UL 2595

General Requirements for Battery-Powered Appliances

UL 2595

1 Scope

1.1 This standard applies to battery operated appliances. This standard applies to appliances incorporating detachable, integral and separable battery packs. The maximum rated voltage for appliances and battery packs is 75 V d.c.

1.2 This standard also applies to battery-powered appliances that are also operated and/or charged directly from the mains or a non-isolated source, including appliances provided with integral battery chargers. The additional considerations for these constructions are contained in Additional Requirements for Battery Operated Appliances with a Connection to Mains or a Non-isolated Source, Clause 22.

1.3 These requirements are structured so as to be used in conjunction with an end product standard. These requirements are not intended to provide comprehensive evaluation of a battery operated appliance independent of an end-product standard.

1.4 These requirements only address the potential risks unique to the utilization of a battery supply in a product. With the exception of appliances that also have a mains or non-isolated source, these requirements replace or modify the requirements associated with risk of fire and electric shock for mains powered versions of the appliance in the end product standard. See Indent A in Table d1.1.

1.5 Conditions of use of the product that are the basis for test and other evaluations in the standard are retained and applied, as far as practicable, to these products employing a battery supply.

1.6 Battery operated appliances not able to be connected to mains connected power covered by this standard are not considered to be grounded (class l) or double-insulated (class II), appliances and therefore are not required to have basic, supplementary or reinforced insulation. Electric shock hazard is considered to exist only between parts of opposite polarity.

1.7 Battery packs for appliances covered under this standard intended to be charged by a non-isolated charger are to be evaluated by this standard and the requirements for protection against electric shock of the end-product standard. When evaluating a battery pack for protection against electric shock, the construction and test requirements are to be assessed with the battery fitted to the intended charger.

1.8 When evaluating the risk of fire associated with detachable battery packs, consideration has been given to the fact that these battery packs are unattended energy sources and have been evaluated as such in this standard. Detachable battery packs evaluated by this standard are therefore considered to fulfill an effective protection against the risk of fire equivalent to that of the end-product standard.

1.9 Since battery packs for appliances are submitted to different use patterns (such as rough use, high charging and discharging currents) their safety can be evaluated only by this standard and not by using other standards for battery packs, such as the Standard for Household and Commercial Batteries, UL 2054, unless otherwise indicated in this standard.

1.10 This standard does not apply to the safety of battery chargers themselves. However, this standard covers the safe functioning of lithium-ion battery systems.

1.11 This standard also addresses requirements covering the use of lithium-ion cells employed in battery systems in appliances. The following is considered within the context of these requirements:

• a) These requirements address the risk of fire or explosion of these batteries but do not cover any possible hazards associated with toxicity nor potential hazards associated with transportation or disposal.
• b) Battery systems covered by these requirements are not intended to be serviced by the end user.
• c) These requirements are intended to provide comprehensive evaluation of a battery only if used in products covered by this standard.
• d) These requirements refer to and require parameters supplied in reference to the cells that establish conditions for safe use of those cells. Those parameters form the basis of acceptance criteria for a number of tests contained herein. This standard does not independently evaluate the safety of cells. These parameters, taken as a set, constitute the “Specified Operating Region” for a cell. There may be several sets of specified operating region(s).

1.12 This standard is not intended to apply to appliances using general purpose batteries installed by the user, and this standard alone will not be sufficient to ensure all hazards are considered for these products’ “battery packs”.

1.13 These requirements do not consider the effect of special applications (such as medical appliances) or special environments (such as hazardous locations).

1.14 These requirements have not been assessed for their suitability for product categories other than appliances such as information technology equipment, telecommunications, laboratory equipment, fire alarm, security systems, emergency lighting, and audio-video apparatus, and may be incomplete with respect to those categories.

1.15 These requirements address the safety of battery systems during storage and use including discharge and charge. These requirements are only considered to be supplementary requirements with respect to the risk of fire and electric shock in battery chargers. The safety of battery chargers for appliances are covered by other standards such as the Standard for Power Units Other Than Class 2, UL 1012, the Standard for Battery Chargers, CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 107.2, the Standard for Class 2 Power Units, UL 1310, the Standard for Power Supplies With Extra-Low-Voltage Class 2 Outputs, CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 223, or the Standard for Information Technology Equipment – Safety – Part 1: General Requirements, UL 60950-1 and CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1.

1.16 These requirements make frequent reference to the conditions and tests of the end-product standard while also providing minimum conditions or severity of tests. These minimum conditions are not to be construed to imply equivalence to end-product requirements. Conditions or requirements of end-product standards are to prevail over the conditions or requirements of this standard, unless otherwise indicated in this standard.

1.17 This standard is not intended to cover appliances using lithium-metal type cells, and this standard alone will not be sufficient to ensure all hazards are considered for these types of cells. Lithium-ion cells are not lithium-metal cells.