Human Centric Lighting Control with Tunable White LED light fittings in office

Tunable White

Tunable White colour temperature control

Helvar iC Product range for Tunable White

When you want to build a top class tunable white luminaire, we are the experts. We have a wide range of Tunable White products, developed specifically for dimming and tuning of white colour. Helvar Tunable White iC DALI LED drivers and iC LED modules are the heart of tunable white lighting. Colour temperature control technology is essential for Human Centric Lighting that supports wellbeing, brings health benefits and increases productivity – and on top, is a beautiful design element. Our drivers can be used in DALI projects as well as with supported wireless lighting control systems.

What is Tunable White lighting?

Tunable white lighting technology means that you are able to control the light sources’ colour temperature output – in other words, mix cool and warm white light. You have might heard about mixing white light, tuneable white, color temperature control, circadian lighting, human centric lighting or DALI type 8 protocol. All of these origin from the same thing: with a control unit, such as a control panel or a lighting control software, you are able to choose the desired color temperature anywhere between the specified color temperature range if your LED driver and modules support that.

CCT stands for Correlated Color Temperature, and it refers specifically to the color temperature of white light, measured in Kelvin (K). For example, 3000K is called “warm white” in lighting, giving out a very yellowish shade of white; from human centric lighting point of view, the yellowish color temperatures refers to sunset and dawn. The higher degrees Kelvin, the cooler the white color temperature is, turning from yellowish white through pure white to bluish white (the coolest) – the brightest time of the day.

Why Tunable White? It looks great. Dynamic lighting creates very different moods for spaces and changes your room ambience throughout the day. You can take your room from moody, warm and relaxing into bright, modern and creative in seconds. But more important, Tunable White can bring health benefits: It increases productivity and supports circadian rhythm, our in-built bodyclock; read more about Human-Centric lighting and wellbeing with lighting here.

Human Centric Lighting (HCL) for wellbeing

LightingEurope-HumanCentricLighting-HCL_infographic_-_20171002

Click to see infographic: LightingEurope.org

Human Centric Lighting, also called HCL or circadian lighting, is created with tunable white technology, by changing colour and intensity of white light, and designing lighting to support the end-users’ lighting needs.

To enhance our natural circadian rhythms, we need light during the day.  Studies of the Circadian Rhythm have shown that the intensity, timing, duration, and wavelength of light can affect the biological clock of humans. We can use warmer, relaxing white light with slightly lower intensity, that helps to calm down when facing high stress. Or we can use cooler white light with higher intensity, to help users energise on early morning or typical work day. Lighting can also be tuned during the day to support more temporary needs.

Read more about Human Centric Lighting at LightingEurope.org
Read more how we can improve Wellbeing through Human Centric Lighting: Wellbeing

Benefits of using DALI Colour Temperature Control

DALI’s Colour temperature control standard enables you to pick a scene of colour and intensity in one easy step, vastly decreasing programming time. DALI type 8 (Dt8 or DALI 209) device only needs one DALI address to command two or more output channels (multipath), which greatly reduces the cost of a DALI lighting system. With DALI device type 6 (DT6), Tunable White features require two DALI addresses; single address, single channel.

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Our offering for Tunable White luminaires

We are specialised in Tunable White LED drivers, that we offer in compact and linear housing. Our iC range of Tunable White drivers offer a powerful and advantageous selection of drivers for different luminaire design needs, giving you wide dynamic ranges and output current options. Our selection of iC LED modules in different lengths, widths and colour temperatures match perfectly with our drivers, creating advanced lighting conditions for a variety of needs.

The Helvar Driver Configurator software tool allows you to set LED module parameters for iC LED drivers to ensure proper operation during colour and light intensity control. The tool can also be used to configure other LED driver parameters like output current.

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