About Us

William Hoth founded Universal Thermography, Inc in 1984 in Clearwater, Florida. The business specialized in thermal inspections of utility equipment, which at the time offered a new and revolutionary way to detect vulnerabilities in an electric utility’s distribution system. If a thermal anomaly or hot spot was detected, you knew there was a problem that needed to be repaired. The overall result of this early detection technique was improved reliability and safety on the electric power system.

In the 1990’s, electrical outages due to wildlife came under increased scrutiny from regulatory agencies and environmental groups. In response, electric utilities began installing bushing covers on electrical equipment in order to adhere to the new regulations to prevent power outages and wildlife deaths. Bushing covers became a standard in the industry.

The wildlife protectors were initially designed with a solid exterior, which solved some problems, but also created new ones. Here are some of the new issues the solid bushing covers created:

• Inability to conduct accurate thermal inspections without removing the bushing cover
• Inability to conduct visual inspections without removing the bushing cover
• The solid bushing covers do not allow for air circulation around the covered equipment, therefore increasing the operating temperature of the bushing.
• While keeping out wildlife, they didn’t prevent bees and wasps from creating nests inside the bushing covers. An unsuspecting lineman or substation electrician would be vulnerable to potentially multiple severe stings.

A product design that solved both the thermographers inability to accurately inspect equipment and keep wildlife at bay was needed. We sought the advice of other expert thermographers, electrical engineers, chemical and material engineers, utility linemen and substation maintenance electricians in order to get the design and the materials just right. The new design featured a mesh exterior, and that made all the difference.

The product they invented, the Therm-A-Guard®, continues to be the #1 choice for wildlife protection for electric utilities who utilize thermal and visual inspections in their maintenance program and depend on accurate reporting of problems found during these inspections. Choosing Therm-A-Guard® over conventional solid bushing covers allows electric utilities to:

• Conduct infrared inspections without obstruction with much greater accuracy
• Conduct visual inspection without obstruction
• Operate equipment at a lower temperature
• Prevent wasp and bee stings for linemen because they can see and exterminate the nests prior to working on the electrical equipment.

The Therm-A-Guard was nearly an instant success. Finally there was a solution to keeping wildlife from causing power outages and being able to depend on the accuracy of infrared and visual inspection maintenance programs.

After a careful comparison of the Therm-A-Guard and our competitors products, you will conclude that the original mesh bushing cover, the Therm-A-Guard®, is the simplest, easiest to install, and longest lasting choice to protect wildlife and also be able to protect your utility’s assets along with having fewer customer outages.