LED smart lighting future development direction and market potential

The purpose of LED intelligent lighting is mainly to meet the needs of personalized and comfortable lighting; to achieve more convenient lighting control and management. Realize secondary energy saving, save lighting power and maintenance costs; but intelligent lighting must have some basic elements: one is to fully reflect the advantages and characteristics of LED light source. For example: high efficiency and energy saving; soft start of lighting, precise dimming, dynamic display, etc. The second is the intelligent control function: to achieve the lighting control that meets the demand and comfort in a simple and quick operation mode. For example, various lighting scenes can be arbitrarily set, and "one-touch" lighting scene switching can be realized. Automated light environment control can be achieved in conjunction with the use of environmental sensors such as illuminance and body sensors. It can be combined with fieldbus technology or internet technology to realize multi-light source networking, mobile phone remote control and remote centralized monitoring.

The main obstacles in the current promotion of LED intelligent lighting applications

The technical standards of various intelligent lighting have their unique application advantages, but they also have their own obvious limitations, making it difficult for non-professional users to make choices. The installation, configuration and commissioning techniques are complex and difficult to construct, and usually require professional technicians to debug. In addition, the cost is high, and most users are more difficult to accept.

The future development direction of LED intelligent lighting

The smart LED lighting market for mass (consumer lighting) tends to adopt open, unified standards to ensure good interoperability between products from different vendors. With the technological advancement and wide application of LED intelligent lighting, the installation and commissioning of the control system will be simpler and require no additional tools and expertise. LED lamps are more controllable, such as brightness, color temperature and chromaticity are controllable and adjustable. The multi-function lighting control panel with scene and dimming color control gradually replaces the traditional switch panel. Lighting technology is highly integrated with the Internet, the Internet of Things and cloud technology, and smart lighting will be widely used everywhere. With the expansion of the scale of intelligent lighting applications and the improvement of the industrial chain, the cost of LED intelligent lighting products will be greatly reduced.

Comparison of industrial scale of LED indoor lighting and landscape lighting industry in China

LED lighting market forecast

The LED landscape lighting industry is relatively mature, so there will be no explosive growth in market demand in the future. The demand for LED indoor lighting will continue to grow rapidly. At present, LED indoor lighting is still mainly used. In the field of commercial lighting and office lighting, home lighting has started, and the market potential is huge.

Semiconductor lighting has gradually become the mainstream of the global lighting market, and its penetration rate in the lighting market has rapidly increased to 12.5%. From 2008 to 2012, the global semiconductor lighting market grew at an average annual rate of 53.9%, much higher than the single-digit growth rate of the overall lighting market.

According to reports, the output value of smart lighting reached US$91 million in 2013, and it is expected to double rapidly in 2014 to reach US$250 million to US$300 million. It will grow to a size of US$1.471 billion in 2019. Undoubtedly created a new blue ocean market for the LED lighting supply chain.

What is the difference between LED light source and traditional light source in intelligent control technology?

The LED dimming range is wide and the dimming resolution is fine: therefore, the control system should use digital transmission technology, and the control depth and fineness can be made very high, so that energy saving and light environment regulation can be better realized. For example, the brightness adjustment range of the LED can be 0.1%-100%, and the adjustment precision is 1/1000.

The LED light source has a short response time and is easy to implement dynamic display: high-speed digital transmission technology should be used in lighting applications where dynamic display is required. For example, the dynamic decorative lighting of the exterior wall of an outdoor building is realized by the DMX512 bus.

The LED light source is small in size, easy to realize the individualization of the lamp, and can constitute a large-scale point source illumination or display: therefore, the control system has high processing data capacity and processing capability in a specific application. For example, dynamic decorative lighting for large outdoor building facades often requires a high-performance PC as the central controller and fiber optics as the backbone communication cable.

The LED light source is rich in color and easy to achieve color temperature or color control: therefore, the control system needs to have color temperature or color control means and processing ability. For example, the color temperature adjustment control of the indoor illumination is realized by the DALI bus.

Summary: Compared to traditional light sources, LED light source control systems need to be targeted to improve their data processing capabilities, including: data processing capacity, processing speed, processing methods and processing methods.

LED intelligent lighting application field (mainstream technical standards)

Outdoor lighting: square, courtyard landscape lighting (DMX512), building exterior decorative lighting (DMX512), street lighting (power carrier, Zigbee)

Indoor lighting: commercial lighting (DALI, C-bus, KNX, etc.) in hotels, shopping malls, hospitals, venues and other public buildings (DALI, C-bus, KNX, etc.), home interior lighting (Zigbee, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.)

What is DALI?

DALI is an acronym for the initials of the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface.

DALI is a protocol for data transmission specifically for lighting control systems. It defines the digital communication between lighting appliances (drivers of various types of lamps) and system equipment controllers (such as lighting controllers, sensors, etc.). .

DALI supports the concept of "open systems" to ensure that DALI devices from different manufacturers are compatible. DALI is now the international standard for the IEC62386 series. In addition, 13 national standards for digital addressable lighting interfaces GB/T 30104.xxx-2013 were officially implemented in 2014.

