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Technical Corner: Bathroom Lighting and IP Ratings

As safety regulations have developed over the years to help keep us safe and sound in our homes, so to has the variety of light fittings available to us to use in bathroom areas. When looking specifically at bathroom lighting for a project, you might come across terminology such as 'IP Rating' or 'Zone 1 Lighting', which can prove rather daunting if you're not familiar with it.

We have a quick guide to help you through this technical area of lighting that we hope you might find useful.

Starting with IP Ratings, this actually refers to the 'Ingress Protection' of a light fitting from dust and water. Generally this means the higher the IP Rating, the more protection the light has against water or dust. The handy chart below helps to explain the numbers you might see in technical specifications of various lights.

These IP Ratings are then categorised into three zones, so when you are planning a change to the lighting in your bathroom, you should be looking for the correct zone for where you would like to place the light. Each zone has a different minimum rating of IP you can place in it, and this is dependent on how near or far it is from a source of water.

The drawing below shows you these zones, and details the IP Ratings suitable for each.

Please do get in touch with the team here at First Choice Lighting if you would like any help in choosing bathroom lighting for your next decorating project.