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Thermal imaging of cables

Jam
Hi all,

So it's a little sunny out, and I have a phone-mounted IR camera, so I thought I'd leave some offcuts of larger cable out to cook in the garden and sense-check my derating assumptions for cables in direct sunlight.


However, I've only really used the IR camera for differential inspections (i.e. that phase is running hotter than the other two) and not worried terribly much about the absolute values, which do change significantly depending on the material emissivity setting.


Can anyone recommend a source for aluminium and copper conductors and black PVC and MDPE / HDPE sheaths after exposure to normal installation treatment? (I.e. sheath roughened a little from pulling in, metal dulled from oxidiation, but neither burnt nor mirror-polished)


The difference between the sunny and shaded side of a 45mm OD single core is quite telling; might try a bundle in trefoil tomorrow!


Jam
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    indeed,  and many things other than transformers also benefit from a sun hat, even a very crude one.  and if the "wiggly tin" can be painted UN white, rather than cammo coloured, even desert sand, that helps a lot.


    In  warmer climes than the UK, we have seen green boxes of radio kit on the floor outdoors reach 70C internally before they even get switched on  - a small version of the effect when you park your car in the sun for the day, and then cannot bear to sit in it.

    We do a lot of calibration with temperature indicating labels, and if we want to use IR for an accurate temp test, we usually  stick a label of known emissivity on the thing.
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  • 0
    indeed,  and many things other than transformers also benefit from a sun hat, even a very crude one.  and if the "wiggly tin" can be painted UN white, rather than cammo coloured, even desert sand, that helps a lot.


    In  warmer climes than the UK, we have seen green boxes of radio kit on the floor outdoors reach 70C internally before they even get switched on  - a small version of the effect when you park your car in the sun for the day, and then cannot bear to sit in it.

    We do a lot of calibration with temperature indicating labels, and if we want to use IR for an accurate temp test, we usually  stick a label of known emissivity on the thing.
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