High-density data centres push huge electrical loads through compact infrastructure: main LV boards, UPS systems, PDUs, busways and rack feeds.
A small temperature rise at a breaker lug, UPS terminal or PDU connection can quickly escalate into phase imbalance, nuisance tripping or catastrophic failure.
That’s why more operators now bake infrared thermography into their maintenance and insurance programmes. Standards like NFPA 70B explicitly recommend regular thermal imaging of switchgear, busway, UPS and battery systems to catch overheating connections, imbalanced loads and overloaded circuits before they fail.
In this article, we’ll look at:
- The top electrical hotspots thermographers find in data centres
- What each one usually indicates
- And how SnapCor makes those hotspots stand out with crystal-clear, instant reports – powered by the proven TICOR engine
If you manage critical facilities or run a thermography team, this is your field guide.
Why “Hotspots” Matter So Much in Data Centres
Infrared images are essentially snapshots of risk. As several data-centre case studies highlight, regular IR scans help identify abnormal hot spots so technicians can fix issues before they trigger downtime or safety incidents.
For operators, the stakes are high:
- Lost transactions, SLA penalties and reputational damage during outages
- Fire and arc-flash risk from failing connections
- Insurance scrutiny around evidence of electrical preventative maintenance
Thermography doesn’t eliminate these risks – but it provides early warning, especially when combined with structured, repeatable reporting from platforms like SnapCor.
The Top Electrical Hotspots Found in Data Centres
1. Main LV Switchgear & Breaker Lugs
Where:
- Main incoming LV boards
- Section couplers, tie breakers and outgoing feeders
Typical hotspots:
- Overheated breaker lugs and cable terminations
- Warm busbar links between sections
- Loose or corroded bolted joints
Guides on electrical thermography note that loose connections and overloads at switchgear terminations are among the most common and dangerous finds, often preceding insulation damage and arcing.
What it usually means:
- Poorly tightened or aged terminations
- Undersized conductors or components
- Contamination or corrosion increasing resistance
How SnapCor reports highlight it: Using SnapCor’s inspection-led structure, you set up each board and outgoing way as an asset in the app. On site, the thermographer:
- Selects the exact panel and circuit.
- Captures the thermal + visual image against that asset.
- Enters measured temperatures and load.
SnapCor then calculates ΔT, applies your severity grading (Minor / Important / Serious / Critical) from the same rules used in TICOR’s electrical thermography module, and drops the finding straight into a clean fault table.
Result: every hotspot on main switchgear appears with clear location, ΔT, severity and recommended action – not as a random image in a folder.
2. UPS Input / Output Terminations and Static Bypass Paths
Where:
- UPS input and output breakers
- Internal buswork and terminations
- Static bypass and maintenance bypass panels
UPS systems concentrate critical load; IR inspections routinely find hot connections on incomers and output bars, especially where systems have been expanded or re-configured.
Typical issues:
- Loose lugs after maintenance
- Imbalanced phases causing one pole to run hotter
- Overloaded circuits after capacity creep
How SnapCor reports highlight it: Using SnapCor, you can define a UPS inspection template that includes:
- Asset hierarchy for each UPS module and associated panels
- Standard root-cause phrases such as “loose termination,” “phase imbalance” or “overload” (taken from libraries informed by Ti Thermal Imaging Ltd).
When a hotspot is logged, the thermographer selects the appropriate cause and recommended action from drop-downs. SnapCor’s report then presents:
- A UPS-specific summary table of Serious and Critical issues
- Image thumbnails with matching visual photos
- Consistent language across all modules and sites
So instead of vague notes like “UPS a bit warm”, stakeholders see precise, comparable findings across the UPS estate.
3. PDUs, RPPs and Rack Power Feeds
Where:
- Floor PDUs and Remote Power Panels (RPPs)
- Rack PDUs and whip connections
Field experience and vendor blogs highlight PDUs and RPPs as common hotspots, particularly where loads have shifted or quick changes were made under time pressure.
Typical hotspots:
- Overheated outgoing breakers feeding dense racks
- Neutral bars and shared neutrals
- Plug-in connectors and whips with high resistance joints
Why they matter: A failure here might not bring down the whole site, but it can knock out a row or pod – exactly the sort of partial outage that still triggers SLA penalties.
How SnapCor reports highlight it: Because SnapCor is device-agnostic and built for high-volume inspections, engineers walking rows of RPPs can:
- Scan each panel, attach images to the exact circuit, and flag severity in seconds
- Use severity-filtered views to show only Serious/Critical rack feeds
- Export a targeted report section for IT and rack-migration planning
The clarity of SnapCor’s circuit-level tables makes it easy for facilities and IT teams to see which racks carry the highest thermal risk and plan load balancing accordingly.
