Thermal imaging in Dubai.
What the camera actually sees.

What a thermal camera can and cannot show you

Infrared is a surface measurement. Everything else follows from that.

• It reads skin, not core. A hot joint inside a busbar shows up only once the heat reaches a surface the camera can see. Nothing arrives instantly, and some of it never arrives at all.
• It does not see through covers. Steel doors, dielectric barriers, clear plastic guards — all opaque to infrared. This is why the professional standard requires enclosures to be opened for line-of-sight access, or the survey done through purpose-built IR windows (Infraspection Institute standard, §8.3–8.4). A “thermal survey” walked past shut panels measured the doors.
• It needs load. Equipment must be energised and under adequate load, ideally normal operating load (§8.1, same standard). A panel scanned on a quiet Friday at 20% load hides the fault that appears at 90%.
• It gets confused by shiny metal and by the sun. Polished bus, galvanised trays and glass reflect other things’ heat back at the camera. In Dubai, solar loading on an outdoor surface can dwarf the fault you are hunting — which is the real reason serious external and roof-plant work is walked at night or before sunrise, not because night looks impressive.
• It is one instrument, not the instrument. Heat is a late symptom. Partial discharge in switchgear is audible in ultrasound long before it is visible as heat — different physics, different sensor. That is why we run thermography and the acoustic partial-discharge survey on the same route when the question is “will this switchboard survive the summer”.

When you actually need it — what the standards say

There is no UAE law fixing an inspection frequency for private commercial buildings. What exists is engineering practice, and it is unusually specific.

Source	What it sets
NFPA 70B — since the 2023 edition a Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, no longer a Recommended Practice	Infrared thermography of electrical equipment at intervals not exceeding 12 months, and at least every 6 months for equipment in Condition 3 — the class that includes equipment where urgent action was identified in a previous scan (FLIR; sections 9.3.1.2 / 9.3.3.1 / 9.3.1.4 per IRINFO)
ANSI/NETA MTS, Appendix B — frequency of maintenance tests	Metal-enclosed busways: “Infrared Only — 12” months, adjusted by the equipment condition and reliability matrix (ANSI/NETA MTS Appendix B, p. 244)
ISO 18436-7 — qualification of thermography personnel	Three categories of thermographer; a Category 1 holder “shall not be responsible for the choice of test method or technique to be used, nor for the assessment of test results”, and category minimums run 12 / 24 / 48 months of logged experience (BINDT PCN CM/IRT, Issue 8, 2025, §2.2–2.4 and Table 2; standard: ISO 18436-7:2014)

Read together, the practical rule for a Dubai facility is: once a year for everything electrical, twice a year for anything that has already given you a finding, and immediately before the summer peak rather than after it. Certification is voluntary in the UAE — but it tells you who is allowed to interpret the picture, which matters more than who is allowed to take it.

How to read a thermal report — including one that isn’t ours

Most people receiving a thermography report look at the colours. The colours are the least informative part. Six things decide whether the report is worth anything.

1. The thermographer’s certification level and number, and the make, model and serial of the imager. Both are required in the written report by standard (§9.1.1, 9.1.4). Missing means you cannot tell whether the person was allowed to interpret what they photographed.
2. The load at the time of the survey — as a percentage of rated load (§9.3.2.1). A finding recorded at 30% load and a finding recorded at 90% load are not comparable, and neither is comparable to next year’s.
3. Emissivity and reflected temperature used (§9.3.3). These are the two settings that move the measured number by tens of degrees. A report that doesn’t state them is reporting a preference, not a measurement.
4. The reference the ΔT is measured against (§9.3.4) — a similar component under the same load, ambient air, or the component’s maximum allowable temperature. Three different references, three different verdicts on the same joint.
5. A list of what was not inspected (§9.1.5). Panels that were locked, energised-but-unloaded, or inaccessible. This is the line honest reports contain and marketing reports omit.
6. Both images for every finding — the thermogram and a plain visible-light photograph of the same spot (§8.7). Without the second one, nobody can find the joint you are talking about.

Once those are present, severity is a table, not an opinion. The criteria widely used for electrical work, reproduced from NETA in the Infraspection Institute standard §10.1:

Priority	ΔT vs similar component, similar load	ΔT over ambient air	Recommended action
4	1–3 °C	1–10 °C	Possible deficiency; warrants investigation
3	4–15 °C	11–20 °C	Probable deficiency; repair as time permits
2	—	21–40 °C	Monitor until corrective measures can be accomplished
1	>15 °C	>40 °C	Major discrepancy; repair immediately

Note what this table implies: a 12 °C difference between two identical breakers on the same load is more serious than a panel that is simply warm. Absolute temperature sells reports; difference against a reference is what engineers act on.

