Burning smell or crackling now? Don't wait for a scan
A switchboard with burn marks, a strange smell or crackling isn't something to book a camera for next week. ENA says not to touch it and to contact your local lines company straight away. Smoke or fire means 111.
What a thermal camera can find
Electrical faults often show up as heat first. A connection that has worked loose has more resistance, and resistance makes heat. So does a breaker carrying more than it should, a corroded neutral link, or a fitting starting to fail.
On a switchboard, the electrician compares similar parts side by side. One breaker or terminal running much warmer than its neighbours on a similar load is where to look.
It's also handy on circuits feeding heavy loads, like a heat pump, a hot water cylinder, an EV charger or a workshop, and for checking a board after a storm or a flood.
What it can't tell you
A camera only sees surfaces. It won't reliably see a fault deep inside a wall, through ceiling insulation, or in a cable that isn't carrying current at the time. It can't measure insulation breakdown or prove that an RCD trips.
It also needs load. A loose terminal on a circuit that's switched off looks perfectly cool, so a good check happens while the house is using power normally, and the electrician may run heaters or appliances to load circuits up.
Treat a thermal scan as a screening tool. It points to where testing and repair should start, but on its own it doesn't show a house is safe.
How a thermal check usually runs
Under load
The household carries on as normal, or the electrician loads up circuits with heaters and appliances.
The board
Working at the switchboard is the electrician's job alone. They scan the breakers, RCDs, main switch and terminals.
Around the house
Power points, switches and fittings on busy circuits, plus the meter board and any sub-boards.
The report
Thermal images with temperatures marked, what each hot spot most likely means, and what to do about it.
When it's worth booking
A thermal check makes most sense when there's a symptom without an obvious cause: a faint warm smell near the board, a breaker that feels warm, lights that dim under load, or a trip with no clear reason.
It's also a sensible add-on to a pre-purchase inspection of an older home, or before you add a big new load. For most houses, one scan with a specific worry in mind is plenty.
What you can do, and what needs an electrician
You can
- Note when the smell, warmth or dimming happens, and what was running.
- Stop using any switch or power point that feels warm, and tell the electrician which ones.
- Keep the area around the switchboard clear so it can be reached.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Scanning the inside of the switchboard.
- Reading and explaining the images.
- Tightening, repairing or replacing whatever runs hot.
- Testing insulation and RCDs to back up the scan.
How we'd use it
We'd use thermal imaging to track down a specific problem, not as a clean bill of health. If something smells hot, dims or trips without a cause, we'd book an electrician who does thermal checks and testing in the same visit, so the hot spot is found and fixed while they're there.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.