Halogen lights in bathroom

[dave]

Hi, I'm refurbishing my bathroom, and considering the lighting. I would like to use a couple of tracks with say 3 halogen spots on each.

The question is: is it safe to use lighting not specifically designed for a bathroom??

The BBC site

I definitely should not do this, but my brother did and he's still alive!!

I would like to put one of the racks above the bath (my bathroom is roughly a 7 foot cube). This would mean that the end spot on that track would be a foot above my shower head (a fixed drencher type with exposed valve). Does anyone think this would be unsafe???

Also should I be using low voltage here, or is 240V OK???

I know nowt so thanks for any musings you can offer.

Kind regards, Dave

[Annette Kurten]

In Index there is a three bulb track that takes no wiring, just take your bulb out and plug socket into track fitting and it clips to your fitting. five mins tops

[Stephen Fasham]

Almost certainly not OK to use 240V directly above the bath on a track unless the fitting clearly states it is suitable for use in a bathroom, and even then above a shower head is dubious. With low voltage halogen you shouldn't put the transformer in zone 1 (above the bath/shower) unless it's designed for it as all fittings shouls be enclosed. Generally once you get down to the low voltage (12V) it's hard to do any damage.

Sounds like you should rethink your current proposal.

[RichardS]

Just something else to add - if the fitting is not specifically marketed for bathroom use there is a chance that the dichroic lamps supplied are the open type - ie there is no protective glass front on the bulbs and the capsule bulb is open to the elements.

These open dichroics should not be used in a bathroom and should be replaced with the closed variety (not difficult to find and marginal price difference in your local friendly electrical wholesalers...)

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[David]

personnally I would (and did) go with LV haolgens

AS another thing for you to consider, assuming that each spot is 20W say then 2 track of 3 you have 120W of lighting in a very small room. I've only got 4 20W spots in the ceiling and this is more than enough for a room of this size.

regards

David

[dave]

Hi, and thanks very much for the replies so far.

It looks like I should go for a low voltage system - I've seen the dichroic bulbs you're talking about - these go from 20-50W as far as I can tell, so if I have 6 I should be fine.

It looks like I should forget about mounting them on a rack or rod for the row above the bath though. Does anyone think I would be OK if I got my bathroom installer to box them in?? Does anyone have any advice on how to do this safely??

I don't want to create a false ceiling because it would obstruct the old ceiling height window above the door. I might however be willing to box of sections of the ceiling - does anyone think these wallwashers are safe enough???

do also have shower downlights specifically designed for protection against water jets (I've been reading up on this IP44 thing and Zones), but I prefer the styling of the wallwashers.

Thanks, Dave

[David]

I woudl suggest that you strongly reconsider having 6 lights as this will be incredibly bright. I would recommend 4 max.

If you have a regular light fitting in there at the moment then stick a 100W bulb in to give you some idea of the effect.

[John Stumbles]

The beam from downlighters is much narrower than from normal bulbs so 100W of downlighters won't look the same as a 100W bulb. If the downlighters are too far apart in relation to the size of the room and height of the ceiling I think you'll find you have isolated pools of light from the beams and dark patches in between.

Also if the downlighters shine downwards on tiled walls you'll notice every irregularity in the setting of the tiles - it's very unforgiving. You could experiment with one of those desk lamps with a little low voltage parabolic reflector type bulb (perhaps tied to a broom handle so you can get it up to ceiling height) to get an idea what effect each downlighter might give.

[G&M]

We started with 5 20W in a strip above our bathroom and have now migrated to

7 50W (with new transformers) to get the light where it's needed. There are some bright spots but LV halogens never seem to put light where you want it unless you ahve lots of them.