National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 62561‑8:2026. It is identical to IEC 62561‑8:2026. It supersedes PD IEC/TS 62561‑8:2018, which will be withdrawn on 31 August 2029.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee GEL/81, Protection against lightning.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 August 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 20 July 2026. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

The text of document 81/806/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 62561‑8, prepared by TC 81 "Lightning protection" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 62561‑8:2026.

The following dates are fixed:

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Endorsement notice

The text of the International Standard IEC 62561‑8:2026 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standard indicated:

FOREWORD

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC National Committees.
IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

IEC 62561-8 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 81: Lightning protection. It is an International Standard.

This first edition cancels and replaces IEC TS 62561‑8 published in 2018. This edition constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to IEC TC 62561-8:2018:

title and scope of the standard has been adjusted;
the document has been updated in line with IEC 60068‑2‑52:2017 on salt mist treatment;
the document has been updated in line with ISO 22479:2019 on humid sulphureous atmosphere treatment;
two different possible example configurations for pull out tests have been introduced;
additional information on pollution has been included;
an alternate test arrangement for high voltage impulse test has been included;
a new normative Annex H for applicability of previous tests has been introduced;
pass criteria for high voltage impulse testing updated;
explanation on high voltage impulse testing with negative polarity has been added.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.

A list of all parts in the 62561 series, published under the general title Lightning protection system components (LPSC), can be found on the IEC website.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the specific document. At this date, the document will be

reconfirmed,
withdrawn, or
revised.

INTRODUCTION

This part of IEC 62561 deals with the requirements and tests for lightning protection system components (LPSC), specifically components for electrically insulated LPS, used for the installation of a lightning protection system (LPS) designed and implemented according to the IEC 62305 series[1]1.

1 Scope

This document specifies the requirements and tests for components used for electrically insulated LPS. These components, which can reduce the separation distance, are as follows:

insulating stand-offs, used in conjunction with an air-termination system and down-conductors with the aim of maintaining the proper separation distance;
insulating down-conductors, including their specific fasteners.

Testing of insulating stand-offs and insulating down-conductor components for an explosive atmosphere is not covered by this document.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Insulating stand-off

4.1 Classification

4.2 Requirements

4.3 Tests

4.4 Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

4.5 Structure and content of the test report

5 Insulating down-conductor

5.1 Classification

5.2 Lightning current carrying capability

5.3 Preferred values of equivalent separation distance (s_e)

5.4 Requirements

5.5 Tests

5.6 Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

5.7 Structure and content of the test report

Bibliography