Xavio Design Whitepaper: DALI Dimming for Super-Prime Residential Projects
With over 20 years of experience, the core focus of Xavio Design is in lighting designs for luxury residences and hospitality projects around the world, with the ability to work with any style of interior – ranging from opulent classical to cutting edge contemporary architectural masterpieces.
An award-winning combination: natural design talent, cutting-edge technology and the latest global products all merged in with many years of experience and expertise.
Their Complimentary Whitepaper: DALI Dimming for Super-Prime Residential Projects, in all of its glorious technical detail, examines why DALI Dimming is especially appropriate for large residences with vast amounts of architectural lighting.
An introductory summary is below, and if you are interested in all the detail, there is a link to download the whitepaper here.
What is DALI dimming?
DALI stands for Digital Addressable Lighting Interface. It is a non-proprietary interface standard for dimmable electronic control gear, offering huge flexibility and a range of additional benefits.
A 2-wire control line manages a group of DALI ballasts (drivers) either individually or in a broadcast scenario. 240V power to the drivers is via a standard twin & earth cable.
The luminaires are then electronically programmed to work together in groups, and this can easily be altered in the future as required. The groups can be assigned to different brightness levels to work as a ‘scene’ in a room or area, to create an infinitely adjustable mood.
Logarithmic dimming curve
DALI digital systems typically use logarithmic dimming (as opposed to linear dimming.) The dimming curve is matched to the sensitivity of the eye. This means that the curve of the dimming is very smooth and avoids visible dimming steps in the region of low luminance levels.
When DALI dimming control should be considered in Super-Prime Residential Projects
The lighting groups may need to change in the future and cannot be predicted with a high degree of certainty at concept & design development stage. For example, if the lifestyle uses of rooms are not known or may change, the client wishes to retain a degree of flexibility, a professional lighting designer is not being used, or positions of artwork, furniture or objets d’art are not fixed.
There is limited physical space for lighting dimmer panels and these need to be as small as possible.
There is a lot of architectural lighting with complex scenes.
There are large open-plan rooms or areas with multiple uses and functions.
There is limited cable run space in risers, conduits, ceiling voids and other service areas. (e.g. Listed Buildings).
A very wide range of dimming control is required, ie. the final user may wish for lighting to be able to be dimmed to extremely low levels.
There is a fully networked lighting control system such as Lutron or Crestron.
DALI Cost Implications
DALI drivers and controls typically present a slightly higher component cost than 0-10V, phase or non-dimming systems, but they can conversely present a lower installation cost due to a reduction in cable lengths and labour time.
DALI systems (specifically individually addressed drives) require a more sophisticated programming process when centralised systems are used, which can increase the commissioning costs and extra time must be allowed for programming.
Please note: a lighting professional or electrical engineer should always be consulted regarding dimming types on large projects, due to the often very substantial cost of control and lighting equipment.
To understand more about Technical & Installation, Full Cost Implications, Advantages of DALI, Calculations and more, including a comprehensive FAQ, please download the full whitepaper on the link below:
Get in touch
If you would like to get in touch and discuss any upcoming projects or lighting design requirements you have, please contact April Comerford, our International Client Manager on +44 (0)7393 115376 or via email april@xavio-design.com