4. Busbar Trunking & Tap-Off Boxes
Where:
- Overhead or underfloor busways feeding white space
- Tap-off boxes and joints
Busbar systems simplify distribution but introduce many potential hotspot locations: joints, tap-offs, end feeds. Infrared windows and regular thermal scanning are widely recommended to monitor these safely.
Typical hotspots:
- Loose or contaminated joints
- Overloaded tap-offs serving too many racks
- Thermal imbalance between phases
How SnapCor reports highlight it: SnapCor’s busbar-supportive workflow (already used in live inspections shared on LinkedIn) lets you map tap-offs and joints as individual assets in an ordered route, so you can see exactly which ones have recorded anomalies over time.
When you generate the report:
- Busbar sections appear as dedicated tables, making trends obvious.
- Repeated findings on the same joint are flagged with historical notes.
- Facilities and risk engineers get a clear visual story of busbar health, not a pile of unlabeled images.
5. Cable Sets, Neutral Paths and Earth Connections
Where:
- Parallel cable sets between switchboards
- Neutrals and earth bars
- Terminations feeding large mechanical loads
Infrared guides list loose neutrals and high-resistance joints as recurring trouble spots, often running hotter than phase conductors and contributing to harmonics and voltage distortion.
Typical hotspots:
- One cable in a parallel set hotter than its neighbours
- Neutral conductors significantly above ambient
- Earth bonds with poor contact
How SnapCor reports highlight it:
SnapCor encourages the thermographer to log these as distinct fault types:
- “Parallel cable imbalance”
- “Neutral conductor overheating”
- “Earth bond resistance suspected”
By picking from standardised descriptions and recommendations (the same approach used in TICOR electrical reports and Ti Thermal Imaging’s service reports), every engineer describes these subtle but important issues in the same clear language.
That consistency is gold when comparing multiple sites or audits.
6. Generator, ATS and Switchboard Interfaces
Data centres depend on seamless transition between utility and generator power. Hotspots here include:
- Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) contacts
- Generator incomers and output breakers
- Links between generator boards and main LV gear
Thermal monitoring guidance for critical infrastructure emphasises these points as key for avoiding startup failures and arc-flash risk.
How SnapCor reports highlight it:
Within SnapCor you can:
- Group generator/ATS assets under a dedicated “Resilience” or “Standby Power” section
- Generate a subset report focusing solely on backup power integrity
- Provide insurers and risk engineers with a clean, verifiable view of standby system condition, backed by images and severity grading.
Why Clarity in Reporting Matters as Much as Finding the Hotspot
Finding hotspots is only half the job. If your thermography report is:
- Hard to navigate
- Full of inconsistent terminology
- Missing ΔT, load or severity
- Or delivered days after the site visit
…then facilities teams, risk engineers and insurers can’t fully rely on it.
That’s why specialist providers like Ti Thermal Imaging Ltd have always focused on robust, table-driven reports that categorise faults as Critical, Serious, Important or Minor and link every image to a clear recommendation.
SnapCor takes that same philosophy and puts it straight into your tablet or phone:
- Inspection-led templates so every data-centre survey follows the same structure
- Shared severity rules and calculation logic inherited from TICOR, ensuring grading is consistent across engineers and sites
- Root-cause and action libraries so language is clear and standardised
- Instant PDF generation on-site, so reports are ready while the thermographer is still in the building
In other words: SnapCor doesn’t just record hotspots – it tells the story of those hotspots with clarity and consistency.
Turning Data-Centre Hotspots into Actionable Insight with SnapCor
Every data centre has potential electrical hotspots. The difference between a near miss and a headline-grabbing outage is often:
- How quickly you find them
- How clearly you communicate them
- How effectively you track and close them out
Annual (or more frequent) electrical thermography, aligned with NFPA 70B and industry best practice, is now the baseline.
Using SnapCor as your reporting engine turns that baseline into a competitive advantage:
- Thermographers work faster and more accurately on-site.
- Reports make it obvious where the highest-risk hotspots are and what to do about them.
- Operators, insurers and auditors see a consistent, professional documentation trail – backed by the pedigree of Ti Thermal Imaging Ltd and the proven TICOR platform.
If you’re responsible for data-centre reliability and want clearer insight into your electrical hotspots, it’s time to pair high-quality thermography with high-clarity reporting.
👉 Learn more and request access at snapcor.app