History of DALI standards

In 1991, Tridonic introduced the world's first digital dimming technology DSI interface (Digi interface) technology, and DALI is a dimmable digital technology developed on the basis of DSI interface technology. In 1994, DALI was supported by major international chips, lamps, ballast manufacturers OSRAM, PHILIPS, TRIDONIC, etc., and was included in the IEC60929 "Electronic Ballast Performance Requirements" standard. Ensure that DALI equipment manufactured by different manufacturers is fully compatible. In 1999, Philips made further improvements to the DALI protocol and launched a DALI-based product line at the Hannover International Light Show in Germany. In 2001, the World DALI Association was established to be responsible for the promotion and application of DALI technology. In 2009, DALI became the IEC62386 series of standards independently. It is known to be classified into 17 standards. The latest DALI2 standard was officially promulgated in November 2014 and is more abundant and complete. At present, DALI in Europe has been adopted as an open standard by various ballast manufacturers.

Functional and technical characteristics of the DALI lighting control system

Precise and flexible control: You can control any point light source independently or globally or in groups. Control methods include on/off of the luminaire, specified brightness and color temperature, dimming, color grading, scene recall, etc. The working status of the lamp can be queried in real time.

Compatible with each other: The protocol adopts international IEC standards, and different brands of equipment can be interchangeably interchanged to ensure the selectivity of procurement and maintenance. Supported by the world's leading manufacturers, to ensure product quality and stability.

Scalability: Multiple lighting control panels can be added at any time. Access to sensors for automated, intelligent lighting control. Mobile or remote control is achieved by accessing a standard network system or building automation system via a DALI gateway device. It can be connected to special controllers (such as exhaust fans, blinds, etc.) to realize intelligent control of home appliances and lighting.

Reliable and secure: Based on wired communication, it is more reliable and secure than wireless communication.

A well-known member of DALI International

DALI system composition

DALI Controller (DALICo ntrol Device): Includes a variety of programmable lighting control panels with DALI interface, sensors and mobile devices with DALI control app installed. Mainly responsible for issuing lighting control commands to the luminaire network.

DALI Control Driver (DALICo ntrol Gear): Includes a variety of light source drivers with DALI interface. Mainly responsible for receiving and executing DALI standard commands issued by the lighting controller (Co ntrol Device).

DALI Gateway Device (DALIGateway): Includes DALI gateways to various standard protocols (such as Wifi, USB, ModBus, etc.). Mainly responsible for the exchange of information between the DALI bus system and other external protocol systems, such as access to the upper building automation system (BAS).

DALI auxiliary equipment

DALI bus power supply: responsible for providing 16VDC power supply for DALI bus, only one for each DALI system.

DALI bus repeater: responsible for providing relay drive for DALI bus, extending the communication distance of DALI bus.

Advantages: Simple lighting design and construction

Simple lighting design: The DALI system does not require prior determination of the user's lighting control requirements, nor does it require pre-assignment and design of the luminaire's switch control loop.

Simple construction and installation: The DALI bus is installed with ordinary power cables, and even the power and bus lines can be laid in the same cable. With a decentralized bus architecture, there is no need to equip and install a dedicated lighting control cabinet.

Advantages: Rich lighting control and flexible configuration

Rich control method: It can realize the operation of turning on/off the lamp, specifying the brightness or color temperature value, dimming, coloring, lighting scene, etc. in one button.

Configuration: After the construction and installation is completed, the lighting control buttons and control methods can be freely configured according to user requirements and actual effects through the system software, and the control mode can be modified at any time according to the needs of the customer.

Disadvantages: Lighting control upgrade projects need to be rerouted

Example design example (home living room)

Commercial and public buildings

With the advancement of society, people's demand for healthy lighting, energy saving and efficient management is becoming more and more urgent, and DALI lighting technology is gradually being applied in domestic commercial and public buildings.

Guangzhou International Finance Center: The highest building for DALI lighting technology in China. Use 12,000 sets of DALI interface fluorescent lighting panels. A total of 660 photosensitive probes were used to automatically adjust the brightness of the light. At present, the domestic single project uses the most DALI bus, and a total of 456 DALI subsystems are integrated. At present, the energy saving of the domestic single intelligent lighting system project is the most significant (the solar utilization rate is more than 60%).

Public office area

Alibaba Headquarters: About 16,000 sets of DALI products are used in the public office area and large conference room of the new Alibaba headquarters building (Taobao City) in Hangzhou. The main functions realized are: people-oriented, flexible and convenient lighting control. Protect your eyes and improve the quality of your lighting. Energy saving and environmental protection, reducing carbon emissions. Smart meeting, customized on demand.

Since the introduction and application of DALI technology started late in China, most of the application projects currently use systems and products of well-known foreign lighting brands such as Tridonic and Philips.

With the increasing demand for intelligent lighting, many enterprises and research institutes in China have begun research on DALI technology and products.