High bay lights are a common choice in indoor lighting, especially in the field of warehouse lighting. Lighting control technologies for high bay lights include microwave control, DALI control and Zigbee control. With these commercial lighting control methods, intelligent control and energy saving of industrial and mining lights can be better realized. In this article, we will focus on the application of these three technologies in warehouse lighting, exploring their advantages and applicable scenarios to help readers better understand how to select and apply lighting control technologies that suit their needs.

Warehouse lighting is critical for workers to navigate and complete tasks efficiently in a safe environment. There are a variety of lighting requirements to consider when designing and installing a warehouse lighting system. First and foremost, lighting needs to provide adequate illumination for workers to perform their duties without causing eyestrain or accidents. It needs to be energy efficient and comply with local building codes and safety regulations. Lighting fixtures should also be durable, long-lasting and able to withstand the harsh warehouse environment. The type of lighting chosen may depend on the activities occurring in the warehouse - for example, a high-ceilinged warehouse may require high bay lighting, while a low-ceilinged warehouse may benefit from linear lighting. Additionally, lighting controls such as occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting can be used to reduce energy consumption and improve comfort. Ultimately, proper warehouse lighting can increase productivity, reduce costs and create a safer workplace.

There are specific requirements and needs for lighting systems in industrial areas, especially warehouse lighting. Warehouse lighting not only needs to provide adequate levels of illumination to ensure worker safety and productivity, but it also needs to be energy efficient, compliant with building codes and safety regulations, durable and reliable, and adaptable to harsh environments, among other features. In order to meet these requirements, industrial lighting control technology is particularly important. Industrial lighting control technologies include microwave, Dali and Zigbee, through which intelligent control of led lamps and energy saving can be realized. Specifically, the application of industrial lighting control technology in warehouse lighting is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Improve energy efficiency: industrial lighting control technology can intelligently adjust the brightness of the lamps and lanterns or turn off the lamps and lanterns according to the actual occupancy situation or available daylight and other factors, thus reducing unnecessary energy consumption and improving energy utilization efficiency.

Extend the service life of lamps and lanterns: By reducing the brightness of lamps and lanterns or turning off unnecessary lamps and lanterns, the load of lamps and lanterns can be reduced, the service life of lamps and lanterns can be extended, and maintenance costs can be reduced.

Adjust the brightness according to the work needs: According to the different task needs in the warehouse, the brightness of the lamps can be intelligently adjusted to provide the light level suitable for the task execution, thus improving the work efficiency.

Set lighting strategy in advance: According to the work schedule of the warehouse or workshop, the lighting program of the lamps and lanterns can be set in advance, for example, reduce the brightness of the lights or turn off some lamps and lanterns during the rest time, in order to save energy.

Enhance safety: Industrial lighting control technology can automatically adjust light brightness or switch on and off fixtures according to weather, time and other conditions, improving safety in the warehouse and reducing the possibility of accidents.

Adding motion sensors to led high bay lights can further increase energy savings. Assuming that we use a 200 Watt led high bay light to replace a 400 Watt to 600 Watt conventional light fixture, the led light has already realized about 50-66% energy savings at the same lighting intensity. However, by adding a motion sensor, we can save an additional 30-50% in energy consumption.

Motion sensors work by detecting the presence of motion within a given range. Once the sensor detects motion and transmits a signal (e.g. 0-10V) to the led power supply, the luminaire turns on, dims or adjusts the brightness accordingly. Conversely, if no motion is detected for a user-set period of time, the controller will determine that the area is empty and turn the fixture off. For this reason, motion sensors are also known as occupancy sensors.

This type of intelligent control is not only simple and easy to use, but also effective in ensuring that each space is properly lit. It eliminates wasted energy due to fixtures remaining on all the time, while improving energy efficiency by providing enough light for staff when necessary. High bay lights with motion sensors automatically control lighting to ensure accurate illumination and minimize energy consumption.

PIR sensors monitor human activity in the surrounding area and once motion is detected, the sensors send a signal to the control unit that triggers the led  lights to turn on, dim or adjust the brightness operation. This intelligent control system is able to automatically turn on the lights when needed to improve energy utilization and can be applied to scenarios such as canopy lights for commercial lighting, gas station lighting or street lighting to provide a smarter and more efficient lighting solution. Pictured below:

Improve energy efficiency: industrial lighting control technology can intelligently adjust the brightness of the lamps and lanterns or turn off the lamps and lanterns according to the actual occupancy situation or available daylight and other factors, thus reducing unnecessary energy consumption and improving energy utilization efficiency.

Extend the service life of lamps and lanterns: By reducing the brightness of lamps and lanterns or turning off unnecessary lamps and lanterns, the load of lamps and lanterns can be reduced, the service life of lamps and lanterns can be extended, and maintenance costs can be reduced.

Adjust the brightness according to the work needs: According to the different task needs in the warehouse, the brightness of the lamps can be intelligently adjusted to provide the light level suitable for the task execution, thus improving the work efficiency.

