SEEING THE FUTURE:
HOW PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE IS TRANSFORMING UNIVERSITY FACILITIES
By Rob Milner, Director Global Business Development, Flir Instruments Solutions
Universities are bustling cities unto themselves, with sprawling campuses, intricate electrical grids, and complex heating and cooling systems. Keeping these assets running smoothly isn’t just about comfort—it’s about safety, research continuity, and the student experience.
In recent years, a quiet revolution has been underway: predictive maintenance, powered by advanced technologies like thermography and acoustic imaging, is helping universities move from “fix it when it breaks” to “fix it before it fails.” Here’s how these tools are reshaping campus operations—and why every university should take notice.
Why Predictive Maintenance Matters for Higher Education
Unlike factories, large facilities such as trade schools, colleges, and universities face unique pressures. Many campuses are extremely old. The median age of the top 100 global universities as ranked by QS World is more than 165 years, so “aging infrastructure” can be an understatement when talking about universities.
Campus administrations face maintenance budgets that are extremely tight, but at the same time, must contend with the reality that interrupted service could cause critical issues when research worth millions in grants is in progress.
For this reason, many campuses across North American are trying to grapple with billions of dollars in deferred maintenance: leaky roofs, outdated HVAC systems, and aging electrical panels. Predictive maintenance offers a way out of this cycle, allowing facilities teams to catch problems early, prioritize repairs, and stretch limited resources further.
The benefits of predictive maintenance are compelling.
The most important of these is safety, as catching faults early can drastically reduce the risk of fires, leaks, or hazardous failures. There is a cost benefit, too: improving safety reduces insurance claims and premium costs, but predictive maintenance can also reduce repair costs by up to 40%, freeing up funds to tackle the maintenance backlog.
Other benefits include reduced downtime, extended asset life, and improved energy efficiency. By fixing issues before they escalate, universities avoid disruptive outages that can impact classes or research. Dedication to proactive maintenance means equipment lasts longer, deferring expensive replacements. And well-maintained systems use less energy, supporting sustainability goals and lowering utility bills.
Maintenance costs can drop by 40%, saving schools like the University of California billions of dollars.
Thermal image of a buss fuse under load.
Thermal image of an induction motor.
Thermography: The Campus “X-Ray Vision”
Thermography—using infrared cameras to visualize heat and measure temperature—has become the backbone of condition-based maintenance in university settings. It’s the tool that lets facility managers “see” problems invisible to the naked eye. As an imaging technology, thermography is highly intuitive and quick to scan large areas.
"Infrared and non-destructive testing let us see what the naked eye can’t, turning hidden degradation into actionable insight," explains Michael Guns with Maven Asset Management. "When we pair that visibility with structured maintenance planning, we move campuses from reactive repairs to a resilient, reliable, and fiscally responsible future.”
Key Applications
- Electrical Inspections: Routine infrared scans of electrical panels, switchgear, and transformers reveal hot spots caused by loose connections or overloaded components. One southeastern U.S. university caught several faulty circuits running abnormally hot, averting a major outage during finals week.
- Mechanical Diagnostics: Thermal imaging of motors, bearings, and pumps spots overheating parts before they fail. The heat resulting from poor lubrication, misalignment, motor winding degradation, and more, are all visible in thermal images.
- Building Envelope Analysis: Thermographic surveys of walls, windows, and roofs can find damaged or missing insulation and vapor barrier leaks. Nottingham Trent University in the UK used IR to validate energy-saving renovations, confirming dramatic reductions in heat loss.
- Steam Trap Monitoring: Campuses with steam heating systems use IR to check for failed traps, which waste expensive energy. St. John’s University in New York saved thousands in fuel costs by replacing traps identified as faulty through thermal surveys.
Thermography Benefits
- Prevents Outages: Early detection of electrical and mechanical issues means planned repairs, not emergency fixes.
- Saves Money: Avoiding catastrophic failures and improving energy efficiency delivers rapid ROI—often within a year or two.
- Supports Sustainability: Targeted repairs reduce energy waste and carbon emissions.
- Enhances Safety: Identifying overheating components prevents fires and other hazards.
The Flir Si2-LD acoustic imaging camera detects the sounds of compressed air and industrial gas leaks and superimposes it on a visual image, so users can locate the source of the leak easily.
Acoustic Imaging: The Sonic Detective
While thermography is the “eyes” of predictive maintenance, acoustic imaging and ultrasound are the “ears.” These technologies detect problems that produce telltale sounds—often at frequencies humans can’t hear.
