Lighting · DALI + KNX
Light is designed. Control should go unnoticed.
We control lighting with DALI under the KNX umbrella: every luminaire individually addressed, dimming without steps, scenes built on the architect’s lighting design, and diagnostics that tell you which driver failed and where it is. From a penthouse in Santa Cruz to the Cabildo’s Palacio Insular.
What we do with light
One address per luminaire
DALI addresses each fitting individually. Dimming, grouping and diagnostics happen luminaire by luminaire, and regrouping a room is a programming change, not building work. On a project where the groups change during construction — and they always do — that saves weeks.
Scenes built on the lighting design
We work with the architect or the lighting designer: level, colour temperature and transition for the real use of each space. Scenes are tuned on site, with the fittings installed, at night, not on a drawing.
Dimming with no steps and no flicker
Dimming curves matched to the response of the eye, soft start and stop, and stable behaviour at the bottom end of the range — which is exactly where a poorly resolved installation shows.
Diagnostics and maintenance
The bus reports failed drivers and running hours per luminaire. In a hotel or a museum, that is the difference between knowing first and hearing it from a guest.
Where it makes the biggest difference
High-end homes
Indirect light, recessed fittings, profiles and outdoor lighting. An expensive lighting design without fine control is only half delivered: the value appears when the house moves from one scene to the next with nobody touching anything.
Hospitality
Function rooms that change configuration several times a day, public areas with scenes by time of day, and consumption under control without staff having to open a panel.
Heritage and museums
Conservation first: capped maximum levels, stable colour temperature, switching driven by presence and by visiting hours. Exactly what an exhibition room requires.
Offices and commercial
Daylight-linked dimming and presence detection. In commercial buildings Spanish building regulations require control systems of this kind for several uses, and DALI is the usual way to deliver and document it.
Delivered with DALI
Institutional
Palacio Insular, Cabildo de Tenerife
Automatic lighting control in the island’s landmark institutional building, integrated with the rest of the building automation.
Hospitality
Hotel Meliá function rooms
Function room lighting with scenes per event type and integrated dimming, in a setting where the room changes use several times a day.
Residential
Penthouse in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
DALI lighting driven from KNX, automated by outdoor light level and presence, with scenes the owner edits from the app that are stored in the wall keypads themselves.
Projects with lighting control
View all →Tenerife
Control Automático de Iluminación — Palacio Insular del Cabildo
Tenerife
Iluminación de Salones — Hotel Meliá
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ático con Iluminación DALI — Santa Cruz
Adeje, Tenerife
Baobab Suites — Hotel 5 estrellas
Santo Domingo, Tenerife
Museo Iberoamericano de Artesanía
Adeje, Tenerife
Villa 101 — Adeje
What it is built on
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us about DALI.
What is the difference between dimming with DALI and with a conventional dimmer?
A conventional dimmer acts on a whole circuit: everything on it goes up and down together. DALI is a digital bus that talks to each driver separately, so one line can hold different groups, different scenes and individual diagnostics. The driver also reports its status, so the installation knows what is happening instead of assuming it.
DALI or KNX?
It is not a choice: they complement each other. DALI resolves the luminaire layer — addressing, dimming, diagnostics — and KNX runs the whole house or building, that lighting included, through a gateway. Light scenes then coexist with blinds, climate and presence without parallel systems.
Can DALI be installed in an existing building?
Yes, as long as the control pair can reach the fittings and those fittings accept a DALI driver. In refurbishment it is usually done zone by zone, starting where it pays off most: function rooms, public areas, exhibition spaces. The existing installation can keep working meanwhile.
What happens if a driver fails?
The bus reports it with its address, so you know which luminaire it is and where before going up to look at it. The driver is replaced, given the same address, and the luminaire returns to its group and its scenes with nothing else to reprogram.
How much do you really save with lighting control?
It depends on the use and the starting point, and be wary of anyone quoting a percentage without seeing the installation. The clearest gains are in spaces with plenty of daylight and irregular occupancy — offices, common areas, car parks — because that is where daylight-linked dimming and presence detection work all day. In homes the saving is real, but the actual reason to do it is different: the quality of the light.
Keep reading
Technical advice
Lighting project already under way?
Send us the lighting design and the floor plan. We will tell you what it needs in terms of control, which fittings have to carry a DALI driver, and what is better resolved directly in KNX.
