Aerial Thermal Analysis

Most things fail slowly, and most of them announce it as heat long before anyone can see a problem. This explains how that is used.

It covers the point most people get wrong — a thermal camera does not see through anything. It measures infrared radiation emitted from surfaces. When thermal reveals moisture beneath a roof membrane, it is reading the temperature difference at the surface caused by what lies underneath.

Then what it finds in practice: overheating electrical connections, failing insulators, moisture trapped in roofs and walls, missing insulation, bearings running hot before they seize, and living things against a cooler background.

And why timing decides the result. Electrical assets must be surveyed under load, buildings are best after sunset as materials release stored heat at different rates, and there are two windows each day when everything passes through the same temperature and contrast disappears entirely.