Before investing in a lightning protection system, the first question to ask yourself is simple: is my site really exposed to significant lightning risk?
The intuitive answer — “we’re in a stormy region” or “we had an incident 5 years ago” — is not enough to justify a lightning protection budget or to prove compliance with IEC 62305 standards. You need data.
Good news: LPS Manager provides you with this data, free of charge, without any hardware installation on site.
The problem: how to assess a site’s lightning exposure before taking action?
Lightning risk assessment is based on several standardized parameters defined by IEC 62305-2:
- Nsg: lightning density in the air (impacts/km²/year) — key parameter for risk calculations
- The geographic location of the site
- The physical characteristics of the structure (height, area, materials)
- Potential consequences in case of impact (people, equipment, environment)
Historically, obtaining Nsg data for a specific site required consulting a specialized engineering firm or purchasing data from a detection operator like Météorage. LPS Manager makes this process accessible to everyone, instantly.
LPS Manager Site Monitoring: real-time lightning monitoring without installation
LPS Manager’s Site Monitoring feature connects your site to lightning detection networks covering the entire globe. You get:
History of impacts around your site
Visualize on an interactive map all lightning impacts that occurred within a configurable radius around your location, over the last 12 months or more.
- Precise location of each impact (latitude/longitude)
- Date and time of each event
- Discharge intensity (in kA)
- Distance to site
In just seconds, you know whether your building is in a zone with high storm activity or in a statistically calm area — with real data, not generic averages.
Real-time alerts during storms
In active mode, LPS Manager sends alerts as soon as an impact is detected near your site: push notification, email or SMS according to your preferences.
This enables:
- Evacuation or securing personnel working outdoors
- Triggering protection procedures for sensitive equipment
- Automatically documenting storm episodes for your maintenance reports
Weather data and cumulative statistics
Beyond impacts, LPS Manager integrates contextual meteorological data: cumulative storms by season, storm days per year, multi-year trends.
These statistics allow you to directly calculate the Nsg of your location, the fundamental value for any risk study compliant with IEC 62305-2.
Concrete cases: what the data reveals
Here are some typical situations where the Site Monitoring feature provides a decisive answer:
Case 1: A “never struck” site in a dry zone
A building manager in a Mediterranean zone thinks he is not exposed because he has never noticed any damage. LPS Manager’s 5-year history reveals 17 impacts within a 500 m radius. The risk is real — and underestimated.
Case 2: An industrial site in a supposedly stormy zone
A technical director of a factory in Belgium hesitates to invest €8,000 in a protection system. Site Monitoring data confirms that the sector records an average of 2.1 impacts/km²/year, above the critical threshold for its type of structure according to IEC 62305-2. The investment is justified.
Case 3: Deciding on an international installation
An engineering firm must assess the lightning risk of a future industrial site in Morocco or Ivory Coast, before construction is even completed. LPS Manager provides the Nsg data for any location in the world — without traveling, without hiring a local expert.
Why no equipment is necessary
LPS Manager uses existing lightning detection sensor networks covering Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. These networks provide minute-by-minute data, geolocalized with precision below one kilometer.
You don’t need to install a lightning sensor on your site to obtain this information. Simply create your site in LPS Manager and pin its location on the map.
Monitoring begins immediately, even for a site under construction, in the process of acquisition, or on the other side of the world.
From detection to protection: the natural transition to LPS France
If Site Monitoring data analysis confirms significant exposure to lightning risk, the next step is clear: implement appropriate protection.
LPS Manager supports you in this transition:
- Integrated risk study according to IEC 62305-2, based on your site’s Nsg data
- Calculation of required protection level (NPF I to IV)
- Direct link with LPS France experts to select the appropriate protection system
To implement lightning protection compliant with standards after validating your exposure, discover LPS France lightning rods and protection systems — from Paraton@ir PDAs to complete Contact@ir supervision kits.
Conclusion: start with data, decide with confidence
Investing in lightning protection without knowing your real exposure level is like flying blind. Conversely, having precise historical data and real-time alerts allows you to make informed decisions — and document them.
With LPS Manager’s Site Monitoring feature, this analysis is now accessible free of charge, in just a few minutes, for any site in the world — without a sensor, without a technician, without delay.
Create your site in LPS Manager and immediately get your lightning history.
