ᐅ Lighting Design in the Kitchen, Living and Dining Areas + Smart Home Technology

Hello everyone,

we are currently working on the lighting design and smart home setup for our single-family house.

Lighting Design
We have a large kitchen, living, and dining area that should be illuminated according to its different uses.
The first step involves planning spotlights to be installed in the thin concrete ceiling.
The main planning comes from our lighting designer, but we would also like to get some feedback from the forum.

The lights should not all be on at the same time but controlled in several switching groups – turned on, off, or dimmed depending on the usage.
In the attached document, the planned spotlights are marked with red circles, the wiring is shown with green lines and boxes numbered, and the switches are indicated by red boxes with numbers.

The stair lighting is not yet planned; according to our lighting designer, this will be planned and decided during the shell construction phase.

What do you think about the plan? Does it fit the floor plan? Are there perhaps too many spotlights? Where could floor and table lamps be placed?


Smart Home
To operate the lights as flexibly as possible, we want to wire them in a star topology using 5-core cables and equip them with Casambi (DALI) modules. This allows us to control the lights even where there are no switches, program scenes, and dim more precisely than with a phase-cut dimmer.
Neither my husband nor I are enthusiastic DIY or programming fans, so we believe this solution provides the flexibility of a smart home system without including functions we would not use in the end.
Thanks to the 5-core star wiring, we can also add more lights to the system later by installing additional Casambi modules.

The exterior blinds (raffstores) will be connected via KNX and can be operated from central switches.

What do you think of this planned approach? Should we also connect the DALI/Casambi lights to the KNX system? From what I understand, that would require additional central wiring.

Thank you and best regards!

What immediately catches my attention is the countertop in the kitchen above point 3 c... how is that going to be illuminated?

kbt09 schrieb:

I immediately noticed the countertop in the kitchen directly above 3 c... how is it going to be illuminated?

Good point! Wall cabinets will be installed here. Underneath them, lights will be fitted to illuminate the countertop.

Fliederhaus25 schrieb:

The venetian blinds will be connected via KNX and can be controlled from central switches.

What do you think about the planned approach? Should we also connect the Dali/Casambi lamps to the KNX system? As I understand it, that would require additional central wiring.

Why separate them? Possibly, the venetian blinds could be integrated into Casambi (I’m not familiar with the system). Separating them doesn’t really make much sense, unless you want to keep the shading control purely with push-button sensors without visualization.

Fliederhaus25 schrieb:

To have flexible control over the lamps, we want to wire them in a star topology using 5-core cables and equip them with Casambi (DALI) modules. This way, we can switch the lamps even where there are no physical switches, program scenes, and dim them more precisely than with phase-cut dimmers.
Neither my husband nor I are experienced DIYers or programmers, so we think this solution will give the lamps the flexibility of a smart home system without including features we ultimately won’t use.
With the 5-core star wiring, we can also add more lights to the system later by installing additional Casambi modules.
What do you think about this planned approach? Should we also connect the DALI/Casambi lamps to the KNX system? As I understand it, that would require additional, central wiring.

While star topology is possible for DALI, it’s generally considered wasteful because it’s a bus system. In other words, you can wire it linearly and still control each device individually.

For flexible control, a star layout is of course sensible, since you can decide exactly for each lamp whether it is switched without controls, switched via KNX, dimmed via KNX, or equipped with DALI capabilities.

If you want to operate the system using KNX switches or touch panels, you do need to connect DALI and KNX. However, a single gateway in the control cabinet is sufficient for this—no additional wiring is required.

You do need to decide this soon, because there is also the option to do everything via DALI (pushbuttons, touch panels, sensors), which would then require DALI-specific wiring.

Personally, I would definitely handle operation and sensors via KNX and leave DALI just for lighting control.

Hello,
I have a similar unresolved issue. KNX is fixed. I have 5x 1.5mm² (5x 1.5mm²) cables in the ceiling (more in the living room) and it’s unclear whether DALI is necessary. It also involves higher costs, more complexity in case of faults, and requires a gateway.

However, my main concern is the lighting itself. I am a big fan of dimming, including time-dependent control. I don’t like lights that glare, so spots aren’t ideal for me. I would prefer to use a lot of LED light strips. Does that make sense, or am I missing something? Power consumption would be a concern.
And is DALI simply a MUST here, or can I still use a KNX dimmer?

In the picture, the yellow lines represent LED strips. Along the wall they are indirect, and in the kitchen area and bathroom they are direct.