Lighting in Bathrooms IP Ratings made simple

We are often asked about bathroom lighting. The fact of the matter is that it’s not as straightforward as “I Like that light, I’ll buy it for my bathroom.” Something called an IP rating is rather important in a bath or wet-room. But just because you have fallen for a light that is not IP rated it does not mean you can’t use it in your bathroom.

IP simply stands for ‘Ingress Protection’ and the numerical rating relates to the water-proofness of a light. As everyone knows water and electricity do not mix so we don’t want water to get inside our bathroom lights.

The higher the IP rating the less likely water is to get into your light- think underwater lighting (IP67).  But, and this is where it gets a little more complex- the IP rating your light needs depends on it’s position in the bathroom. 

You need a higher IP rating over a steamy bath or inside a shower than you do near the door.  The diagrams below are a useful and clear illustration of this showing the 3  ‘Zones’

Zone 0 is inside the bath or shower area where lights must be low voltage and IP67

Zone 1 is above the bath to a height of 2.25m from the floor- here a light must be a minimum of IP 44

The same IP44 rating applies to zone 2, which is an area of 0.6m around the bath and a 60cm radius around a washbasin tap.

Zone 3 is everywhere else. No IP rating is required in Zone 3, unless water-jets are likely to be used, and if the light is likely to be splashed by a water-jet then you need to fit lights rated IP65

So does Skinflint do bathroom lights?  Well, yes!

Posted by: Sophie 20.10.2011