Insurance Infrared Scan Reports for Ontario Properties

Why Insurers Ask for an Infrared Scan Report

Insurers ask for an infrared scan report because overheating electrical equipment can start property fires and equipment loss, and a recent scan shows the underwriter whether your distribution equipment has hidden heat problems. The report gives them evidence of condition that a walk-through cannot.

Commercial property underwriters and loss-control consultants have long promoted thermal imaging of electrical systems. Their guidance commonly points to the same findings a thermographer looks for: loose connections, unbalanced loads, overloaded circuits and deteriorating insulation. Some carriers send their own risk consultants to scan insured sites; others write a recommendation into the survey or renewal letter and leave the owner to hire a qualified firm. That second case is where we come in.

There is no single Ontario rule that makes an insurance infrared scan mandatory for every building, and requirements vary by insurer, policy and property type. What tends to trigger a request is a renewal survey, a change of ownership, a loss history, a building with older distribution equipment, or a manufacturing or warehouse risk with high electrical load. Your broker will know which applies to you.

This page covers the scan done for an insurer. The method itself, how a thermographer finds and measures heat, is explained on our infrared electrical thermography page.

What to Ask Your Broker Before Booking the Scan

Before you book, get the insurer's request in writing and confirm the scope, the deadline, and what proof they want that recommendations were fixed. Five minutes with your broker saves a second visit later.

• Scope. Does the insurer want the main service and switchboard only, or every distribution panel, motor control centre and transformer on site? Does it cover one building or every location on the schedule?
• Deadline. When is the report due, and is there an extension process if repairs are needed first?
• Thermographer qualification. Some insurers name a minimum certification level. Ours are Level II certified, so check the letter against that before booking.
• Report format. Does the insurer have its own form, or will a full thermographic report be accepted?
• Proof of correction. Will a contractor's letter do, or do they want a re-scan with new images showing the repaired points?
• Distribution. Who receives the report: you, the broker, the insurer's loss-control contact, or all three?

If you send us the request letter, we will read it with you and price the scope it actually asks for, nothing more.

What an Infrared Scan Report for Insurance Includes

An infrared scan report for insurance includes a summary the underwriter can read in a minute, a detailed page for every finding, a list of what was scanned without problems, and the credentials of the people who did the work. We do not publish sample reports, but the contents are set out below.

Reports are delivered as a PDF that you can forward to your broker. Images are kept on file so the next annual scan can compare the same equipment from the same angle.

How Scan Findings Are Ranked for an Underwriter

Each finding is ranked by how far it runs above a matching component under similar load and above room air, using the temperature bands in the thermographic table of ANSI/NETA MTS (the maintenance testing specification for electrical power equipment), so the underwriter sees a clear order of urgency. The ranking separates "fix immediately" from "plan it into the next shutdown".

In practice an underwriter reads the summary first. A report with no high-priority items usually closes the request. A report with one or two serious hot spots will normally lead to a recommendation that they be corrected and confirmed. Being open about a serious finding is better than a thin report that leaves the insurer guessing; it also protects you, because the hot spot was real whether or not anyone wrote it down.

Where a finding is severe enough to put people or property at risk, your site contact hears about it from the thermographer in person, well ahead of any paperwork, so you can decide whether to reduce load, isolate the circuit or book an immediate repair.

Closing Out Insurer Recommendations: Repair and Proof

To close an insurer recommendation you need the defect repaired by a licensed electrical contractor and evidence that it worked, usually a re-scan of the repaired points. KCS can do both, which keeps the paper trail in one place.

1. Repair. Our licensed electricians correct the defect: re-terminate or replace the lug, replace a damaged breaker or fuse holder, rebalance loads, or upgrade an overloaded feeder. In Ontario, work on an electrical installation needs a notification of work filed with the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA), and we handle that.
2. Re-scan. Once the circuit is back under normal load we image the repaired point again and record the new temperature rise.
3. Close-out letter. You receive a short letter or report addendum listing each recommendation, the work done, the date, and before-and-after images, ready for your broker.

