How To Work The Controller For A In Light Wellness System

Deciphering Digital Addressable Lighting Interface

DALI: This iv-letter of the alphabet acronym stands for Digital Addressable Lighting Interface, but what is it? How is information technology different from the lighting organization y'all currently accept? Why should you (or why shouldn't you) pursue DALI in your own facilities? Who tin use it?

Example of a DALI control.

What is DALI?

Put simply, DALI is a ii-way communication system that brings digital technology to lighting . An international standard for communication, DALI defines the commands that LED drivers and ballasts need to recognize. The system allows individual LED drivers and ballasts to "talk" to the user, and allows the user to "talk" back via DALI controllers, computers equipped with advisable software or building direction systems.

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"DALI sends messages around, and just like computer networks, those letters are picked upwards past the ballasts via addresses," explains Wayne Morrow, president, Westminster, CO-based Starfield Controls. "The anchor with that accost picks it upwards and follows the education. A unproblematic message would be, 'All lights in Room 10 turn off.' You lot ship that message, and all the lights in Room x know who they are. They pick upwardly that message and say, 'It says hither I'm supposed to plough off.' And that'due south what [happens]."

Stuart Berjansky, old dimming production manager, Rosemont, IL-based Advance Transformer Co., explains that DALI is like to a 0-10V system due to features similar low-voltage wiring and daylight harvesting capabilities. "Simply, I call [DALI] 0-10V plus, considering it gives yous even more," he says.

Advice in a 0-10V system is unidirectional; the control arrangement tells the LED driver or anchor what to do, and it adjusts according to the voltage on the control excursion. DALI, on the other hand, provides a two-manner method of communication, giving the LED commuter or ballast a risk to communicate as well.

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How long has DALI been around?

The history of DALI is interesting. The idea commencement came from a ballast visitor in Europe. 3 other ballast companies joined with the offset to form a proposal for the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to create a standard on communication protocols used for ballasts. In the mid- to tardily 90s, the U.s.a. became involved as well.

"[The standard] is included in the IEC standard for fluorescent ballasts, and it'due south i of the annexes in the standard," says Pekka Hakkarainen, director of technology and business evolution for Coopersburg, PA-based Lutron Electronics and chair of the Lighting Controls Council at Rosslyn, VA-based National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). "It defines a method of communicating to the ballast that the industry has agreed on."

DALI was accepted as an international standard in 2002; the showtime DALI LED drivers and ballasts were introduced into the U.Southward. in the late 90s.

How does DALI work?

Most of the hardware used in a DALI system is the same equally what's used in a more typical organisation. The large difference: With DALI, LED drivers and ballasts can be linked to a central calculator , allowing each to be controlled independently. DALI systems are available for T5, T5HO, T8 and compact fluorescent lamps.

LED drivers and ballasts are connected using Class 1 (inside the conduit) or Class 2 (exterior the conduit) wiring to make up a loop of no more than than 64 LED drivers or ballasts. Each is given an accost in the DALI system, and the loop is continued to a DALI control device. One individual network isn't plenty to cover an entire building; rather, several must be linked together to create a "network of networks," Morrow describes.

Who's using DALI?

Installing DALI technology installation tin be retrofit, merely installing during new structure is best. "Almost all buildings should be running DALI wires at this point because it's then cheap," Morrow says. "That one's virtually a no-brainer."

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Mike Williams, one-time product marketing managing director at Danvers, MA-based OSRAM SYLVANIA, agrees. "Where the building owner is going to get the biggest bang for his buck is definitely on new installations," he says.

"When you put it in a retrofit, you don't gain all the advantages DALI can provide," explains Advance'southward Berjansky. "With DALI, when you wire it upwards, you wire your lighting independent of your lighting command circuits. When you look at an existing building, those circuits already exist; you take ane switch for those 10 fixtures and some other switch for these 10 fixtures. You're limited in taking advantage of that lack of requirement for control circuits."

DALI isn't used very oftentimes in U.S. applications. U.S. controls manufacturers never embraced DALI the way the residue of the globe has.

Why should I employ DALI?

1. You can easily reconfigure your lighting without having to tear into the ceiling, making the process of rearranging people, offices and furniture easier.

"You don't have to re-road the control wiring to the fixtures," explains Williams. "Yous tin can only reconfigure the DALI fixture to tell it, 'At present you take commands for this new control scene (grouping) as opposed to the i that you used to heed to.' Changes can be done via software instead of going in and doing difficult-wire changes."

2. Lighting can be tailored (either individually or across the entire facility) to arrange summit demand, amount of visible daylight, free energy rates, etc.

For example, in an office area, some lights can exist adjusted as necessary without affecting the other lights in the room. Other systems provide this feature also, but DALI allows the user to control each low-cal separately.

3. Open protocol allows for many different companies to be involved.

"Interoperability is huge," explains Morrow. "Nosotros can all co-exist on a DALI network. We worked very hard at that interoperability."

