Lightning protection basics

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Basic principles of lightning protection

To protect electronic equipment, several different aspects must be considered. Well-proven basic principles are shielding such as Faraday's cage, armed concrete, screened cables and bonding and grounding. The basic idea is to protect equipment and people against lightning by conducting the lightning current to ground via a separate preferential solid path and reduce the electromagnetic field.

Today, a lot of international and national rules exist to employ all well-tried measures to protect life, structures and equipment. Account must be taken of the most important international standards, such as IEC 61024-1 and 61312-1 (protection of building structures against lightning and protection of information systems against LEMP – including radio transmitters) and others. They all define the proper planning, installation and inspection of effective lightning protection systems (LPS).