Far from being the province of the style gurus, bathroom downlights are the lynchpin of most of today’s bathroom lighting schemes.  Whether you go for wide or narrow beam, downlights are perfect for the task lighting so necessary in the bathroom – and they cast lovely ambient light too.

If you’ve ever wondered how they work, they are really quite simple, comprising of lamps housed in a sealed containers.  The important aspect is the seal – without it, the heat from the lamp would enter into the ceiling space, creating something of a fire risk.

Modern downlights are simple to install too – although, of course, you need to make the appropriately sized holes first!  Mostly, the fittings are secured by clips and simply push into the ceiling.  The major point of note here is the fact that there are very specific electrical regulations relating to bathrooms that limit what fittings you can put where.  It is vital that you follow these directives, which are based on IP ratings.

Whether you go for halogen downlights or LED, you will get accurate rendition of skin tones; vital when you’re preparing yourself to greet the world.  Today’s LED lamps also provide adequate light for ambient lighting too.

Halogen bathroom downlights, powered from the mains, can be dimmed using normal light dimmers placed outside the bathroom.  Low voltage downlights require a special kit to allow dimming.

For ambient lighting, a space of about 7 feet between lamps is ideal, although, unless you are particularly keen on the runway effect, you need to give careful consideration to how you achieve this. The lights should be positioned between ceiling joists. And a final word of warning about positioning: downlights too close to the walls don’t look good; try to get about 3 feet in from the edges of the ceiling.

As well as providing flexibility in your bathroom lighting, low voltage downlights will also help you keep your power bills under control.  In fact, in bathroom zone 0, you are restricted to a maximum of 12 volts anyway, and, to be honest, the lower the voltage of your bathroom lighting the better.  Far better, after all, to receive a 12 volt electrical shock than a 240 volt one.

If you want to be creative with your bathroom lighting, bathroom downlights are where it’s at!

Tags: bathroom down lighting, bathroom downlight, bathroom downlighters, downlights

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Bathroom Downlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.