National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 60730‑2‑23:2025. It is identical to IEC 60730‑2‑23:2025.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee CPL/72, Electrical control devices for household equipment and appliances.

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 July 2025.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 16 June 2025. 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 72/1477/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 60730‑2‑23, prepared by TC 72 "Automatic electrical controls" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 60730‑2‑23:2025.

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.

This document is read in conjunction with EN IEC 60730‑1.

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 60730‑2‑23:2025 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

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 60730-2-23 has been prepared by IEC technical Committee 72: Automatic electrical controls. It is an International Standard.

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 of the IEC 60730 series, under the general title: Automatic electrical controls, can be found on the IEC website.

This part 2-23 is intended to be used in conjunction with IEC 60730‑1. It was established on the basis of the publication of the sixth edition of IEC 60730‑1:2022.

This part 2-23 supplements or modifies the corresponding clauses in 60730-1:2022, so as to convert that publication into the IEC standards: Safety requirements for electrical sensors and sensing elements.

When a particular subclause of Part 1 is not mentioned in this Part 2, that subclause applies.

Where no change is necessary, this part 2-23 indicates that the relevant clause or subclass in IEC 60730‑1 applies.

In this publication:

The following print types are used:
- test specifications: in italic type;
Subclauses, notes or items which are additional to those in Part 1 are numbered starting from 101, additional annexes are lettered AA, BB, etc.
Words in bold in the text are defined in Clause 3.

Sensor manufacturers may refer to this Part 2 as a template to understand how to apply the relevant clauses in IEC 60730‑1 and to begin designing sensors and sensing elements and apply these requirements for their devices.

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.

1 Scope

This clause of Part 1 is applicable except as follows.

Replacement:

This part of IEC 60730 applies to the safety of electrical, electro-mechanical and electronic sensors including sensing elements and any conditioning circuitry. Sensors covered under the scope of this document serve only to transform an activating quantity into a usable output and do not perform a control operation as defined in IEC 60730‑1.

This document applies to sensors in so far as defining the reliability and accuracy of their inherent operating characteristics and corresponding response under normal and abnormal conditions within the sensor. Sensors, as defined herein, are used in or as part of an automatic electrical control or as independently mounted devices in connection with controls and control systems.

The use of this document for other applications in which sensors are used is possible provided that the appropriate safety is maintained as defined by the end product standard. This document applies to discrete sensors constructed of, but not limited to, conductive or semiconductive substrate, for the detection of activating quantities such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, humidity, light (e.g. optical), gasoline vapours, and the like.

NOTE 1 Future consideration will be given to other sensor technologies such as chemical, mechanical and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), along with other activating quantities like mass flow, liquid, movement, weight, vibration, or other as needed.

This document applies to sensing element(s) as well as any electronic hardware, software, or other conditioning circuits that are inherent to the sensor and relied upon to reliably transform the input signal into a useable response signal (output) for functional safety purposes. Conditioning circuits that are inseparable from the control for which the sensing element relies upon to perform its desired function are evaluated by the requirements of the relevant control Part 2 standard and/or IEC 60730‑1.

NOTE 2 Additional requirements can be also applied by the application standard in which the sensor is used.

Throughout this document, whenever it is indicated that the IEC 60730‑1 requirements are applicable, the term "control(s)", is replaced by the term "sensor(s)", and the term "equipment" is replaced by the term "control", as they are used in IEC 60730‑1, respectively, unless otherwise specified herein.

This document does not apply to sensors explicitly described in another relevant part 2 of the IEC 60730 series.

NOTE 3 For example, a flame sensor as described in IEC 60730‑2‑5.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Definitions relating to ratings, voltages, currents, frequencies, and wattages

3.2 Definitions of types of control according to purpose

3.3 Definitions relating to the function of controls

3.4 Definitions relating to disconnection and interruption

3.5 Definitions of types of control according to construction

3.8 Definitions relating to component parts of controls

3.13 Miscellaneous definitions

3.15 Definitions pertaining to thermistors

3.101 Definitions relating to resistance temperature detector (RTD) sensors

4 General

4.3 General notes on tests

5 Required technical information

6 Protection against electric shock

7 Provision for protective earthing

8 Terminals and terminations

9 Constructional requirements

9.2.8 Overcurrent protection

9.3 Actuation and operation

9.4 Actions

9.10 Equipment inlets and socket-outlets

9.11 Requirements during mounting, use, maintenance and servicing

9.13 Protective controls and components of protective control systems

10 Threaded parts and connections

11 Creepage distances, clearances and distances through solid insulation

12 Components

12.8.2

13 Fault assessment on electronic circuits

14 Moisture and dust resistance

15 Electric strength and insulation resistance

15.1 Insulation resistance

16 Heating

17 Manufacturing deviation and drift

18 Environmental stress

19 Endurance

20 Mechanical strength

20.1 General requirements

20.5 Pull-cord actuated controls

20.6 Foot actuated controls

21 Resistance to heat, fire and tracking

22 Resistance to corrosion

23 Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements - Emission

24 Normal operation

25 Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements - Immunity

26 Abnormal operation tests

Bibliography

BS EN IEC 60730-2-23:2025

Automatic electrical controls - Particular requirements for electrical sensors and sensing elements

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2025