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Frequently Asked Questions

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 the 30, 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 Nova luminaire has a test report that covers the specific fitting for use with each type of timber and I-joist

“Full-spectrum natural light” refers to light that mimics the entire visible spectrum of sunlight at a particular colour temperature. ​

Prismal Modules are designed to capture and recreate the quality of natural light within architectural spaces. They blend seamlessly into interiors, delivering refined illumination with exceptional flexibility across contemporary schemes.

Our Full Spectrum Natural Light module with Bridgelux Thrive technology ensures illumination is faithful to your architectural design. Reveal true colour, depth, and detail with lighting designed to honour every surface it touches.

By reducing the blue light peaks of conventional LEDs, and enhancing cyan and red wavelengths, Prismal modules deliver a superior quality of light that closely emulates the balanced, natural spectrum of daylight.

Nova modules paired with Inventronics mains dimmable drivers have been tested for compatibility with a wide range of dimming controls. For specifics please reach out to us, but for ease of use we’ve included a list of compatible 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 with both leading and trailing edge controls, but some dimmers require setting to trailing edge mode to avoid unwanted visual artifacts, and similarly some dimmers will require the top-end trimming to <90% to provide the optimal dimming experience.

Nova bezels are provided a 10 year warranty and use hardy components that are designed to far exceed their lifespan.​

Nova Full-spectrum natural light modules are designed with large heatsinks that reduce LED COB heat. In technical terms, it maintains a Tc below 85°C in Ta 25°C which provides L90 B5 TM-21 lifetime projections of >55,000 hrs with an expected lifetime of >100,000 hrs to L70.​

The biggest environmental impact of any luminaire or fitting is the production of that luminaire or fitting, thus luminaires with longer lifetimes lead to a lower carbon footprint for your lighting.

We can always do more for the environment, and that’s what we’re working to do at Nova. ​

We make our baffles from ocean-recycled and post-consumer plastic PC XL110, certified using the Environmental Claim Validation Procedure (ECVP) Recycled Content and Ocean Bound Plastics, ECVP 2809-2 and ECVP 2809-3. Recycled Content is defined in accordance with ISO 14021.​

Our packaging is made from brown card that is both recycled and locally recyclable and we use vegetable-derived inks for printing packaging materials, with no plastic materials or laminates involved in any of our packaging.​

Our offices, based in Wembley, London and our warehouse and factory, based in Calverton, Nottingham are fitted with a 150kWh solar panels array and are supplemented by 50kWh of battery storage.​

We produce full carbon embodiment reports for all of our luminaires, available by reaching out to our team.

Every product on our website is listed with a warranty on its product page. The terms of our product warranties are indicated on our terms & conditions page found here:​

https://nova.lighting/warranty/

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