Journal of Property Management

Jamie Markos , a vice president and senior consultant for risk and insurance services firm Marsh Inc,, has been fielding questions about thermal imaging from several of his public utility and power company clients.

His clients are interested in the potential return on investment infrared imaging can bring by heading off catastrophic equipment failures. Because most equipment heats up dramatically just before it fails, infrared cameras can help auditors predict failure by scanning and analyzing electrical equipment while the equipment is up and running and then highlighting the heightened temperatures.

By finding electrical problems before the equipment actually fails, infrared thermography can eliminate costly outages — yielding returns on investment of between 4-1 to as much as 30-1, Markos said. The range depends on how extreme of a failure can be averted and how expensive the machinery is that potentially can be saved.

"Avoiding failures of large magnitude is a huge benefit of this technology," Markos said.

-- Jamie Markos