Frequently Asked Questions
How is Prismal fire-rated?
The simple answer is that we’ve made them using our patented fire-rated glass and steel technology, and then tested them with an accredited 3rd-party laboratory.
Fire-rating is a part of building standards that downlights must adhere to. Many buildings around the world, especially in the UK, use a timber joist structure for floors and ceilings. Timber is flammable. To avoid the floor collapsing in the case of a fire in the room below, building standards specifies flame-retardant plasterboard that prevents the ingress of fire for up to 30, 60, or 90 minutes(depending on which floor you’re on – you need longer the higher up a building you are).
Installing downlights means cutting a hole in the plaster board, and this re-exposes the timbers joists to flame risk. To counteract this, fire-rated downlights are built to plug the hole in the plasterboard and maintain the30, 60, or 90 minute rating.
You should only trust downlights that are 3rd-party certified by an accredited test lab to meet fire-rating standards for local building regulations. In the UK, this means testing the luminaires to BS 476 or BS EN 1365-2.
Every Prismal luminaire has a test report that covers the specific fitting for use with each type of timber and I-joist
What is Full-Spectrum natural light?
“Full-spectrum natural light” refers to light that mimics the entire visible spectrum of sunlight at a particular colour temperature.
Let’s take 3000K – this is warm morning sunlight. At this CCT, most high-CRI LEDs would have a spectral power distribution (SPD) no UV, then a blue spike followed by a large valley in the cyan range. The SPD would then climb slowly through the yellows to peak at a warm orange, and then drop steeply through the reds, with no infra-red.
Full-spectrum natural light also features no UV or IR(non-visible light), but also has no blue peak, no cyangap, steady and level yellows, full oranges, and then apeak in red (people prefer fully saturated reds). There isthen a shallower drop through the final red values as thelight dips away to avoid infra-red.
For the technical among you, we use Bridgelux Thrivechips to achieve this. Thrive uses a double-pump bluedie coupled with a unique phosphor blend that deliversthe pinnacle of colour quality, the highest achievableCRI and R9, and the most accurate TM-30-15 Rf(fidelity)and Rg(gamut) values for LEDs..
Which dimmers and control systems are compatible?
Prismal modules paired with Inventronics mainsdimmable drivers have been tested for compatibility witha wide range of dimming controls. For specifics pleasereach out to us, but for ease of use we’ve included a list ofcompatible controls below:
Varilight V-Pro (as used by Forbes & Lomax, Wandsworth,and others)
Casambi TED
Lutron Homeworks QS
Lutron Grafik Eye QS
Lutron RA2 Select
Loxone Dimmer
RAKO RMT500
RAKO RAK4-T
RAKO RAK8-T
Our range of modules use drivers that are compatible withboth leading and trailing edge controls, but somedimmers require setting to trailing edge mode to avoidunwanted visual artifacts, and similarly some dimmerswill require the top-end trimming to <90% to provide theoptimal dimming experience.
Lifespan
Prismal bezels are provided a 10 year warranty and usehardy components that are designed to far exceed theirlifespan.
Prismal Full-spectrum natural light modules are designedwith large heatsinks that reduce LED COB heat. Intechnical terms, it maintains a Tc below 85°C in Ta 25°Cwhich provides L90 B5 TM-21 lifetime projections of>55,000hrs with an expected lifetime of >100,000hrs toL70.
The biggest environmental impact of any luminaire orfitting is the production of that luminaire or fitting, thusluminaires with longer lifetimes lead to a lower carbonfootprint for your lighting.
Sustainability
We can always do more for the environment, and that’swhat we’re working to do at Nova.
We make our baffles from ocean-recycled and post-consumer plastic PC XL110, certified using theEnvironmental Claim Validation Procedure (ECVP)Recycled Content and Ocean Bound Plastics, ECVP 2809-2 and ECVP 2809-3. Recycled Content is defined inaccordance with ISO 14021.
Our packaging is made from brown card that is bothrecycled and locally recyclable and we use vegetable-derived inks for printing packaging materials, with noplastic materials or laminates involved in any of ourpackaging.
Our offices, based in Wembley, London and ourwarehouse and factory, based in Calverton, Nottinghamare fitted with a 150kWh solar panels array and aresupplemented by 50kWh of battery storage.
We produce full carbon embodiment reports for all of ourluminaires, available by reaching out to our team.
Warranty
Every product on our website is listed with a warranty onits product page. The terms of our product warranties areindicated on our terms & conditions page found here: