District heating is being touted as the most economical method for a city to reduce carbon emissions, yet large district heating networks are hard to maintain.

District heating is being touted as the most economical method for a city to reduce carbon emissions, according to an article on Azom.com, yet such large district heating networks are hard to maintain. Sweden, based company Termisk Systemteknik has developed a district heating scanning system from the sky, based on thermal imaging cameras from FLIR Systems.

Thermography experts in Sweden have mounted a FLIR SC76000 on the bottom of a small plane for district heating inspections. A thermal map is obtained of the entire city by flying over the city and recording the thermal images.

Using this map, it is possible to detect and localize district heating leaks. Thermal data will result in automatic identification of leaks and other issues for district heat maintenance teams. Read the entire article here.