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I t’s all about down time. Lost production is a major threat to any
organisation, and the lost production costs are negligible compared to
the cost of replacing the failed equipment that caused the down time.
by its nature, provides the most reliable This hot spot becomes self-feeding. looseness
method of monitoring. If any parameter The generated heat causes further l Overloading
drifts away from the norm, there is an degeneration by increasing the resistance, What would be the result of a resistance
early alarm which allows time to schedule which in turn leads to more heat. This of only 1 Ω?
a corrective procedure, preventing the phenomenon is known as thermal
runaway. Usually the hot spot feeds on P = I2 x R
problem from developing to a point of
complete failure. Most machines and itself in an exponential fashion until the = (100)2 x 1
equipment have many of their critical end result is complete destruction. For = 10 000 W
parameters covered. There is one the company affected, costly down time In other words, 10 kW of energy!
parameter, however, that can be the most could run into millions of rands.
This is enough to cause complete
revealing of the condition of a piece of
Electrical hot spots catastrophic meltdown of the copper
equipment, but is sometimes the most
In electrical equipment, the areas of connection point in a most spectacular
difficult to measure. And that is heat.
most concern are basic connection fashion.
Hot spots points. These include those between Dealing with hot spots
To transfer energy from one place to busbars, between busbars and switching
equipment, and cable termination Human inspection
another, some sort of medium must
be used. In the mechanical world this points. A good connection on a typical The most cost-effective basic way
medium could be a drive shaft. In the busbar connection point typically has a of dealing with hot spots is human
electrical world a typical example would resistance of less than 1 μΩ. The current inspection. Placing a hand on safe-
be a cable or bus bar. In an ideal world flowing though such a connection point to-touch areas like panel doors and
you would want energy to be transferred could be hundreds of amps. The energy feeling for heat, or simply looking
perfectly and efficiently i.e. energy in lost though this connection point is very at the equipment for areas of
equals energy out. small. discolouration caused by heat are
simple ways to determine the condition
However, in the real world, there are Example of equipment. The inspection method
always some energy losses along the
For example, with a current of 100 A is very rudimentary, can be unreliable
way due to unavoidable influences
and a connection resistance of 1 µΩ , and also subject to misinterpretation.
such as friction or resistance. This lost
energy is converted into heat, and P = I 2R
either conducted or radiated away into = (100)2 x 0,000001
the atmosphere. The plant operator’s = 0,001 W
goal is to keep this energy loss to a
In other words, it’s just one milliwatt
minimum. When transfer mediums are
of energy - nothing to worry about!
operating as designed, the energy loss However, this resistance could increase
that must be dissipated is usually very if this connection point degenerates in
small and undetectable by conventional any way due to factors such as:
equipment. However, when areas of
l Accidental movement
loss become less efficient, they start Fig. 1: Hot spots become self
dissipating more energy in the form of l Oxidation caused by moisture or feeding with time.