Bathroom lighting is the most commonly botched job we are called to correct. A fitting bought online, installed above a shower, with no IP rating and no thought given to zones, it looks fine until it fills with steam.
The zones, in plain English
- Zone 0, inside the bath or shower tray itself. Fittings must be IPX7 and low voltage (12V SELV). Rare, and specialist.
- Zone 1, directly above the bath or shower to 2.25m. Minimum IPX4; IPX5 if a water jet is used for cleaning. This is where downlights above a shower live.
- Zone 2, 0.6m beyond Zone 1, and around a washbasin. Minimum IPX4.
- Outside zones, the rest of the room. No IP requirement, but a rating is still sensible in a small steamy London bathroom.
Decoding IP numbers
The first digit is protection against solids, the second against water. IP44 means protected against objects over 1mm and splashing water from any direction. IP65 means fully dust-tight and protected against low-pressure jets. For a shower enclosure, IP65 is the sensible specification even where IP44 would technically comply.
Supplementary bonding and RCD protection
All circuits serving a bathroom must have 30mA RCD protection, non-negotiable. Supplementary bonding of pipework can be omitted only where all circuits are RCD-protected, main bonding is in place and verified, and disconnection times are met. Verified, not assumed: that means testing.
Designing a small bathroom beautifully
- 1Layer it. One central downlight leaves shadows on your face. Combine a ceiling layer with a mirror or vanity layer.
- 2Light the face, not the top of the head. Vertical illumination beside a mirror beats a light above it every time.
- 3Choose 3000K warm white for a home bathroom. 4000K reads clinical; 2700K can look muddy against white tiles.
- 4Use high CRI (90+) lamps if you apply make-up or shave in there, colour accuracy is the whole point.
- 5Add a dimmable or motion-sensed low-level circuit for night use. It is the detail people love most afterwards.
“Had some outdoor lights not working, the team came on time and fixed my lights as well as installing new IP rated bathroom lights as well. Would highly recommend again.”
We design and install bathroom and wet-room lighting across London, fully certified. Call 07938 382020.
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