Creating comfortable and aesthetically beautiful spaces requires more than fine furnishing and accessories it is important to pay close attention to the lighting design. We often hear about dimmer and dimmable LED bulbs, spotlights, or strips. A dimmable lighting system can adjust the intensity of the light beam and switch between brighter and dimmer light, creating a new way of managing light.
A dimmer is a device that provides the ability to adjust the intensity of light by lowering or raising it at will. It is an intensity dimmer that modulates the load power of a light source and is applied to various types of lamps with great benefits concerning energy saving. The lighting changes its appearance as the intensity changes, giving intimate atmospheres as needed and improving visual comfort.
The entire mood of the room transforms with the changing intensity creating interesting plays of light and shadows that light up the walls and become a furnishing element, giving character and personality to the environment. The choice of dimmable lighting thus becomes a choice of style as well as simple functionality.
The use of dimmable lighting systems has revolutionized the world of 'lighting, bringing significant advantages over traditional devices in particular:
Light dimming can take place through two main devices:
Beam dimming is done through direct control (switches, knobs, panels, etc.) or remotely (from wireless remotes to smartphone apps), while the general operation of dimmers is through control systems with analog technologies or standard digital systems, additional functionality to control color temperature, switching from warm to cool lighting and vice versa.
No dimmer or driver is considered universal and suitable for every single application; the choice of dimmer should be carefully calibrated according to specific needs. Among the various types of dimmers and drivers, the most widely used are:
Regulation using the DALI-2 (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) digital interface represents an evolution in analogical regulation. This interface has been jointly developed by the most important producers of electronic drivers to create a standard regulation for the lighting engineering industry all over the world.
MAIN FEATURES OF THE DALI REGULATION
Smart D4i luminaires are ideal platforms for the IoT, capable of gathering information from onboard D4i sensors and providing data for performance monitoring, asset management, predictive maintenance, and many other tasks. Communication and data exchange with an external network can take place via a D4i control device with wireless communication capabilities. D4i is an extension of the DALI-2 certification program. D4i LED drivers have mandatory features related to power supply requirements and smart-data capabilities.
Casambi is a wireless protocol based on Bluetooth.
Developed mainly for residential use now become more and more popular even for professional, industrial, and outdoor systems. Thanks to the TCI driver and the user-friendly APP end user is open to creating:
CLO (Constant Lumen Output) functionality guarantees into the market better handling of the led sources in terms of lifetime and performance.
Thanks to this feature only available on dimmable LED drivers is possible to set into the driver a pre-programmed curve between hours/lifetime of the light sources and output power. Current values will increase by the driver itself following the step hours before programmed. In the end, this functionality compensates for the standard decrease in the luminous flux of an LED module over its entire lifetime.
Moreover, in specific installations like offices, schools, etc.. where the flux on the works surface must always be inside a specific range (defined by the lighting consultant) this functionality become more and more important and requested in the market.
Most TCI drivers are designed to work in AC (alternate current) and DC (Direct Current). DC supply is quite commonly used on specific installations where UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) is installed to cover the missing AC supply, an example could be the hospital, office, etc..
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