If you prefer to use your own electrician for repairs, that is your choice; we can still re-scan their work so the insurer gets the same evidence. For defects that need deeper diagnosis, our electrical troubleshooting team takes over, and for panels with repeated findings an electrical panel inspection may be the better next step.

Properties That Commonly Get Insurance IR Scan Requests

Insurance infrared scan requests most often reach owners of buildings with large electrical loads, older distribution equipment, or a lot of property value under one roof. The pattern is about risk, not building type alone.

• Manufacturing plants and process facilities, where a failed bus or MCC can stop production and start a fire. Plant-wide survey work is covered on our industrial thermography page.
• Warehouses and distribution centres with high-bay lighting, conveyor controls, battery charging and racking full of stock.
• Multi-tenant office, retail and industrial buildings, where the owner insures the base building and tenants share the service. Property managers with several sites should see commercial building thermography.
• Medical office buildings and clinics, where electrical problems can interrupt patient services.
• Condominium and residential towers with large common electrical rooms, when the corporation's insurer asks.

Recent purchases are another trigger: a buyer's insurer may want a scan soon after closing to establish the condition of the electrical system they now cover.

Timing an Insurance Thermal Scan Before Renewal

Book the scan several weeks before the insurer's deadline so there is time to repair any serious finding and re-scan it before the report is due. A scan done the week of renewal leaves no room for correction.

The scan itself must happen when the equipment is carrying normal load. For an office or retail building that means business hours on a working day; for a plant it means a full production shift, not a shutdown weekend. If occupied hours are a problem for tenants, we can scan early in the day while loads are still representative. We answer calls daily from 9 in the morning until 9 at night to set dates.

For multi-building schedules we sequence sites so that one report format covers them all. Annual scans also line up well with the twelve-month interval NFPA 70B (2023 edition) sets for thermography on equipment in good condition, and the scan is performed to ANSI/NETA MTS just as it would be in a maintenance program, so the insurance scan can double as part of your preventive maintenance record.

What an Insurance Electrical Scan Does Not Tell the Insurer

An insurance electrical scan tells the insurer whether energized equipment was running hot on the day of the visit; it does not certify the installation, test protective devices, or look at the roof and walls. Knowing the edges of the report helps you answer follow-up questions from the underwriter.

• It is not a code approval. Only the Electrical Safety Authority inspects work against the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. Our report describes condition, not compliance.
• It does not prove breakers will trip. A breaker can run cool and still fail to open on a fault. If your insurer or lender wants protective devices verified, that is circuit breaker testing, a separate scope.
• It is not an arc flash assessment. Some underwriters also ask whether equipment carries arc flash labels. That comes from an arc flash study, not a thermal survey.
• It does not cover the building envelope. Insurers sometimes request infrared roof or moisture surveys. We scan electrical systems only, and we will say so plainly rather than stretch the report.
• It reflects one day. Loads change, connections loosen over time, and a clean report this year is not a promise about next year, which is why many owners repeat the scan annually.

If the insurer letter mixes several of these requests, we will separate them into clear scopes so you can see what each one involves before you approve anything.

Contractor Credentials Your Insurer and Lender Will Check

Insurers, lenders and property managers want to see that the firm doing the scan is licensed, insured, safety certified and covered by workplace insurance. KCS can show each of those on request.

• Licence: our company appears on the ESA contractor look-up as KCS Group Ltd., licence #7014042.
• Thermographers: every scan is led by someone certified at Level II or above.
• Safety program: IHSA has awarded us COR, and owners who screen contractors online will find us on ISNetworld, Avetta and ComplyWorks.
• WSIB: we are covered and can supply a clearance certificate. WSIB places the duty to get that certificate on the owner or principal who hires a contractor directly, and each certificate lasts a maximum of 90 calendar days, so ask for a fresh one on longer jobs.
• Insurance: commercially insured; certificates of insurance are issued on request.

Fifteen years of electrical contracting sit behind those credentials. Our crews travel Ontario-wide from Aurora, and our scanning work takes us to Toronto, Markham and Brampton and across the GTA.