Contemporary bathroom lighting
The bathroom is where we start and end the day. Its ambience contributes significantly to our sense of wellbeing. But bathrooms are sometimes too small and many lack windows. Even so, an agreeable atmosphere can still be created in a bathroom – and lighting plays a crucial role.
The right contemporary lighting for a bathroom – says Fördergemeinschaft Gutes Licht (FGL) – consists of at least two components: general contemporary bathroom lighting and task lighting at the mirror. 300 lux is the recommended illuminance level. Uniformly distributed, the light will have an agreeable impact. If spots are used, they should be models with a wide-angled beam (floods). One good point to remember is that light-coloured tiles reflect light better than dark ones, so lighting in a brightly furnished bathroom requires less power for the same illuminance.
Supplementary luminaires shielded to avoid glare and mounted on each side of the mirror ensure shadow-free illumination for all parts of the face. For larger mirrors, an additional luminaire above the mirror is a good idea. Warm-white lamps are recommended throughout a bathroom. All modern lamps for interior use – for bathrooms these are mainly incandescent, tungsten halogen, compact fluorescent and linear three-band fluorescent lamps – have good colour rendering properties (Ra index ≥ 80). Provided lighting quality is comparable, the made-up face outside the bathroom thus looks exactly the same as in the mirror. Degrees of protection need to be observed Bathrooms are damp interiors, so luminaires used in them need to conform to the degrees of protection required. The general rule is: in the vicinity of a shower or bathtub, luminaires need to be protected against splashwater (IP X4) or jetwater (IP X5). They may only operate on protective extra-low voltages up to 12 V and need to be specifically approved for this zone. The standard also distinguishes between three other zones with descending hazard ratings. Electrical engineers and dealers know the details.
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