Bathroom Lighting and Electrical Safety
This guide has been designed in order to help you in select safe lighting in your bathroom, shower, wetroom, or sauna. When buying new light fittings for installation in water intensive environments, you need to consult the manufacturer or retailer to make sure that what you are buying is made to the correct regulatory specification.

IP numbers are an international standard. BS EN 60529 relates to the same issue, which is the degree of protection provided by any enclosure of electrical equipment, against water and/or solid matter, for example: dust and soil, etc.

The "IP" stands for International Protection.

The first number from 0 to 6 indicates the level of protection against solid bodies.
The second digit from 0 to 8 refers to the protection against water.


First number - Solid Body Protection Grade

0: No protection against any solid objects.
1: Protects against all objects smaller than 50mm in diameter,
2: Protects against all objects objects smaller than 12.5mm
3: Protects against all objects objects smaller than 2.5mm
4: Protects against all objects objects smaller than 1.0 mm
5: Protects against dust such that it will not affect performance
6: Completely dust tight.

Second number - Water Ingress Protection Grade

0: Does not protect at all
1: Protects against vertically dripping water
2: Protects against dripping water when tilted up to 15 degrees
3: Protects against spraying water
4: Protects against splashing water
5: Protects against jets of water
6: Protects against powerful jets of water
7: Protects against immersion in water to one metre for 30 minutes
8: Protects against continuous immersion in water to a depth specified by the manufacturer

Weatherproof sockets protect against the worst of weather conditions when they are graded at IP55 or better. A qualified electrician should always make any final decisions about your installation.

For the purpose of safe lighting, the bathroom or shower area is divided into zones. The zones are numbered according to the distance they are away from a source of water.

Zone 0 (IP68 submersible to 9 metres):
These are the ultimate in watertight fittings and are suitable for saunas, steam rooms or to be mounted underwater, down to 9 metres.

Zone 1 (IP65 jetproof):
Light fittings graded zone 1 should be fitted where they may be subjected to a jet of water, for example from a shower handset.

Zone 2 (IP44 splash proof):
Zone 2 light fittings should be fitted wherever the fitting may be splashed. Anywhere within 0.6 metres of a basin or similar water source fits this category.

Zone 3:
For all other areas where jets or splashes of water will not occur.

To illustrate the above descriptions, included is a bathroom zone diagram at the bottom.

White = Zone 0
Purple = Zone 1
Blue = Zone 2
Green = Zone 3