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Cold Room & Freezer Thermal Imaging Australia
Failed panel joints, wet insulation and hidden ice build-up cost you energy every hour the plant runs — and they are invisible until a panel bulges or a load is condemned. A thermographic survey finds them while the room stays at temperature.
Asset Integrity Is Our Focus.
Enterprises that need to store large amounts of goods at temperatures well below the freezing point of water often install large walk in freezers on their premises. These large freezers are capable of keeping whole rooms full of these goods, usually foodstuffs, at very low temperatures. There is just one downside: cooling requires a lot of energy. It is therefore very important that no outside heat leaks in. To make sure that the freezer's insulation is working properly, thermographers inspect the insulation material with a thermal imaging camera.
Fundamentally, inspecting cold rooms, walk in freezers and other types of large commercial refrigeration units is in essence very similar to building insulation inspections, where we detect heat leaking from the outside of the building to the cooler inside air (on the condition that we have a temperature differential of around 10°C).
Thermal Imaging Helps Detect, Troubleshoot and Fix Problems to Prevent Costly Shutdowns and Outages.
We carry out cold room insulation thermal imaging surveys without affecting your daily operations or productivity. Our thermographic surveys offer great benefits such as; zero down-time allowing your operations to perform at optimal levels, and cost savings by implementing an extremely fast & effective screening method — Infrared Thermography.
Our cold room insulation thermal imaging surveys add value by:
- Identifying costly energy losses caused by warm air ingress into the cold room
- Pin-point areas of potential moisture ingress and hazardous ice formation
- Identify the causes of ice build-up within walls and roof areas
- Evaluate heat sources within the cold room
- Validate the construction quality and insulation continuity of a new cold room or freezer
Why cold storage operators book a survey
Cold storage facilities by their very nature have high running costs associated with them, where most of the running costs can be attributed to electricity charges. In this modern world of ever increasing energy costs it now makes strong financial sense to look towards energy saving and conservation.
Every square metre of failed insulation is refrigeration plant working harder, around the clock, for the life of the room. The heat does not arrive evenly either — it comes through the specific joints, penetrations and door seals that have degraded, which is exactly what an infrared survey isolates.
Does your facility have excessive leaks?
- Warm air ingress driving compressor run time
- Energy expenses climbing without an explanation
- Frost and condensation appearing on panel faces
- Rooms struggling to hold set point in summer
What the survey rules out
- Wet or displaced insulation inside panels
- Failed panel joints, cams and seals
- Cold bridging at penetrations and structure
- Ice forming behind linings and in roof cavities
What we inspect on a cold storage survey
If you operate a cold storage facility anywhere in Australia, the team at Highpoint Solutions are ready to work with you. Using our FLIR T660 long-wave infrared cameras, we can rapidly:
- Identify costly energy losses caused by warm air ingress into the cold room
- Pin-point areas of potential moisture ingress and hazardous ice formation
- Identify the causes of ice build-up within walls and roof areas
- Identify electrical faults including; hot-spots, loose connections, unbalanced 3 phase loads, abnormal heating of electrical components
- Identify incorrectly operating cooling systems
- Evaluate heat sources within the cold room
- Validate the construction quality and insulation continuity of a new cold room or freezer
Because the switchboards, condensers and refrigeration control panels are surveyed on the same visit, one attendance covers both the fabric and the plant that serves it. The electrical component follows the same criteria as any other board we inspect — see electrical thermal imaging →
Comprehensive Reporting & Reliable Data.
Highpoint Solutions takes the guess work out and will provide a detailed thermographic report within 24hrs of our survey. We deliver nationwide thermography services to commercial and industrial clients throughout Australia.
Every finding is presented as a visible and thermal image pair, located on a plan of the room, with the measured surface temperatures, the conditions recorded at capture and a recommended action. Repeat surveys are trended against the last so a slowly wetting panel is caught while it is still a repair rather than a replacement.
- ISO 18436-7 Category 2 certified thermographer
- FLIR T660 long-wave radiometric cameras
- Ambient, internal temperature and differential recorded per image
- Findings located room by room and panel by panel
- Trending between periodic inspections
- Report issued within one business day
Request a free sample report or quote →
How We Add Value To Your Business Through Effective Risk Management.
We use state-of-the-art infrared imaging equipment to immediately identify ineffective insulation and hazardous ice build-up within panels, allowing you to take corrective actions to increase personnel safety and decrease repair costs. We'll find the missing pieces of the puzzle and give them back to you!
Saving time — no down-time required
One of the benefits of thermal imaging is there's no down-time required. Our non-destructive, non-intrusive inspection methods allow your daily operations to continue unaffected by our work. Rooms stay loaded and at temperature throughout.
Faults highlighted immediately, report within 24 hours
We immediately highlight any existing faults or concerns and deliver comprehensive reports within 24hrs of the inspection, so an urgent panel or an overheating connection is known on the day.
Trends that predict failure
Periodic monitoring of cold room and freezer panels allows us to establish trends which are used to predict equipment and panel failure. This invaluable data allows your preventative maintenance team to carry out upgrades and maintenance tasks in a "planned" window, rather than an unplanned outage resulting in a loss of revenue and production.
Energy back on the bottom line
Most of a cold storage facility's running cost is electricity. Closing the specific gaps the survey finds reduces compressor run time for as long as the room is in service — the strongest financial case for energy saving and conservation in the building.
We find insulation problems BEFORE they become a drama!
Wet insulation does not recover. Water entering a panel through a failed joint freezes, expands, forces the joint further open and lets more water in — and the panel is unrecoverable long before anything is visible from the floor. Surveyed annually, the same defect is a resealed joint. Surveyed after the fact, it is a panel replacement in a room that has to be emptied first.
When to survey
At handover on a new room
Validate the construction quality and insulation continuity of a new cold room or freezer before the defect liability period expires, while the builder is still responsible for what the images show.
Annually as preventative maintenance
An annual survey establishes the trend and catches wetting panels, failing seals and refrigeration faults at the point they are still cheap to fix.
When energy costs jump
An unexplained rise in electricity charges or compressor run hours usually has a physical cause the camera can locate in a single visit.
Before a refurbishment
Knowing which panels are wet, and where the cold bridges are, scopes the work accurately instead of replacing sound panels alongside failed ones.
Common questions
Do we have to empty the room or shut down?
No. The inspection is non-destructive and non-intrusive, and rooms stay loaded and at operating temperature. That is the condition that makes the survey work — the temperature differential is what renders the defects visible.
What temperature difference do you need?
Around 10°C between the outside air and the room, which any operating cold room or freezer provides comfortably. The differential and ambient conditions are recorded with every image.
Can you tell whether a panel is wet or just cold?
Yes. Cold bridging, air leakage and saturated core each produce different thermal patterns and different responses over time, which is why the survey records conditions rather than just capturing pictures.
Do you inspect the refrigeration plant as well?
The same visit covers switchboards, control panels, condensers and motors thermally, identifying hot-spots, loose connections, unbalanced 3 phase loads and abnormal heating of electrical components.
Do you travel outside Queensland?
Yes. We deliver nationwide thermography services to commercial and industrial clients throughout Australia.
Related services
Thermal imaging hub
- Every thermography service in one place
- Electrical, building, industrial and cold chain
- How a finding becomes a classified measurement
Leak detection
- Moisture ingress traced back to source
- Microwave moisture mapping and ultrasound
- QBCC licensed rectification by the same crew