You start your day without thinking about it.
Your phone alarm goes off, you flick on the light, and you put on a pot of coffee. As you walk through your home, products are working exactly as expected: safely, reliably, and without hesitation.
Behind that experience are safety standards. In fact, there are roughly 125 products in a typical U.S. home designed to meet them.
That’s the invisible impact of our work on the safety of everyday life. Millions of products are made safer every day so you can live, work, and relax with confidence.
From the Lights in Your Home, to the Battery in Your Phone
Since 1894, our organization has helped advance innovation through safety science, research, education, advocacy, and the development of standards that support both emerging technologies and everyday essentials.
One of the earliest examples dates back more than a century. In 1917, UL 20, the Standard for General-Use Snap Switches, helped usher in the age of electrification. As electric lighting became a key fixture in new homes and apartment buildings in growing urban areas, there was a critical need to ensure these systems were safe and reliable.
UL 20 established how switches should be built to handle specific levels of voltage and current, reducing the risk of overheating, sparking, or failure. It defined construction requirements, appropriate wiring, testing protocols, and installation practices.
Every time you flip a switch when entering a room, pull a cord in a closet, or open your refrigerator door late at night, those everyday actions are supported by safety principles established generations ago, helping make even the smallest moments safer.
Fast forward to today, we live in communities that are digital-first and globally connected creating a rechargeable society, and safety standards continue to evolve alongside the speed at which technology is developing. Lithium-ion batteries now power many of the rechargeable devices people rely on daily, from smartphones and laptops to wearables and household electronics.
UL 1642, the Standard for Lithium Batteries, covers these rechargeable power sources as a safety standard. It establishes requirements to help ensure batteries are designed with the strength and durability to withstand normal use, and even certain types of stress, without posing a risk of fire or explosion.
We Make Millions of Products Safer for You, Even if You Don’t Realize it
Supported by a global network of thousands of experts, we’ve developed a library of more than 1,700 safety standards and related documents that work behind the scenes across industries to make products and systems safer. In developing these standards, we build consensus around science-based approaches to design, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
And through our safety advocacy, research, and partnerships, we work to equip researchers, product developers, and policy makers with the tools they need to help advance safety and innovation in everyday life.
These standards, and many more, are present throughout your home:
- UL 217, the Standard for Smoke Alarms, helps ensure devices detect the early signs of fire and alert occupants in time to respond, evacuate, and call emergency services.
- UL 943, the Standard for Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupters, applies to GFCI outlets commonly found in bathrooms, kitchens, and outdoor areas, designed to reduce the risk of electric shock by quickly shutting off power.
- UL 858, the Standard for Household Electric Ranges, establishes safety requirements that help keep exterior surfaces cooler during operation and limit temperatures that could lead to overheating or fire hazards.
- UL 325, the Standard for Door, Drapery, Gate, Louver, and Window Operators and Systems, includes requirements for garage door systems, such as sensors that help prevent entrapment and injury.
Individually, these features may seem small. Together, they shape an environment where products are trusted to work safely, without a second thought.
That’s the essence of the invisible impact — quiet, continuous protection woven into the fabric of everyday life.
ULSE isn’t just shaping standards that quietly work behind the scenes in your home. We’re also helping new and emerging technologies reach consumers safely and responsibly.
