An independent lightning risk assessment recommends measures, not products
Whoever runs a lightning risk assessment decides how much protection a building is told it needs. Lumex recommends measures in the standard's own terms, never products, and its search stops at the least protection that meets the tolerable values. Webority, the company behind Lumex, sells no lightning protection products.
An independent lightning risk assessment is run by someone who gains nothing from the amount of protection it recommends.
Webority, the company behind Lumex, sells no lightning protection products. Lumex holds no product catalogue and no supplier list, and its recommendation names measures, not products. The search behind it looks for the least protection that brings the risk within the tolerable values of the standard you chose.
This page explains why that independence matters, how Lumex finds the least protection under IEC 62305-2:2024, NFPA 780-2026 Annex L and AS 1768:2021, where Lumex makes ranking choices of its own and says so, and what the recommendation is not.
The standards ask for enough protection, not the most
Every risk method in this family works the same way at the end. You compute the risk, compare it with a tolerable value, and add protection until the risk is within it. IEC 62305-2:2024 clause 7.3 asks for the risk R to be reduced to no more than RT, zone by zone, and clause 9.3 asks the same of the frequency of damage F against FT. NFPA 780-2026 L.6.5 compares each relevant type of loss with its own tolerable value. AS 1768:2021 gives typical tolerable values per type of loss in Table 2.1, and its worked example at C.3.4.2 builds protection up step by step until the risk becomes acceptable.
None of these procedures requires more than that. An owner can still choose extra protection, and NOTE 3 to IEC 62305-2:2024 clause 7.3 says it can be useful or appropriate, but that is the owner's call, not the assessment's. The inputs carry judgement, and so does the choice between measures. When the assessor also sells the protection, those judgement calls can lean one way.
The least protection that meets every tolerable value
Each standard in Lumex has its own search, written for its own method. All three try candidates, recalculate each one with the same engine that produced your figures, and keep only the sets that comply. A stated ranking then picks one, and each ranking favours adding as little protection as possible.
| Standard | What counts as compliant | How the least protection is chosen |
|---|---|---|
| IEC 62305-2:2024 | R within RT in every zone (clause 7.3), and F within FT where it is judged (clause 9.3) | Every combination of measure levels is calculated, never weaker than what is installed. Among compliant sets, the lowest total of Lumex's cost ranks for the measures added first, then the set that adds the least protection |
| NFPA 780-2026 Annex L | Each relevant type of loss within its tolerable value (L.6.5) | Sets are tried by the number of measures changed, one, then two, and so on. The first count with a compliant set wins, and within it the set leaving the highest compliant risk, the least protective one |
| AS 1768:2021 | Each type of loss within its tolerable value (Table 2.1) | Protection levels are tried from the weakest up, with surge protection added in the order of the C.3.4.2 example. Where a lower level with more surge protection and a higher level with less both work, both are shown and the engineer chooses |
If the building already meets every tolerable value, the recommendation is to add nothing. If even the strongest protection searched cannot meet them, Lumex says so rather than offering a fix that does not work. For IEC 62305-2:2024 and AS 1768:2021 it also shows that strongest set and the risk it leaves. The NFPA 780-2026 search has a fixed limit on how many sets it calculates, and says so if it reaches that limit before finding one.
Measures named by the standard, never by brand
A Lumex recommendation names measures in the vocabulary of the standard: a class of LPS or a protection level, surge protection rated to a level, equipotential bonding, structure shielding, fire provisions, or measures against touch and step voltages. Each one changes a probability or reduction factor the standard defines for that measure. Those factors are all the search can move.
There is no product table in the Lumex database, no manufacturer list, no supplier directory and no referral link. Where an assessment needs a figure that only a manufacturer can declare, the engineer enters it, and Lumex calculates from the figure as entered. Picking a product that delivers the measure is left to the designer and the installer.
No AI computes or ranks a candidate. The search runs the calculation for each set of measures. The AI layer can describe the chosen set in plain language, but it cannot change which set was chosen or any figure behind it.
Where Lumex chooses, and why it tells you
A standard says which measures reduce which risks. It does not always say which compliant option to prefer. Where Lumex has to choose, the choice is a written product decision, and it never decides whether a building complies.
A ranking of measure types
For IEC 62305-2:2024, each measure type has a fixed cost rank: surge protection lowest, then bonding, shielding, fire provisions and a lightning protection system highest. A compliant set is ranked by the total for the measures it adds. It is Lumex's view of which types usually cost least to add. It holds no prices and names no products.
Your fire provisions stay yours
For AS 1768:2021, the C.3.4.2 example applies fire protection as its first step. Lumex leaves that step to the engineer: the search holds fire protection at what was entered, so it never adds a fire system to make the numbers work.
Built from what is there
For IEC 62305-2:2024 and NFPA 780-2026, the search starts from the protection already installed and only adds to it. For AS 1768:2021 it starts from no lightning protection system and no surge protection, as the C.3.4.2 example does, and also tells you whether the protection you declared already passes.
A recommendation, not a design and not a sale
Lumex runs the risk assessment, shows the working behind every figure through Voltrace, its calculation engine, and proposes the least protection that meets the tolerable values. It does not design the protection system, lay out air terminals or conductors, or certify a structure. A competent person reviews the inputs and the result and signs the report before anyone relies on it.
Related principles: why figures must be traceable and reproducible, why the engineer signs and the reviewer checks, why the current edition is held as data and why the audit log is only added to. For the methods themselves, see the standards Lumex runs, and for the product, the platform.
Questions answered
Why should a lightning risk assessment be independent of protection products?
Does Lumex recommend specific brands or products?
How does Lumex decide how much protection to recommend?
What if no combination of measures meets the tolerable risk?
Is the Lumex recommendation a protection system design?
Does Lumex rank cheaper measures above dearer ones?
Lumex computes the method of the standard you choose, IEC 62305-2:2024, AS 1768:2021 or NFPA 780-2026, and shows the working. It does not certify a structure. You may not issue or submit a Lumex output until a competent person, qualified where the structure is located, has reviewed the inputs and the result and signed it.
Each standard sets its tolerable values in its own way, and every assessment in Lumex states the values that applied.
Get started today