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.
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 entry grade: the minimum a fixture must carry to be specified and ordered at all. Mandatory product data (identity, classification, the headline photometric and electrical values, one-line colorimetry), an attached cutsheet, and a recognized safety listing. It sits below the LM-79 selection data and the accredited test evidence the higher grades add.
- Standard
- Core plus the full LM-79 selection-grade specification: maximum intensity, symmetry and coordinate system, materials, test conditions, an LM-79 attestation, a lumen-maintenance framework, 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 TM-30 color detail and the accredited third-party test evidence that lift it to Full.
- Full
- Everything: Standard plus the independently-certified characterization an accredited test report supplies. Zonal lumens, an operating point, measurement uncertainty, applied corrections, instrumentation depth, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, and, for white-light fixtures, TM-30 color detail.
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.
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 fixture is never asked for a BUG rating or an IP rating. Those are outdoor 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.
So an honest datasheet is never demoted for a value its fixture has no reason to carry.
The five reference records
The five canonical records show grading on real cutsheets. Each one carries the grade it earned and its roadmap to Full.
| Record | Grade | To Standard | To Full |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERCO Quintessence | Standard | n/a | zonal lumens, measurement uncertainty and corrections, instrumentation depth, and TM-30 detail (accredited test report). |
| Selux Aya | Standard | n/a | measurement uncertainty and corrections, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, and TM-30 detail (accredited test report). |
| Lumenpulse Lumenfacade (RGB) | Standard | n/a | zonal lumens, measurement uncertainty and corrections, and a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection (accredited test report). |
| Lumenpulse Lumenfacade (RGBW) | Standard | n/a | zonal lumens, measurement uncertainty and corrections, and a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection (accredited test report). |
| Vode Nexa | Core | a MacAdam SDCM step (from the datasheet, per ANSI C78.377). | zonal lumens, measurement uncertainty and corrections, a method-backed lumen-maintenance projection, and TM-30 detail (accredited test report). |
Vode is one field short of Standard. The two Lumenfacade records reach Standard with their DMX driver exempt from the analog-dimming rows, an applicability rule in action.