Conformance.
A ULC record's conformance level is computed, never declared. The reference builder grades each record from the data it actually carries and stamps the result; the validator recomputes it and checks it, so there is no way to assert or inflate a level by hand. The level is one of two computed views: its sibling, Product Achievements, answers "what is the product documented for?" and has its own page.
Three grades, and a floor
ULC has three conformance grades, Core, Standard, and Full. Each adds a deeper class of evidence than the one below, and a record earns the highest one its data fully supports.
- Core
- The datasheet, the photometric file and the safety listing: the minimum a fixture must carry to be specified and ordered at all. Identity, classification, the headline photometric and electrical values, one-line colorimetry, and an attached cutsheet, with a recognized listing for its market.
- Standard
- Core plus the deeper claims of the datasheet and the photometric file, the IP rating and the lumen-maintenance claim: maximum intensity, symmetry and coordinate system, zonal lumens, materials, test conditions and measurement regime, an IP rating where the fixture is wet or outdoor-exposed, a lumen-maintenance claim that states its hours or a maintenance table, and the conditional rows the fixture's form calls for. This is the data a Division 26 lighting specification selects products on, which is why it ranks above Core. A Standard record is missing only the evidence that lifts it to Full.
- Full
- Everything: Standard plus accredited test reports and measured data. The LM-79 attestation with its report referenced in the record, an operating point, measurement uncertainty, applied corrections, instrumentation depth, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, and, for white-light fixtures, TM-30 color detail and the measured spectrum as data. A tunable-white or dim-to-warm fixture also states CRI and melanopic DER at both ends of its white range.
Below the grades sits the floor, Incomplete: where a record sits until it meets Core. Not a grade. A single missing Core requirement holds it here, even one that already carries Standard- or Full-grade data elsewhere. The tooling never refuses it: a record with nothing but its identity still grades Incomplete, and always carries a roadmap to Core. Identity is the one thing a record must carry to exist at all (manufacturer, catalog model, and family id); a record without it is malformed, not Incomplete.
Grading is a cumulative gate: a record earns a grade only when it meets every applicable requirement of that grade and of the grades below it. Every requirement still outstanding, at every grade up to Full, becomes a roadmap entry naming the field, its source document, and the governing standard. Beside those hard gaps, the validator also suggests a non-gating enrichment roadmap: optional depth (power factor, flicker, alpha-opic metrics, UGR, and similar) that deepens a datasheet but never moves the grade.
These cut points are not arbitrary. They recover how a Division 26 construction specification (the CSI MasterFormat division that governs electrical and lighting work) escalates the evidence it demands of a manufacturer as the specification tightens. Two axes order the ladder.Evidence depth: each grade asks for a deeper class of characterization, which is why Full sits above the datasheet-grade Standard band. Conditional applicability: a specification asks for a metric only when the fixture's form calls for it, the rule the next section makes concrete.
A conformance level is a data-completeness grade, never a safety certification: the Core safety-listing gate checks that a listing claim is present, not that a third party has verified it.
Graded only on what applies
A requirement only counts when it applies to the fixture's form. When it does not, it is dropped from grading entirely, never counted as missing. That is what keeps the grade fair: a fixture is measured only against what a specifier would actually ask of that kind of fixture.
- An indoor downlight rated dry or damp is never asked for a BUG rating or an IP rating. Those are outdoor and wet-location metrics; their absence never lowers its level.
- A color-mixing RGBW fixture is never asked for a single CRI figure. It is specified by its color gamut, not one number measured against a reference white.
- A DALI, DMX, or wireless fixture is never asked for an analog dimming range. Its dimming is commanded externally and is not printed on the cutsheet.
- An architectural uplight (in-ground or facade) is graded on its beam, not on an area distribution it does not have.
- An exit sign is graded against the sign profile: legend, illumination mode, battery, and UL 924 evidence, never the LM-79 photometry its spec sheet does not carry. A dedicated emergency luminaire keeps the normal profile minus luminaire efficacy, plus the emergency gates.
The class profiles take this rule to its conclusion. The product class is derived from the record's primary category: an exit sign grades against the sign dataset (the architectural photometric rows are dropped entirely, and Full is anchored on UL 924 test-report depth), and a dedicated emergency luminaire grades against the normal profile minus luminaire efficacy, plus the emergency gates. A UL 924 listing, read from the attestation ledger and never a boolean field, satisfies the core safety-listing requirement. A sign-only manufacturer reaches the grade its spec sheets actually support instead of being stranded at Incomplete for lacking the photometric file it never produces.
So an honest datasheet is never demoted for a value its fixture has no reason to carry.
The nine reference records
The nine canonical records show grading on real cutsheets: six architectural records across the four authoring patterns, and three exit signs in the emergency product class. Each one carries its computed level and its roadmap to Full.
| Record | Grade | To Standard | To Full |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERCO Quintessence | Standard | n/a | measurement uncertainty and corrections, instrumentation depth, TM-30 detail, and a measured spectrum as data (accredited test report). |
| Selux Aya | Core | a lumen-maintenance claim that states its hours (from the datasheet, per TM-21); its cutsheet states no hours. | measurement uncertainty and corrections, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, TM-30 detail, and a measured spectrum as data (accredited test report). |
| Lumenpulse Lumenfacade (RGB) | Standard | n/a | measurement uncertainty and corrections, and a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection (accredited test report). |
| Lumenpulse Lumenfacade (RGBW) | Standard | n/a | measurement uncertainty and corrections, and a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection (accredited test report). |
| Lumenpulse Lumencore Linear Graze (tunable white) | Incomplete | Core first: distribution type, efficacy, input voltage, indoor or outdoor use, environment rating, mounting, secondary function, technical region, and a safety listing, the ordinary fields this color-state example does not author; then twelve Standard fields, zonal lumens and the lumen-maintenance claim among them. | melanopic DER at both ends of the white range (not published), TM-30 per-hue-bin detail, an operating point, measurement uncertainty and corrections, instrumentation depth, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, and a measured spectrum as data for the 4000 K baseline. |
| Vode Nexa | Core | a MacAdam SDCM step (from the datasheet, per ANSI C78.377). | measurement uncertainty and corrections, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, TM-30 detail, and a measured spectrum as data (accredited test report). |
| Cooper Sure-Lites LPX (exit sign) | Core | legend height (datasheet, NFPA 101 / IBC) and input power (datasheet, UL 924). | a test-report-backed sign-face luminance (UL 924). |
| Cooper Sure-Lites ES (exit sign) | Standard | n/a | a test-report-backed sign-face luminance (UL 924). |
| Cooper AtLite AUX (exit sign) | Standard | n/a | a test-report-backed sign-face luminance (UL 924). |
Vode is one field short of Standard. Selux is held at Core by its cutsheet, which states no lumen-maintenance hours. The Lumencore grazer grades Incomplete by design: it is a focused color-state example that authors the white range and its endpoints, not the ordinary Core fields. The two Lumenfacade records reach Standard with their DMX driver exempt from the analog-dimming rows, an applicability rule in action. The LPX exit sign is held at Core by two figures its spec sheet does not publish (letter height and self-powered input wattage), and the two edge-lit signs sit one tier below Full for the class-specific reason: Full asks for a test-report-backed face luminance, the UL 924 lab depth a spec sheet does not carry.