Bathroom Zones and IP Ratings: Keeping you Safe

When buying bathroom light fittings for your bathroom, there are a few things to think about beyond the style.

A bathroom can be a wet and moist environment, which means extra precautions need to be taken regarding electrical features like lights.

Fortunately, there are two helpful ratings systems in place to help you make sure your bathroom lights are safe. These are bathroom zones and ingress protection ratings.

Zones

Firstly, we’ll look at zones. A bathroom zone depends on how far away something is from the bath or shower. These zones go from 0 to 3. Zone 0 includes lights installed inside the bath or shower itself. Meanwhile, Zone 1 covers the area directly above a bath. After that, Zone 2 includes everything within 0.6m of a bath or shower. Finally, Zone 3 covers everywhere else in your bathroom, that will be further away from baths, showers and sinks.

Zones are a guide to help make sure that bathroom lights are safe in areas where they could come into contact with water.

A lower zone means your lights will be closer to water sources or jets. So, these kinds of lights will need to be more resistant to breakages and leaks. This is where the IP rating comes in.

Ingress Protection (IP) Ratings

The Ingress Protection or IP rating lets you know how resistant a light’s exterior case is to water and dust. The highest IP ratings will keep electrical components safe even when fitted into a bath or shower. But these kinds of products will also be fitted with low voltage setups for extra safety.

As the zone furthest away from water, there’s no official need for an IP rating in zone 3. However, for zones 2 and 1, your bathroom lights will need a rating of at least IP44. For zone 0 this goes up to IP67.

Bathroom Lights from Abbeygate Lighting

Abbeygate Lighting are your one-stop shop for all kinds of home and garden lighting. Our fantastic range of bathroom light fittings match their great style with impeccable safety. To find out more, get in touch with us by phone or online today. Alternatively, pay a visit to one of our three showrooms across Norfolk and Suffolk.