Infrared temperature sensing in electrical equipment by low-cost IR cameras

Inhalt:
Temperature supervision of electrical installations is of great interest as too high temperatures lead to accelerated ageing of components or, if unnoticed, might even result in catastrophic damage of the entire installation. In this work we demonstrate accurate temperature sensing of a medium voltage switchgear by a contactless method: Several low spatial resolution IR cameras are integrated into medium voltage switchgear panels at an attractive cost level making this system an ideal candidate for online supervision of the switchgear. An overall accuracy of better +-3 °C is demonstrated over the temperature range from 25 °C to 130 °C under realistic conditions encountered during a temperature rise test.