you define, with no internet connection required. They support secure boot, TPM 2.0 and signed A/B updates, and our security documentation, including SBOMs, is available for your review before installation.
Can alerts reach our existing monitoring systems?
Yes. Data and alerts can go to your power or building management systems over Modbus TCP, MQTT, OPC UA or REST webhooks, and to SMS, email, Microsoft Teams or Slack. With Care Dedicated, a Perflens analyst verifies alerts within 1 hour, 24/7.
How do we start?
A 6-week Proof of Value covers up to 25 monitored assets for $24,000, with loaner hardware and success criteria agreed in writing. A sensible first scope is your main switchgear lineup plus the BESS or UPS systems that worry you most.
Map your hottest risks in 45 minutes
Walk us through your one-line diagram and your last survey report. We'll tell you which assets would benefit from continuous thermal and which are fine on a schedule.