Besides the need of lightning for a structure or for a service, it may be useful to ascertain the economic benefits of installing protection measures in order to reduce economic loss

• Calculate identified risk components R_X in absence of new/additional protection measures
• Calculate annual cost of loss due to each risk component R_X
• Calculate annual cost CL of total loss in the absence of protection measures
• Adopt the selected protection measures
• Calculate risk components R_X with selected protection measures present
• Calculate annual cost of residual loss due to each risk component R_X in the protected structure or service
• Calculate total annual cost C_RL of residual loss with selected protection measures present
• Calculate annual cost C_PM of selected protection measures [C_PM = C_P x (i+a+m)]* Compare costs
• If C_L < C_RL + C_PM, lightning protection may not be deemed to be cost effective
• If _CL > C_RL + C_PM, protection measures may prove to save money over the life of the structure

Note:
C_P – cost of protection measures
i – interest rate
a – amortization rate
m – maintenance rate