DALI emergency lighting is widely used as a robust and reliable solution that meets safety-critical requirements in buildings throughout the world. The DALI protocol enables integrated, digital control systems that combine illumination and emergency lighting. DALI-2 Emergency further extends interoperability of lighting-control devices and facilitates integration with building management systems, which can access DALI control and querying capabilities including automated testing and reporting.

In many countries, there is a legal requirement for periodic testing of emergency lighting. DALI enables self-contained emergency tests to be automated, triggered by DALI commands or by an optional timer. Emergency control gear must implement both a function test and a duration test. The function test is a quick test of the battery, charging circuit, driver/relay and lamp, while the duration test ensures that the battery will be able to operate the lamp for the full rated duration (for example 1 hour or 3 hours).

DALI-2 Emergency certification requires the product to successfully pass a rigorous and comprehensive set of tests based on the international standard IEC62386.The DALI Alliance independently verifies the test results,and then lists each certified product in its online product database,providing public traceability.The first certified DALI-2 Emergency devices,which are entitled to use the DALI-2 logo,are expected very soon.

The DALI-2 Emergency tests developed by the DALI Alliance are based on Part 202 of IEC 62386. Control gear in Part 202 are also known as device type 1 (DT1). Devices implementing Part 202 can also optionally implement other features such as the luminaire, energy and diagnostics data in Parts 251-253. Also, the ongoing development of ‘DALI+ with Thread’ certification opens the possibility of future standardization for wireless control of DALI emergency lighting.