Just a warning though.  Thermal conditions are potentially hazardous.   The severity of turbulence can sometimes be unpredictable and while it's rare,   hang gliders get broken occasionally in the air.  If you're flying a power system attached to a hang glider, it's an activity generally not supported by the hang glider manufacturer, and you should be aware that you may be taking a larger risk.   In particular, you should study hang gliding texts on micrometeorology so that you can avoid potentially dangerous situations.

You will need:

• A nanolight suitable for the task  (see below)
  
• A variometer/altimeter is highly recommended
• A backup parachute, recently repacked, designed for the weight range of your nanolight is essential. If purchasing a nanolight from a manufacturer, they should have made allowance for this and should be able to recommend one.
  

Some nanolights are designed mainly as a cheap alternative to the bigger trikes, or are just conversions of powered paraglider units and are not really designed  with soaring in mind.  When looking for a good thermalling trike, look for:

• Light weight. The unit plus you should not exceed the maximum recommended pilot weight for the wing to be used.  Sure, the wing may be strong enough to take it, but sink rate performance and speed/glide will be compromised severely if you go outside the range, as flex wings distort under excess load.  Try to be about 10kg under the top of the range if you can manage it.  Of course, if you're buying a commercial unit, be sure to ask the manufacturer to see documentation of their ultimate load testing for the trike, hang bracket and engine mount system.  They have a duty of care to provide a safe, strong unit.
  
  
• Plenty of push-out available.  It's amazing how much push-out you need when really cranking it around in a tight thermal.  You should not have to lean forward to reach the bar when thermalling.  It should be comfortable.
  
  
• Plenty of pull-in available.  If the wing has to be set up with a "reversed" speed bar in order to have a comfortable bar position, then it's not suitable in that configuration.  The speed bar should be comfortable in the standard (belly forward) setup, to allow you extra pull-in for speed.  You will need it sometimes in big air or in interthermal glides to get out of sink. 
  
  
• I recommend a limited yaw universal joint.  This is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find it really helps allow you to do more efficient turns and will increase your capability to handle crosswinds on launch and landing.  Your mileage may vary, but I think most ex-hang glider pilots will appreciate the capability.
  
  
• Laid-back seating.  The bolt up-right seating position of many nanolights makes them drag-buckets.
  
  
• Look for a machine that offers as little drag as possible.  Pods and spats can help, but often manufacturers set them up for use as wind-breakers in motorised flight rather than to reduce drag.  Hang the trike up from a hook, sit in it and see what angle the pod* makes to the horizontal. It should point down at about the anticipated wing glide angle.  Likewise with the long axis of wheel spats.
  *Note: the POD , not the trike! The nosewheel should be higher by a few inches than the mains when you hang the trike this way so that the mains always touch down first.

  Similarly, look for a unit that reduces the drag of gear legs and mast/nose strut and exposed rear trike keel hardware either via geometry or fairing.

Finding a Thermal

One of the advantages of having a nanolight is what I call the "guaranteed first thermal".  In normal hang gliding when you are launching from a hill, being towed behind a vehicle or aerotowed, it is all too common to have to repeat the launch before finding a consistent thermal.  In your nanolight, you can simply leave the motor on in a search pattern until you find a thermal, and then simply throttle back while working it until you have determined that it's worth turning the engine off.  (My own machine has a fairly poor climb rate, especially at the high density altitudes that you encounter on warm summer days, so I generally have to find some lift just to get a decent climb anyhow.)

Once you leave a thermal, try to fly a straight line toward your goal, unless there are obvious thermal markers/sources around.  Do not let the air shift you off course, as thermals have a tendency to push you away from them.

If you are used to "normal" triking - that is, flying on mild weather days mainly in the morning and the evening, and you've not thermalled a hang glider before, you are in for a bit of a shock.   While some thermals can be mild - basically just areas of gently lift and sink, others can be dramatic.  You will often be turned up on a wingtip, sometimes see your noseplate below the horizon as you go "over the falls" exiting a thermal, or be holding on hard as the nose goes up as you enter a strong core.  You will get used to holding a steepish 360 degree turn for minutes on end.  (One of the most common mistakes new thermalling pilots make is not to turn tight enough!).

Tips for beginners:

Thermals can be visualised as a "column" of warm rising air, surrounded by slowly or quickly sinking air.  Within the column, there will usually be one or more "cores" where the air is rising at maximum strength.  The reality is more complex, but this model seems to serve well for a start.

Your job is to try to keep your wing in a thermal core as efficiently as possible, because thermals don't last forever, and if you hang around not trying to maximise your climb, you're just as likely to fall out the bottom of it as it passes you by.

There are plenty of tried and true methods for "centreing" thermals.

• If a wing lifts, it's probably because of lift in the direction of that wing, so if possible, turn toward the lifting wing.  If you can't get the wing down, speed up a bit and then use the additional control to turn back toward the lift.  Trying to do a 270 degree turn to get into it will usually waste altitude.
• If your vario indicates more lift in one section of a circle, open up the turn for a second or two in that region, then tighten it again. This is the most common way of getting into the core.
• Don't be scared to turn hard in strong lift.
• If the lift is too violent, go somewhere else.  There'll be other days.