Radiometric & CAA-Approved

Drone Thermal Imaging Surveys.

Compare quotes from specialist UK drone operators for radiometric thermal imaging — detect heat loss, solar PV defects, and electrical faults invisible to the naked eye in a single flight.

“Every drone pilot on this network is personally vetted by me — insurance, qualifications, flight history.”

Peter Leslie · Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

Trusted by site managers & agencies across the UK

Need a thermal survey?

Post your details to compare quotes from radiometric-rated drone pilots.

The faults that cost you money are invisible.

Solar drone operators, facilities managers, and building surveyors lose revenue and energy every month to defects that no visual inspection will ever find. Radiometric thermal imaging makes them impossible to miss.

Lost Solar Yield

A single bypass-diode failure on a modern string inverter can cut yield by 2–3% on that string. Across a 10MW farm, undetected anomalies easily wipe out five-figure annual revenue before anyone notices.

Heat Loss & EPC Exposure

MEES, EPC, and net-zero retrofit grants demand evidence of building envelope performance. A radiometric thermal survey overlays heat-loss data on every elevation — hard evidence for specifiers and funders.

Hidden Electrical Faults

Loose connections, overloaded busbars, and failing transformers all show as thermal hotspots long before they fail hard. A drone thermal sweep catches them without de-energising the asset or climbing the structure.

A colourful heatmap is not a thermal survey.

By Peter Leslie, Founder & GVC Drone Pilot

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Most hobby drone pilots with a thermal camera deliver pretty pictures and misread every other hotspot. A credible thermal survey needs the right sensor, the right time of day, the right emissivity settings, and a qualified interpreter.

Every thermal drone operator on this network flies radiometric sensors, holds ITC or BINDT Category 1+ thermography qualifications, and works under a CAA Operational Authorisation with £5M public liability.

Reports are interpreted, not just captured — so an O&M team, EPC contractor, or building surveyor can act on them immediately.

Category 1+ Thermographers

OA & £5M Public Liability

Reports O&M and facilities teams can action.

Our thermal specialists deliver radiometric deliverables ready for asset managers, EPC contractors, and insurance adjusters.

Radiometric R-JPEG

Per-pixel temperature data you can re-analyse in FLIR Tools, ResearchIR, or DJI Thermal Analysis — not a flattened heatmap. Change emissivity, reflected temperature, or palette post-flight.

Overlay-on-Visual Reports

Every thermal anomaly is paired with its high-resolution visual counterpart and GPS-tagged, so an O&M engineer or building surveyor can walk straight to the fault on site.

Solar Failure Reports

Every anomaly classified per IEC TS 62446-3 — hotspot, bypass diode, cell crack, PID, soiling — with module-level coordinates, severity rating, and yield-loss estimate.

Book your thermal survey in 3 steps.

We connect you with radiometric-rated drone operators who know when, where, and how to fly for defensible results.

Describe the Target

Tell us the asset (solar, building, substation), site size, and what decision the report needs to support. We advise whether the window is dawn, dusk, or mid-load.

Compare Specialists

We route your brief to thermography-qualified drone pilots. You receive competitive quotes comparing sensor spec, deliverables, and turnaround.

Fly & Interpret

Your drone pilot flies inside the correct thermal window, interprets the anomalies against the relevant standard, and delivers a packaged R-JPEG and overlay report.

Start Your Project Brief

Finding the faults no visual inspection can.

See how solar asset managers, facilities teams, and surveyors use thermal drones through our network.

"The thermal sweep on our 8MW site flagged 47 underperforming modules and two failed bypass diodes that our string monitoring had not caught. Payback on the survey was inside a month."

Kieran O.

Solar Asset Manager, Norwich

"We needed evidence-led heat loss data for an MEES retrofit submission. The overlay-on-visual report let our architect specify insulation upgrades precisely rather than blanket-treating every elevation."

Helen W.

Sustainability Lead, Bristol

"Thermal scan on a 132kV substation picked up a hotspot on a bushing we had already signed off as healthy. Replacing it pre-emptively saved a potential outage worth a lot more than the flight."

Gareth R.

Substation Engineer, Cardiff

Thermal Imaging FAQ

Technical questions on radiometric data, anomaly types, and timing.

What is the difference between radiometric and non-radiometric thermal?

Non-radiometric sensors produce a coloured heatmap — pretty but not quantitative. Radiometric sensors record absolute temperature at every pixel in the R-JPEG file, so a qualified thermographer can re-analyse the image after the fact with corrected emissivity, reflected temperature, and palette. All our thermal drone operators fly radiometric-only.

What anomalies do you detect on solar sites?

Hotspot cells, bypass-diode failures, cell cracks, PID (potential-induced degradation), string-level disconnections, and soiling patterns are all detected. Reports are classified per IEC TS 62446-3, with severity and yield-loss estimates so O&M teams can prioritise module-level interventions vs. string-level truck-rolls.

When is the best time of day to fly a thermal survey?

Solar surveys need clear skies, minimum 600 W/m² irradiance, and the array producing near peak output — typically mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Building heat-loss surveys need a significant temperature differential (ideally >10°C) so are flown pre-dawn in winter. Electrical surveys are best captured during peak load. Your drone pilot schedules the flight to the correct window as part of the quote.

What files do I get after the flight?

Every brief includes the full R-JPEG radiometric set, paired high-resolution RGB imagery, a PDF/XLSX anomaly register with GPS coordinates and severity classification, and (for solar) a module-level map overlay. Delivery is via encrypted cloud link within 3–7 working days of flight.