DALI Lighting Controls - Value for Money?

I have had many conversations with people over the pros and cons of using DALI lighting controls. One of the things that became apparant is the lack of understanding what it is and how to use it. It seems that most people view it as the latest technology.The idea that every light or indeed ballast can be addressed and configured to do everything from automatic dimming and switching, testing the emergency lights automatically to reporting faults to a Building Management System. Sounds great, even 21st century stuff. Well, there are the pros but what about the cons.

Firstly lets address (no pun intended!) the initial commissioning. It is not practical to pre-commission a light so all commissioning is done after installation. A time consuming process whereby every light needs to be interogated and either re-addressed to something sensible and/or documented. Imagine an open plan office with maybe a few cellular offices. Is this level control really needed. The argument is very often 'if the office layout changes then the lighting control can be easily reprogrammed without disturbing the ceiling. Changes in offices involve building/removing/adding internal walls. Is the ceiling being entered really an issue?

Now consider the Ballast Life Expentancy.  Ballasts are electronic devices that have a finite life, This life is accelerated by heat so with the life will vary between light types and construction techniques but we all know failures occur and as time passes the failures become more frequent. Surely I hear you say, not a problem I will call a maintenance electrician and he will fix it. Wrong, he probably will change it and the light come on but be uncontrolled, it will need programming to work correctly and this will be expensive as a commisioning engineer will be needed.

My argument is Return on Investment (ROI), the original installation will cost more not less because of the cost of commissioning. The installing contractor costs will be higher. Will the building occupier understand what he has and benefit from the extra cost and complexity, probably not. Will the maintenance manager enjoy the repsonsiblity and ongoing costs, probably not.

DALI does not have to be this way, using a product like the DLC200 LightHarvester all the energy saving controls can be enjoyed from Presence/Absence Detection, Daylight Harvesting / Daylight Linking, Automatic Dimming, Two Staged Timeout, Scene Setting etc. The ballast is not programmed and the commissioning time is just about eliminated. The cost of maintenance becomes minimal and the Return on Investment greatly increased. The installation cost is reduced as is the cost of ownership.

What about the Emergency Light Test, two choices, use a keyswitch and and manually test or use DALI in conjunction with the DLC200 LightHarvester and have the best of both worlds.