Key Applications
- Compressed Air & Gas Leak Detection: Ultrasonic imaging easily locates and measures leaks in air and gas lines—a major source of wasted energy. The University of Alabama’s compressed air audit found leaks worth nearly $7,000 a year in electricity savings. Compressed gas line leaks of specialty gases like Argon or high purity Nitrogen can result in tens of thousands of dollars in annual costs from a single leak. Acoustic imaging detects these leaks with minimal training.
- Mechanical Defect Detection: Ultrasound devices catch early bearing wear, pump cavitation, and valve leaks. A university hospital eliminated unplanned bearing failures by adopting ultrasound-guided lubrication.
- High-Voltage Arcing & Partial Discharge: Acoustic cameras detect electrical arcing in substations and switchgear, preventing insulation failures that could cause blackouts. A Canadian university’s substation inspection caught a critical defect before it led to a costly outage.
Benefits of Acoustic Imaging
- Quick Energy Savings: Compressed air leak detection programs often pay for themselves in months, slashing utility bills.
- Early Fault Detection: Ultrasound reveals some mechanical problems before vibration or temperature changes are noticeable.
- Improved Safety: Non-contact inspections reduce risk for maintenance staff.
- Reduced Downtime: Catching issues early means fewer emergency repairs and more reliable campus operations.
What's the ROI?
Use this calculator to determine how much money your company could save by catching and correcting compressed air leaks.
Overcoming Challenges: The Roadblocks to Success
Despite the clear benefits, universities face hurdles in adopting predictive maintenance.
Chief among these is the lack of skilled personnel. A 2019 Noria survey found that 71% of maintenance managers expressed concern over the lack of internal skilled personnel to support internet-connected predictive maintenance (PdM) systems. This shortage is a top barrier to effective implementation.
Even when universities invest in PdM tools, staff may not be properly trained to use them effectively. Successful programs invest heavily in training—as much as 60–80 hours per technician—while failed implementations often provide only a fraction of that. Without ongoing education, advanced tools like infrared cameras or AI analytics platforms may sit underutilized.
Finally, there is the need for specialized training. Universities often cannot afford full-time reliability engineers or data scientists on their facilities teams. Instead, they rely on external consultants or expect existing staff to lear these skills on top of their regular duties.
Noria Survey
Are you concerned by a lack of skilled internal maintenance workers?
Other Barriers
- Cybersecurity policy conformity: Universities, like many large enterprises, maintain the highest levels of IT security, which can be difficult for vendors to support.
- Data Integration: Combining sensor data from diverse systems can be complex. Modern platforms help unify data streams for actionable insights.
- Budget Constraints: Upfront costs can be a barrier, but the long-term savings and risk reduction justify the investment.
- Cultural Resistance: Shifting from reactive to proactive maintenance requires buy-in from all levels. Demonstrating quick wins helps build support.
How Flir Helps Universities Succeed
As a global leader in thermal and acoustic imaging, Flir offers solutions for many of the pain points universities face.
For example, Flir offers online and in-person thermography training through the Infrared Training Center that can be tailored to university environments. This investment in people helps universities build internal expertise, close the skills gap, and achieve higher adoption rates for predictive maintenance.
Flir addresses the skills gap by offering innovative products such as the app-enabled Flir iXX-Series thermal imaging camera and Flir Assetlink, an asset-hierarchy thermography software designed for ease of use and seamless integration. These products simplify workflows, support inexperienced users, and solve documentation, communication and decision pains. They turn complexity to clarity and greatly reduce the impact of skills and experience shortages.
Flir’s Assetlink software meets the uncompromising security demands of university IT departments. Its cloud-based, asset-hierarchy data structure, can be integrated with a university’s preferred Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) or asset management software, improving data integration. Flir is also ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified, providing proof of cyber-accountability.
The Big Picture: Predictive Maintenance as a Best Practice
The evidence is clear: predictive maintenance, powered by thermography and acoustic imaging, is delivering tangible results at universities. From the University of Iowa’s $600,000 annual energy savings to Kent State’s million-dollar utility cost reductions, campuses are seeing fewer breakdowns, lower costs, and improved reliability.
As technology becomes more affordable and success stories multiply, predictive maintenance is moving from an innovative idea to a best practice in higher education. By embracing these tools and leveraging Flir’s training, support, and integrated solutions, universities can redirect saved funds to their core mission: education and research, while ensuring a safe, comfortable, and sustainable environment for all.
