In this article contributed to LEDs Magazine, Lutron’s CRAIG CASEY outlines a specification primer for educating clients on critical concepts that merge dynamic solid-state lighting with controls to optimize wellbeing and enhance the light experience in the built environment. The right equipment and approach, he says, starts with the application needs.

The previous post on Tunable-White Building Blocks talked about differences between using low-level analog control technology as opposed to networked lighting control (NLC) systems that employ digital communication between components. Analog technology such as 0-10V dimmers can in fact be used to control certain color-changing luminaires. Let’s be specific about which types. There are actually three main types of color-changing lighting systems – “dim-to-warm”, “tunable-white”, and “RGB.”

“Tunable-white and other forms of color-changing lighting have added an extra dimension of capability, flexibility, and complexity to the lighting industry,” writes Mesh. “It’s almost as though we’ve gone from a 2-dimensional world to a 3-dimensional world based on the added complexity of controlling the luminaire’s coloration (typically measured by Correlated Color Temperature ) separately from the luminaire’s lumen output. Don’t be scared! Even though this has exponentially increased the complexity of the equipment and technology, you still don’t need a PhD in lighting to understand this new landscape.”

BOM Magazine recently published an article advising building owners and managers about how to select the right tunable-white lighting solution for their buildings. Written by Craig DiLouie, LC, CLCP, education director for the Lighting Controls Association, the article covers applications and benefits, theory of operation, types, typical approaches, protocols, and application considerations.

In this guest post by lighting designer C. Webster Marsh, he discusses alternatives to using DMX512 to control tunable-white lighting.

DMX512-controlled tunable dynamic white luminaires are luminaires that use DMX512 controls to change their correlated color temperature (CCT) on demand, which provides a dramatic design tool to the modern lighting designer. These luminaires are different from dynamic color changing luminaires because instead of using colored LEDs, they use a mix of white LEDs such as warm white, neutral white, and cool white. When these hues are mixed at different intensities, the overall delivered CCT of the luminaire changes. It is very important to have a robust controls system specifically designed and programmed for the control of tunable dynamic white luminaires. Any compatible controller will control a DMX512 tunable white luminaire and can adjust from one hue to another, but that’s only half the story …

Tunable-white LED lighting offers highly efficient general illumination combined with dimming and the ability to tune correlated color temperature (CCT) from warm- to cool-white. A strong potential application is classrooms, where teachers can set lighting/visual conditions to support classroom activities. In May 2019, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) report evaluating a trial installation of tunable-white lighting systems at three classrooms in an elementary school in Folsom, California.