Dimmable lighting - dumb questions!

[steve_pr]

My old flourescent lighting systems are starting to fail so it is time to replace them and maybe move to a more sophisticated system. At present they are simply switched on ond off via my switched sockets on the Profilux.

However, the more I look at lighting the more confused I get. Can anyone explain (simply) the difference between 1-10v control and this new DALI stuff?
Can I just replace an existing ballast with a dimmable ballast?
What extras (more money!) do I need to add to my Plus II to drive these systems - there seem to be so many options!

I'm sure I'm not the only confused soul out here!

Thanks in advance

[Rental]

You will need new ballasts. They will need to be rated to the length/power of your flourescents. Whether you go DALI or 0-10v is up to you both will achieve the same.

You will need one L plug free to control two ballasts (at least for the 0-10v option, via a splitter). Many single ballasts will control two tubes. So in essence one socket can control 4 tubes.

[stevew@reefdreams]

As above you can simply replace the ballast with a 1-10v version and connect it to the Profilux with the correct cable. However the issue with that is, when it gets to 0% the ballast will still be live and will use electric and reduce the life of the tube.

We therefore recommend the use of an EVG-AP-2F driver blank which fits between the profilux and ballast (2 off) and switches the power to the ballast off when it reaches 0%.

Using 1-10v ballast will use one of the 1-10v channels on the profilux, and an EVG-AP-2F will allow 2 ballasts to be run from one dual port e.g. L1/L2 on the back of the unit.

The newer option is to purchase a Dali card and use Dali ballasts. From the one port on the card you can run numerous ballasts and these Dali ballasts switch off automatically at 0% so there is no need for the addition of an EVG-AP-2F driver blank.

Hope that helps

Steve

[AlanM]

With 1-10v ballasts they have to be externally switched and each 1-10v line can only control one set of ballasts all doing exactly the same thing. So in an office environment that means every lamp will be the same brightness.

With DALI the ballasts are internally switches (so no external relays) and the one DALI line can independently control a number of ballasts, so the ones near the windows can be dimmer than the ones in the middle of the office.

DALI does this by addressing (the A) ballasts, with the Profilux you can have 50 ballasts in 16 groups. This means you can have 16 different things going on at the same time - big overkill for most people but as there isn't an extra cost for GHL doing it they may as well.

What this means is that for a moderate system either will do, but once you get past a simple setup the DALI version will be much more flexible, and also leaves the L channels free for other things.

Starting from scratch I would say go for the DALI control version, much more long term potential.

If you have each ballast in it's own group then you can get much more control, plus being internally switched means you don't have external relays to worry about.

[porter_painter]

I've only recently wired up my DALI ballast and installed the DALI card into my GHL.

It's all very clever stuff... think I might have to switch my other ballasts over to the DALI ones too I'm so pleased with the dimmable effects.

Only thing I would say was that it was very confusing how to actually program the DALI on the GHL software... turns out you've got to assign the DALI and ID via the menus on the GHL box itself :)