IP44 Flush Ceiling Light with Selectable Wattage in Matt Black

A surface mounted bathroom light: a switch that selects 12W, 18W or 24W, so one fitting covers a cloakroom and a family bathroom.

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: zone 2 and outside the zones. Zone 2 is the 600mm band beyond zone 1 and the 600mm radius around a washbasin tap. It is not rated for zone 1, which means not directly over the bath
• IP rating: IP44. The first digit, 4, means protected against solid objects over 1mm. The second digit, 4, means protected against splashing water from any direction. It is the minimum for zone 2 and it is not enough for zone 1
• Dimensions: 300mm diameter by 60mm deep
• Light output: 1800 lumens at 88 lumens per circuit watt. Efficacy is quoted in lumens per circuit watt, which counts the driver losses, rather than lumens per chip watt, which does not. Part L of the Building Regulations asks for 75 lumens per circuit watt on new work and a great many fittings sold as compliant are quoted the other way.
• Colour temperature: chosen above
• Colour rendering: CRI 90, with R9 above 50, which is a good deal better than the eighties that this category usually offers and is enough for everything except colour matching makeup
• Dimming: mains dimmable, trailing edge
• Electrical: Class 2, double insulated, with an integral constant current driver. No earth required and nothing separate to find a home for above the ceiling
• 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 1.4 kilograms
• Guarantee: five years on the fitting and the LED module, two years on the driver
• Finish: a fine texture matt black powder coat over a chromated primer, because black paint straight onto aluminium in a bathroom lifts at the edges within two years
• Mounting: surface, onto a ceiling rose position or a joist, with a gasketed base plate
• Diffuser: opal polycarbonate, UV stable, which does not yellow the way acrylic does over a decade
• Sensor: none fitted

What arrives

• the fitting
• the gasketed base plate and gasket
• fixings for a joist and for plasterboard
• installation instructions

Installation

A registered electrician, twenty minutes. Electrical work in a room containing a bath or a shower is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations in England and Wales. That means it has to be done by a registered electrician or signed off by building control. Replacing a like for like fitting on an existing circuit is not notifiable. Adding a new circuit, a new socket or a new spur is. The base plate gasket needs a flat clean ceiling under it, so a textured ceiling wants skimming flat under the fitting or the seal does nothing.

Choosing between this and the alternatives

A single flush fitting is the right answer for a great many bathrooms and the trade will always try to sell six downlights instead. One 1450 lumen fitting in the middle of a four square metre bathroom, plus a proper light at the mirror, is better lit than six downlights and costs a fifth as much to install. The case for downlights is a large room, a high ceiling, or a design that wants no visible fitting at all. The zones come from BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations. Zone 0 is inside the bath or shower tray. Zone 1 is above it to 2.25 metres. Zone 2 is the 600mm band beyond zone 1 and the 600mm radius around a basin tap. Outside those, the regulations impose no IP requirement, though a bathroom is still a bathroom and steam still rises. Every product page here states which zones the fitting is rated for.