Bathroom Lights

Bathroom Lights

Great lighting brings a bathroom alive, it’s often overlooked but your choice of fittings will make a good bathroom a great one. You will most likely want to use a mixture of task and ambient lighting.

 

Let’s look at how all these two types can improve your space. First you will need good ambient lighting; this is the background light, so if you have lots of daylight in your bathroom, this is ambient. In the evening you will want to replicate this type of light so you can easily see what you are doing. Use ceiling light fittings to do this either a single cluster, or maybe recessed downlights.

 

Task lighting is for when you are doing a particular job such as shaving or putting on makeup. For this having good lighting makes the task that much easier, use over mirror lights, shaving lights, wall lights or illuminated cabinets and mirrors. These will had light to your face as the light shines directly onto it. Using ceiling lights will add shadow to these areas as it is behind you.

 

If you’re tight on space or only have one power feed for the main light in the ceiling a spotlight bar or cluster is a good choice. The spotlights can be angled to give both ambient lighting as well as task lighting.

Bathroom zones: Electric and water do not mix so there are simple rules and standards when fittings lighting in your bathroom. It’s simple to understand and is based around 3 zones..

 

Zone 0: This is inside the bath or shower, where the bathroom lighting is going to get very wet. For this, the fitting must be rated at least IP67, which is immersion proof.

 

Zone 1: The area above the bath to a height of 2.25m from the floor. For this, the fitting must be rated at least IP65.

 

Zone 2: In an area stretching 0.6m outside the perimeter of the bath and to a height of 2.25m from the floor. For this, the fitting must be rated at least IP44. In addition it is good practice to consider the area around the wash basin, within a 60cm radius of any tap to be considered as Zone 2.

 

In accordance with advice from the Lighting Association the location above Zone 1 (over the bath or shower) up to a ceiling height of 3m continues to be classified as Zone 2.

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