Bathroom Lighting Design Rules

This fixture should provide the equivalent of 150 watts of incandescent lighting and be long enough to spread light evenly over your face.

Bathroom lighting design rules.

Side lighting is best for minimizing shadows but if it s not possible place a fixture such as a horizontal bar with multiple lights above your vanity mirror. Lighting the vanity right. All bathroom designers are in agreement that bathrooms need powered ventilation fans as the code minimum requirement for an operable window is considered archaic. This guideline must be coordinated with guideline 9.

Ventilation is a classic example of good design rules picking up where code leaves off. Increase this by 50 to 100 for recessed lights indirect lighting or a room with dark surfaces. As a rule of thumb provide one watt of incandescent or 1 3 to 1 2 watt of fluorescent light per square foot of floor space. The usual minimum size is 32 x 32.

The minimum height of 80 6 8 over the fixture includes the required minimum clear floor space in front of the fixture which must also have a minimum height of 80 6 8. In the master or guest bathrooms use fixtures that provide at least 75 to 100 watts of illumination says randall whitehead a well known lighting expert and author of residential lighting a practical guide. In general the more buffer room the better. You can also get these light equivalents in a 24 watt fluorescent or a 20 watt led he adds.

In a small bathroom the mirror lights can also provide the ambient light.