Procedure when taking thermal (IR) imaging

Question

I am a junior electrical technician. This question is not on theory but on the practical procedure of how to take a thermal imaging on an electrical switchboard. I will appreciate if some veteran electrical engineer and enlighten me on this.

Recently I have did a thermal imaging on an electrical switchboard and my company asked me to remove the protective cover to take the thermal imaging when the circuit are all live. I thought this was dangerous as if I trip or fall right in front of the board, I will get shocked and potentially die.

My question is this - should the proper procedure to take a thermal imaging is to switch off the circuit first? My logic is that when I switch off the circuit, technically the electrical breakers contact point will still be hot/warm, so capturing the thermal image profile will still be valid.

Thanks!

PS: If this is the wrong platform, please let me know where I can post it.

Answer 1

OSHA says, don't do it...

"Live parts to which an employee may be exposed shall be deenergized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that deenergizing introduces additional or increased hazards or is infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground need not be deenergized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs"