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Technical reference
Introduction
The IEC/BS EN 62305 standard reflects increased scientific understanding of
lightning and its effects over the last twenty years, and takes stock of the growing
impact of technology and electronic systems on our daily activities.
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IEC/BS EN 62305 Lightning protection standard
The IEC/BS EN 62305 Standard for lightning protection was
originally published in September 2006, to supercede the
previous standard, BS 6651:1999.
For a limited period, IEC/BS EN 62305 and BS 6651 ran
in parallel, but in August 2008, BS 6651 was withdrawn and
now IEC/BS EN 63205 is the recognized standard for
lightning protection.
More complex and exacting than its predecessor,
IEC/BS EN 62305 includes four distinct parts - general
principles, risk management, physical damage to structures
and life hazard, and electronic systems protection.
These parts to the standard are introduced here. In 2010
these parts underwent periodic technical review, with
updated parts 1, 3 and 4 released in 2011, with part 2
published in 2012.
Key to IEC/BS EN 62305 is that all considerations for lightning
protection are driven by a comprehensive and complex risk
assessment and that this assessment not only takes into
account the structure to be protected, but also the services to
which the structure is connected. In essence, structural
lightning protection can no longer be considered in isolation,
protection against transient overvoltages or electrical
surges is integral to IEC/BS EN 62305.