4. Installation of the control wiring tin be simple with DALI'south five-wire organization.

"To proceeds the level of control people need in briefing rooms and office floors, you unremarkably take to pull a lot of wiring to make sure all the devices are connected. You don't need to make those same types of interconnections with DALI. It's a simple two-wire control connection that goes to each fixture to grade the control network," says Williams.

And, equally Morrow points out, "You tin have fairly low-skilled labor pulling in your wire because they don't need to know about zoning, and they don't need to continue runway of control wires similar you would with a relay organization. The relay arrangement might have 30 or twoscore wires in a conduit, and each 1 has to exist labeled, pulled to a specific spot, and made upward to a specific location and panel. DALI only has ii wires, and they become everywhere."

v. Equally with other systems, DALI allows pre-set up lighting scenarios to exist created and achieved with the touch of a button or click of a mouse.

For example, in a ballroom that serves many different purposes throughout the 24-hour interval, one button may be pre-programmed to ready the lights appropriately for a morning coming together. Another button may be pre-programmed to set the scene for an evening concert.

half dozen. Due to DALI's 2-way communication, LED drivers and ballasts can be queried individually to check energy usage.

If the lights in your facility are assigned to tenants, billing can be done per tenant. "It allows you lot to run across energy codes both now and in the futurity," Morrow explains. "In that location'south a strong expectation that utility companies will provide more and more incentives for these types of features. You can lower your top demand in response to a utility directive, which will give yous a lower utility rate."

7. LED drivers and ballasts can also be queried for lamp and ballast failure.

"In the Pentagon, they tell us they have 250 lamp failures a day in a building with half-dozen meg square feet. They have a person total-fourth dimension who just replaces lamps, but they don't know where those failures are," says Morrow. Berjansky raises the same advantage: "Wouldn't information technology be groovy if you never got a phone call from an angry tenant saying, 'My lights are out' or 'My ballast went out'? Information technology allows y'all to be proactive as a edifice director."

Williams agrees. "The power of this system, being able to have the communication come back to you from your lighting system to run across how it's behaving, will resonate with a lot of people; peculiarly if you take a huge number of buildings to maintain. This saves maintenance from having to walk through your buildings periodically."

Why should I think twice?

ane. The initial set-upward of the arrangement involves creating a catalog or database to associate LED commuter or ballast addresses with physical locations and with the control device that operates them.

Not only does that database need to be created, information technology needs to exist maintained. "If it'due south not, the system volition quickly become unusable," says Hakkarainen. "If the layout of the space changes and the database isn't updated, the command devices will likely control fixtures that they're non expected to control." Many experts recommend that Information technology staff should be involved in the database creation and maintenance.

2. It's non always like shooting fish in a barrel to figure out.

"Installation is about identical to conventional depression-voltage controllable lighting systems. However, in that location's a learning bend involved in getting to know how to install it and perform the commissioning," explains Williams. In other words, information technology volition take time to proceeds the advisable knowledge needed to utilize and maintain the organisation efficiently.

3. DALI isn't ideal for every situation.

If the application is simple and doesn't require dimming, occupancy control or individual user control, DALI isn't the answer. "A light switch is a fabulous way to plough lights on and off, as long as nothing's always going to modify," explains Morrow.

four. Controls can be expensive.

"DALI is certainly more pricey than a conventional wall switch," says Morrow. Initial price can sometimes scare building owners away, but Berjansky emphasizes that price can be made upwards in labor savings. "If you accept a traditional 0-10V system and a DALI system, the installed toll for both will be about the same. Your anchor is going to cost you lot more than, but y'all'll relieve in labor because of the lack of lighting circuit requirements. You accept less homeruns going back to your electric panels, you have less electric panels," he explains.

v. Information technology'south a big change from a typical "on/off sweep" organization.

"I don't recall someone would go from doing a standard switching organization to the DALI system. That's a big jump. If they were already going to exist doing a dimming system, DALI may exist a logical stride," says Berjansky.

How practise I brand a decision?

Now that you know the nuts, the determination may be a little more than straightforward. Do your buildings contain several multi-role rooms that require different lighting options depending on time of day, the event beingness hosted, etc.?

Are tenants request for more than personalized command over their workspaces? Is the layout of the space uncertain at the time lighting decisions are beingness made?

"There have been statements made by some people in the lighting industry that make DALI seem like the panacea that nosotros have all been waiting for. DALI is a technology tool much similar whatsoever other tool: It offers some capabilities that are not available without the tool, but requires that the user be properly trained," emphasizes Hakkarainen.

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"It definitely has its merits," explains Berjansky. "Simply, if y'all attempt to strength-feed it into somewhere where it doesn't belong, DALI'south but not going to piece of work."

Leah B. Garris was an editorial coordinator at Buildings Media. This article was originally written Aug. five, 2003 and updated July v, 2018.

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