FLIR Advanced Thermal Solutions has revealed the development of an aircraft based system by Termisk Systemteknik featuring the FLIR SC7600 thermal imaging camera to maintain and monitor local district heating networks.
FLIR SC7600 thermal imaging camera
The district heating networks distribute heat for commercial and residential heating purposes through an underground pipe network. Using district heating can minimize the carbon footprint of a city by increasing the efficiency offered by heating systems. Research indicates that the cheapest method to reduce carbon emissions is district heating. In the larger Scandinavian cities, district heating solutions have been installed. However, a large portion of the infrastructure consists of old pipes, which are susceptible to corrosion. Leaky, old pipes can lead to loss of several million cubic meters of water and result in financial as well as environmental loss.
The Director of Termisk Systemteknik, Stefan Sjökvist stated that prior to finding the exact leak spots, the companies would determine the estimates loss of water by measuring the water arriving at households and comparing the amount of water released from the heating facility.
Since maintenance of large-area district heating network is a challenging task, Termisk Systemteknik fixed a FLIR SC7600 on a plane. As the plane flew over the city, the FLIR system recorded thermal images and generated a thermal map of the city. The detected district heating leaks were highlighted after using an automatic detection system to analyse the thermal data.
The FLIR SC7600 thermal imaging camera features a cooled Indium Antimonide IR detector designed to produce 640 x 512 pixels thermal images with a thermal sensitivity of 20mK. It offers a short integration time and a high frame rate of 100 Hz.