Dimmable GU10 LED Lamp in CRI 97 at 2700K

A lamp for a bathroom fitting: the lamp to put in an existing bathroom downlight, because a CRI 97 lamp in an old fitting beats a CRI 80 fitting bought new.

Bathroom lighting is the one part of a house where getting it wrong is a safety matter rather than a taste matter, and it is sold almost entirely on photographs. Every listing here states the zone the fitting may be installed in, the IP rating with both digits explained, the colour rendering index, the lumen output and the efficacy in lumens per circuit watt. If a fitting is not suitable above a bath we say so on the page you are buying it from. If a mirror is backlit and will not light your face, we say that too.

Specification

• Zone: outside the zones only, which means more than 600mm from the edge of a bath or shower and more than 600mm from a basin tap. We would still fit an IP44 product in a bathroom, and this one is, but the regulations do not require it here. A lamp takes the rating of the fitting it goes into, which is the thing to remember: an IP65 fitting with any lamp in it is still IP65, and an IP20 fitting with an expensive lamp in it is still IP20
• IP rating: the fitting decides, not the lamp
• Dimensions: standard GU10 envelope
• Light output: 450 lumens at 82 lumens per circuit watt
• Colour temperature: 2700K warm white
• Colour rendering: CRI 95, measured, with R9 above 60. R9 is the deep red value and it is the one that decides whether skin looks like skin. Most bathroom fittings quote a CRI in the eighties and do not quote R9 at all, which is how you end up shaving by a light that makes you look ill
• Dimming: dimmable on a trailing edge dimmer, to 5 per cent without flicker. Most decorative LED lamps are not dimmable at all and do not say so on the front of the box
• Electrical: 230V, integral driver
• Fire rating: not applicable to a wall or surface mounted fitting
• Standards: BS EN 60598 for luminaires, BS EN 62471 photobiological safety at the exempt group, BS EN 55015 for electromagnetic emissions, UKCA and CE marked
• Weight: approximately 0.06 kilograms
• Guarantee: three years
• Colour temperature: 2700K warm white
• Rated life: 25,000 hours to L80, meaning 80 per cent of the original output still remains at that point, which is the honest way to quote it
• Switching cycles: 50,000, which matters in a bathroom more than anywhere because the light goes on and off a dozen times a day
• Pack: one

What arrives

• the lamp or lamps
• a datasheet by download

Installation

Nothing to install. If it is going into a sealed fitting, let the fitting cool before you open the gasket and check the gasket seats cleanly when you close it.

Choosing between this and the alternatives

The cheapest useful upgrade to an existing bathroom is a set of CRI 97 lamps in the fittings that are already there. It costs a tenth of what new fittings cost and it changes how a face looks in the mirror more than new fittings would, because colour rendering is what that job depends on. Check the lamp is dimmable if the circuit is dimmed, and check the cap type, and there is nothing else to get wrong.