DALI Part 306

DALI Part 306

DALI Part 306

  • On March 5, 2025

DALI Part 306 – General Purpose Sensors

The lighting control industry recently welcomed the significant release of IEC 62386-306:2023, commonly known as DALI Part 306. At zencontrol we’re proud to have played a central role—authoring the original draft and actively contributing throughout its development. We’re especially proud to be the first to implement DALI Part 306, with components utilising this exciting new standard already integrated into our Air Quality Sensors and Thermal Sensors.

DALI Part 306

Understanding Part 306

Part 306 introduces standardised multi-purpose sensors into IEC 62386, the international standard governing the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI). Designed to enhance integrated lighting control solutions, it significantly expands the possibilities for sensor-based data collection within DALI networks. By standardising a broad range of sensor functionalities, Part 306 enables smarter, more responsive lighting systems—delivering improved user experiences and greater efficiencies across diverse building types.

 

Key features and benefits of 306

Multi sensor versatility: It supports a wide variety of sensing capabilities beyond occupancy and illumination levels—including temperature, humidity, air quality, and gases such as methane, CO₂, and eVOCs—covering more than 50 measurable attributes.

Standardised interoperability: Part 306 leverages the proven DALI communication protocol, ensuring sensors from different manufacturers reliably communicate within the same network.

Increased flexibility: The standard defines two communication modes, allowing sensor data to be reported continuously or polled on demand, offering greater control flexibility.

Improved operational efficiency: Responsive and targeted data handling helps reduce unnecessary communication overhead, optimising network performance and energy use.

Customisation to project needs: The extensive range of available sensor measurements facilitates project-specific tailoring, providing design flexibility and extensive application potential.

 

DALI Part 306

Our contribution at zencontrol

Our dedicated team of designers, engineers, and app developers have always championed innovation that provides measurable value. Allan Organ, a senior engineer representing Australia on the IEC standards committee and DALI Alliance, was instrumental in guiding the creation of Part 306 from inception to adoption.

 

Impact on smart lighting and building automation

The introduction of DALI Part 306 sensors represents a significant evolution in smart lighting technology—supporting intelligent, adaptive, and environmentally conscious building systems. Notable impacts include: 

Holistic building automation: Integrating environmental data and lighting control enables holistic management of indoor environments—improving air quality, occupant comfort, and energy efficiency. 

Actionable insights: Sensor-generated data provides valuable insights into occupant behaviour and building performance, informing better operational decision-making and design improvements. 

Ease of scalability & adaptability: Built upon the robust DALI communication protocol, Part 306 sensors seamlessly integrate with existing and future DALI-compliant systems, providing long-term flexibility and reliability. 

Sustainability benefits: Aggregating multiple sensing capabilities within a single device reduces installation complexity, lowers maintenance costs, and contributes to more sustainable design outcomes. DALI’s global standardisation ensures device interoperability, longer product lifespan, and secure supply chains.

 

DALI Part 306

Products demonstrating the value of Part 306 

zencontrol’s leading-edge implementations—including our newly released Air Quality Sensors, Thermal Sensors, and our accompanying cloud analytic solutions—demonstrate the practical and measurable advantages achievable with DALI Part 306. These products clearly show the capacity to enhance occupant comfort, optimise energy use, and improve building performance. 

Part 306 also highlights a major strength of DALI-2 and DALI+: the ability of the proven DALI platform to expand its scope beyond lighting, facilitating broader applications and technologies within smart buildings.

As lighting technology continues to evolve, standards like DALI 306 are essential to fostering innovation, ensuring interoperability, and shaping the future of smart buildings. 

 

At zencontrol, we are excited and honoured to drive this advancement, and we eagerly anticipate experiencing and showcasing the benefits that this standard will bring to buildings, their occupants, and the wider lighting industry.

Explore zencontrol’s air quality sensor range utilising the first certified DALI Part 306 implementation here

 

What is DALI?
DALI is a lighting control standard defined under the European Standard IEC 62386 and now also for Australia and New Zealand. for controlling electronic ballasts, transformers, LED’s, emergency lights and exit signs. IEC stands for International Electrotechnical Commission and is a non-profit organization. DALI was designed to replace traditional 1-10 V analogue systems and proprietary digital systems such as DSI (Digital Serial Interface). At a maximum there can be 64 DALI devices on a single DALI line and it has a data baud rate of 1200 baud.