Five questions worth asking any thermography provider in the UAE

1. Will the panels be opened, or scanned through closed doors? If closed — you are buying a picture of a door.
2. What load will the plant be under, and will that be written in the report? If the answer is “whatever it happens to be”, the number will not be comparable next year.
3. Who signs the interpretation, and at what category? Taking the image and assessing the result are two different permissions under ISO 18436-7.
4. Will I get the list of what was not inspected? The honest answer is “yes, and here is last month’s example”.
5. Is the report usable outside my own maintenance team? For a warranty claim, an insurer or a landlord dispute, the file has to hold up when someone who was not there reads it.

Where WOLKER fits — and where we don’t

We do the pre-screening layer, walked as a repeatable route so this quarter’s readings can be compared with last quarter’s rather than argued about. Every finding is delivered with the thermal frame and the plain photograph it came from, and the report is fingerprinted when it is issued — meaning anyone you hand it to can check months later that the file is the one we issued and no reading was adjusted after a disagreement. Findings reach you within 48 hours of the visit. Here is the report taken apart, page by page.

What we do not do: formal, insurer-facing electrical certification is issued by accredited inspection bodies; we coordinate that with a partner rather than pretend we can issue one. We also do not sell you the repair — we have nothing to gain from finding more faults than exist.

Panel Thermography — radiometric thermal pre-screening of your switchboards, hotspots photographed, measured and logged on one repeatable route	AED 6,500 · per survey
Electrical Integrity package — thermography plus the acoustic partial-discharge survey on the same route. Heat is seen before it becomes an outage; discharge is heard before it becomes heat	AED 15,900 combined — against AED 19,000 booked separately (AED 6,500 + AED 12,500)
HVAC & Refrigerant Check — thermal and gas inspection of chillers, cold rooms and HVAC plant	AED 4,500 · per visit — what it covers

The survey covers the switchboards of a single facility within Dubai, walked as one repeatable route; sites with several buildings are quoted per facility. Prices in AED, exclude 5% VAT, cover a single facility within Dubai; other emirates on request. Slots are booked in order of enquiry. Full price list →

Questions we get about thermal imaging

How much does thermal imaging cost in Dubai?

Panel thermography is AED 6,500 per survey with WOLKER, fixed, and an HVAC and refrigerant thermal check is AED 4,500 per visit. Booked with the acoustic partial-discharge survey on the same route, thermography comes to AED 15,900 combined instead of AED 19,000 separately, because it is one visit and one report. Prices exclude 5% VAT and cover a single facility within Dubai.

How often should electrical thermography be done?

Since its 2023 edition NFPA 70B is a Standard rather than a Recommended Practice, and it sets infrared thermography of electrical equipment at intervals not exceeding 12 months, tightening to at least every 6 months for equipment where urgent action was identified in a previous scan. ANSI/NETA's maintenance frequency table lists infrared inspection of metal-enclosed busways at 12 months, adjusted by equipment condition. No UAE law fixes a frequency for private commercial buildings.

What can a thermal camera not see?

Anything that is not on a surface in its line of sight. It cannot see through panel doors, dielectric barriers or plastic guards, all of which are opaque to infrared, so enclosures have to be opened or fitted with IR windows. It also needs the equipment energised and under normal load — a fault that only appears at 90% load is invisible at 20%.

What makes a thermal imaging report valid?

The written report should state the thermographer's certification level and number, the imager's make, model and serial, the load at the time of the survey, the emissivity and reflected temperature used, the reference the temperature difference is measured against, a list of equipment that was not inspected, and for each finding both a thermogram and a visible-light photograph. Without those, the temperature in the report cannot be checked or repeated.

Do you issue a certificate for my insurer?

No. Formal insurer-facing electrical certification is issued by accredited inspection bodies; we coordinate that with a partner when you need it. Our thermal work is pre-screening between those formal inspections — it finds the problem early, documents it and gives you a file that can be verified later.

Is a thermal camera enough on its own?

For loose connections and overloaded joints, usually. For partial discharge in switchgear, no — discharge is audible in ultrasound long before it becomes heat, so an acoustic array catches it earlier. Two ways of catching the same failure; we run them on one visit.

Panel thermography is AED 6,500 per survey. The survey covers the switchboards of a single facility within Dubai, walked as one repeatable route; sites with several buildings are quoted per facility. Prices in AED, exclude 5% VAT, cover a single facility within Dubai; other emirates on request.

Book a panel thermography survey on WhatsApp