Dali VS KNX Dimming

[ergo14]

Hi,
I'm not an electrician so I'm struggling with the concept of dimming,

We plan to have around ~16 dimmable lamps/light sources + 2 x 3-phase tracks for lightning in our home in living/dining room.

The goal is to have HCL and night lighting - now I was talking with few installers - and some say that DALI is the most expensive option and others say its the least expensive option

All the lights will be wired probably with 5-wire cables for flexibility - but I don't want to put myself in a situation where it turns out I have to pay tons of money just because DALI lamps are expensive (most things that I looked up turned out to be pretty expensive). Are there other solutions that I can look at to make the lighting priced reasonably? Like some cheap dali drivers under the ceiling or cupboards? I know the question is very generic but I have no idea how to approach it. I was thinking about maybe doing the dimming via KNX actuators but installers said that I would need to be very careful with what lights get connected where and if I do something incorrectly I could damage the lights/system.

[Springrbua]

Hi,
I'll try to answer as good as I can but I am pretty new to this topic too.
First of all, the experts in this forum suggest to first specify where you need light, then what kind of light you need, then what the lamp should look like and then, as the last thing, the technology.
The choice of the type of light and the lamp limits the choice of the technology allready.
In KNX you have good options for 230V dimming and for constant voltage, but the options for constant current are very limited.
However most lights out there use constant current, only LED stripes and some spots and pannels use constant voltage (24V most of the times).
With Dali, you have pretty much all options as there are drivers for almost everything.

Regarding the price, Dali usually costs a little less / channel then KNX, but you need a gateway and you add a little complexity to your whole project (an additional bus system).
If the Dali lights are too expensive, you can buy normal lamps and replace the build in LED driver with a Dali driver. If thats easily doable probably depends on the lamp.

I hope I've covered the most important things of this complex topic.

Regards,
Robert

[scw2wi]

some say that DALI is the most expensive option and others say its the least expensive option

Both is correct.

DALI LED driver are cheaper than KNX LED driver,
DALI LEDs are more expensive than 24V LEDs, but 24V LEDs are very rare.

The third option is 230V dimming, but this is called dimm2warm.
These LEDs are the cheapest, but drivers are more expensive.

Option 4 would be HUE. Here you are having the best HCL quality and the worst situation from controller side.

But as Robert said, you can buy different options and install the needed drivers.
The only problem is with HCL, if you are mixing technology in one room, the LEDs might not be in perfect sync when dimming.

Walter

[ergo14]

Right, I know more or less what lights we want and where, but I need to know how to wire the house and where - this is the decision I have to make and I don't want to close any routes.

[Beleuchtfix]

If you can install DALI drivers yourself, I think DALI is more flexible, you just need the 5 wires at each lamp and can organize lamps very easily.

Regards Florian