Set lighting strategy in advance: According to the work schedule of the warehouse or workshop, the lighting program of the lamps and lanterns can be set in advance, for example, reduce the brightness of the lights or turn off some lamps and lanterns during the rest time, in order to save energy.

Enhance safety: Industrial lighting control technology can automatically adjust light brightness or switch on and off fixtures according to weather, time and other conditions, improving safety in the warehouse and reducing the possibility of accidents.

In the previous section we mentioned industrial lights with sensors to simply control the switching and dimming of the fixtures, all automatically. So how can we achieve smarter control of these led industrial and mining lights? With the rapid development of the economy and fierce competition, business owners put forward higher requirements for lighting, no longer limited to providing basic brightness or adding sensors to achieve some basic dimming. More and more owners are asking for the right brightness for different work areas and different times in the warehouse to create a humanized lighting control model. Whether it's saving energy or improving lighting quality, integrated smart lighting control system is the trend of lighting control and meets the need of control.DALI control protocol, as the classic open intelligent lighting energy saving system protocol, has been widely used in industrial lighting control since 1990s.

What is DALI

DALI stands for dgital addressable lighting interface, a data transfer protocol.DALI defines a digital communication method between luminaires and system equipment controllers, allowing for more precise and flexible control of lighting using digital signals.DALI control systems bring great flexibility to lighting control. Business owners can design and adjust their lighting programs accordingly to meet their needs.

The DALI standard defines a DALI network that includes up to 64 units (with independent addresses), 16 groups, and 16 scenarios. different lighting units on the DALI bus can be flexibly grouped to achieve control and management of different scenarios. In practice, a typical DALI controller controls up to 40-50 lights, which can be grouped into 16 groups, and can process some actions in parallel. Compared with the traditional 1-10V dimming, the advantages of DALI is that each node has a unique address code, and feedback, longer distance dimming will not be like 1-10V as a result of signal attenuation, but in engineering practice, this distance is still do not exceed 200 m. DALI is a more traditional lighting control, focusing on static control and system reliability, stability and compatibility.

The following figure shows the schematic diagram of industrial and mining lights and DALI control：

What functions can be realized by the industrial light with DALI control?

Switching on/off (according to single light/according to group/according to scene light)

Dimming/dimming (single group/group/scene)

Detecting bad lights in a Dali system

Monitor the status of each light (is it on? Is it broken? Lumen output ratio / in which group are the lights?)

Adjusting the CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) of I.M. lamps

Control the color of the LED light emitting (not applicable to LED I.M. lamps)

The wired lighting control system has the disadvantages of troublesome wiring, the need to rewire for adding or subtracting equipment, poor system scalability, high system installation and maintenance costs, and poor mobility. Therefore, wireless communication technology is the ideal choice for realizing intelligent lighting system. In recent years, short-range wireless communication technology has developed rapidly. Mainstream technologies include infrared technology, Bluetooth (Bluetooth), Wi-Fi, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and ZigBee technology. zigbee technology has been relatively mature, the main features of zigbee technology are: low power consumption, low rate, short delay, short distance, large capacity, low cost. The requirements of the intelligent lighting system itself and the characteristics of ZigBee technology determine that ZigBee is the best solution to realize wireless intelligent lighting system.

What is Zigbee?

The system architecture of ZigBee technology consists of three main parts: the ZigBee coordinator (phone, computer with software), the router and the end device (LED industrial light).

For a lighting control system using Zigbee, the smartphone or remote control is the coordinator and they serve to transmit and send control commands. The gateway receives the commands from the coordinator via Ethernet or Wifi and sends the commands to the end devices with zigbee controllers and finally the LED lights receive and execute the commands. We can see that the gateway is the bridge between the ZigBee coordinator and the light fixtures. zigbee smart lighting control schematic is as follows:

What functions can be realized by industrial and mining lights and Zigbee control together?

The first step is to set up the Zigbee control system, the steps are as follows

Zigbee Industrial Lighting Smart Lighting Control Specific operation

Connect the router to a specific WIFI and download "iLightsIn Pro" from App Store or Google Play.

Power on the gateway and open the application "iLightsIn Pro". Press the gateway "function key" or search for the gateway in the app.

Log in to the application using the default account and password.

View more detailed information about lighting control in the User Guide.

When adding new devices to the application, do not start more than 20 devices at a time.

Smart lighting control is vital for buildings (warehouses, workshops, commercial centers) as it helps reduce electricity bills and lighting efficiency. By adding smart lighting systems such as sensors, Dali dimming, and Zigbee dimming, you can make your lighting solution more flexible, efficient, and economical. Adding sensors to a fixture is often more convenient. Once installed, the fixture will automatically turn on or off based on sunlight, motion or infrared radiation. Using Dali or Zigbee, you can control individual or groups of high bay lights via computer, cell phone or remote control. The former is a mature technology with a relative lack of wiring. However, the latter has developed rapidly in recent years, and the connection between the device and the controller is done wirelessly and is relatively simple to operate.