The One Failure Insurance Companies Hate Most
Electrical fires are the number one preventable industrial loss in Canada. Not slips. Not chemical spills. Loose lugs, overloaded breakers, and corroded bus bars. The Office of the Fire Marshal of Ontario consistently ranks electrical distribution equipment as a top ignition source in commercial and industrial losses — and almost every one of those fires starts as a hot spot that thermal imaging for electrical panels would have caught months earlier.
If your Ontario facility is not running an annual infrared survey on its switchgear, you are one loose connection away from a seven-figure claim and a shutdown your insurer may not cover.
Need a thermographic survey before your next insurance renewal? Talk to one of our engineers — we schedule Ontario-wide.
What Infrared Thermography Actually Detects
A certified Level II thermographer walks your electrical rooms with a radiometric camera (typically a FLIR T-series or Fluke Ti-series) while the equipment is under normal load. The camera reads surface temperature across every connection, bus bar, breaker, and lug.
A healthy connection sits within 5°C of ambient or its matching phase. Anything beyond that is a problem in progress.
Specific faults found on every Ontario survey we run:
- Loose terminal connections (most common — 60%+ of findings)
- Overloaded circuits running above nameplate
- Imbalanced three-phase loads (one leg 15°C hotter than the others)
- Corrosion on aluminum-to-copper lugs (common in older GTA plants)
- Failing contactors and relays
- Undersized conductors installed during expansions
- Harmonic-related neutral overheating in panels feeding VFDs
A hot spot at 75°C above ambient is not "something to monitor." It is a fire in the next 30-90 days.
ESA, CSA Z463, and What Ontario Actually Requires
The Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) enforces the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. While the OESC does not mandate a specific thermography schedule for every occupancy, it does require that electrical installations be maintained in a safe condition — and insurers, the Ministry of Labour, and ESA inspectors all treat CSA Z463 as the reference standard for what "maintained" means.
CSA Z463 — Maintenance of Electrical Systems sets the Canadian benchmark. Key points:
- Infrared inspection is listed as a primary condition-based maintenance technique
- Frequency should be based on criticality, condition, and environment — annual for most industrial panels
- Thermographers should be certified (typically ASNT or equivalent Level I or Level II)
- Findings must be documented with temperature deltas, load conditions, and corrective actions
If an ESA inspector arrives after an incident and you have no maintenance records, you own the liability. If you have an annual thermographic survey with closed-out findings, you have a defensible paper trail.
Insurance Is Quietly Making It Mandatory
Here is what nobody tells Ontario plant managers until renewal time: most commercial property insurers now either require or strongly incentivize annual infrared surveys on main distribution equipment. FM Global, Zurich, and Intact have all been tightening language on this for years.
Typical policy mechanics we see in Ontario:
- Premium reduction of 5-15% for facilities with a current CSA Z463-aligned IR report
- Outright exclusions on electrical fire claims where no survey exists
- Higher deductibles (sometimes $250,000+) on facilities flagged as high-risk after a loss-control visit
A full building survey for a mid-sized Ontario plant runs $1,200-$4,500. Skip it, and your deductible alone will cost 50 times that.
Want to know if your current coverage requires thermography? Get a Free Assessment — we'll review your last loss-control report with you.
What a Thermographic Survey Actually Looks Like
Clients often picture someone walking around with a camera for an hour. It is more involved than that, and the difference between a useful report and a worthless one is in the prep.
1. Pre-survey planning
We review your single-line diagram, identify every panel, MCC, transformer, and disconnect, and schedule the scan during normal production — equipment must be under at least 40% load for findings to be valid.
2. Safe access
Panels must be opened. That means a qualified electrician (not the thermographer) removes covers, and the scan happens within the arc-flash boundary with appropriate PPE. CSA Z462 governs this part. No shortcuts.
3. The scan itself
The thermographer captures radiometric images of every connection, along with load readings from a clamp meter. Every finding is logged with its temperature rise, phase comparison, and photo reference.
4. The report
A real report includes severity classification (typically 4 levels from "monitor" to "immediate action"), recommended corrective actions, and a repair log for closeout. A one-page PDF with a few colourful pictures is not a report — it is a receipt.
When to Schedule It
- Annually for all main distribution, MCCs, and critical feeders
- After any electrical work — new installations, tie-ins, breaker replacements
- Before peak load seasons — July heat for cooling loads, January cold for heating loads
- After a near-miss — nuisance trips, burning smells, visible discoloration
- Before a facility sale or insurance audit
Plants running 24/7 in Ontario's heavy industries (steel, automotive, food processing) should consider semi-annual surveys on critical feeders.
Case: A $3 Million Fire That Didn't Happen
A Hamilton metal fabrication plant hired us for their first-ever IR survey in early 2024. Two hours in, we found a 600A main lug running at 148°C — 75°C above its matched phases under an 80% load. The aluminum lug had been installed during a 2011 panel upgrade and had slowly loosened over 13 years.
The plant scheduled an emergency shutdown that weekend. An electrician found the lug blackened and pitted, with insulation on adjacent conductors already starting to degrade. Replacement parts and labour cost $4,200.
The plant's property value was insured at $3.1 million. The production line feeding that panel generated roughly $180,000 per day. A fire in that main would have taken the entire east wing of the building. The survey cost $1,850.
That is the math on thermal imaging for electrical panels in Ontario: you are not buying a scan, you are buying the difference between a Saturday repair and a Monday morning that never comes.
The Contrarian Take
Most thermography vendors will sell you quarterly scans. For 90% of Ontario facilities, that is overkill and a waste of your maintenance budget. Annual scans on everything, plus targeted semi-annual scans on the 10% of equipment that actually matters (mains, critical process feeders, VFD panels), will catch 98% of developing faults. Pay for precision, not frequency.
Getting Started
If you have never had a thermographic survey done, or the last one was more than 18 months ago, your next insurance renewal is the forcing function. Start there.
Our predictive maintenance team in Ontario runs CSA Z463-aligned infrared surveys on facilities from Windsor to Ottawa. Every report is signed by a Level II thermographer and includes the closeout documentation your insurer wants to see.
For a broader look at how infrared compares to other condition-based techniques, read our vibration analysis vs thermography decision guide.
Talk to an Engineer — we will scope your survey, quote it, and get you on the schedule before your next renewal.
