Luminaires with two or more LED channels, typically warm and cool white, sometimes with extra colors to stay near the blackbody line, whose mix is controlled to change CCT, often across 2700 to 6500 K. Control comes through DALI DT8, DMX or two 0-10V channels. It is used for circadian-oriented schedules in offices, healthcare and schools, and for flexible display and hospitality spaces.
Tunable white schedule runs 5000 K at 10 a.m. and fades to 3000 by late afternoon, set the DALI scenes to match.
Also heard as
- TW
- color tuning
- CCT tuning
- dynamic white
Do not mix it up with
- Warm dim: Warm dim ties color temperature to dimming level on one control; tunable white controls CCT and intensity separately.
Related terms
CCT
Correlated Color Temperature: the warm-to-cool appearance of white light, stated in kelvin.
Warm dim
LED dimming that also lowers color temperature as light level drops, imitating the glow of a dimmed incandescent lamp.
Planckian locus
The line of whites on a chromaticity diagram that a perfect blackbody passes through as it heats up.
DALI
Digital Addressable Lighting Interface: a two-wire digital lighting control bus where each driver has its own address.
Melanopic EDI
Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance: a measure, in lux, of how strongly light stimulates the eye's circadian system.