Picking the Right Infrared Lamp for Your Bathroom
Here is the thing about heating up a bathroom: more power isn’t always better. You might think throwing the biggest, highest-wattage lamp you can find at the ceiling is the way to go, but that’s usually a mistake. If you put too much power in a tiny room, you’re just burning through electricity and wearing out the bulb. But go too low? You’re still shivering when you step out of the shower. It’s all about finding that sweet spot based on how much space you’re actually dealing with. Sizing it up If you’ve got a small powder room—something under 4m²—a 250W to 400W shortwave lamp does the trick. Since the room is tight and the ceiling isn’t that far from the floor, the heat hits you almost instantly. It feels great. For those bigger master baths (think 6m² to 10m²), you’ll probably want to jump up to 600W or 800W. One pro tip here: instead of one massive heater, try splitting the load between two smaller lamps. It stops those annoying “hot spots” where it’s scorching in one corner and chilly in the other. Just keep an eye on your wiring, because more wattage means more stress on the circuits. The hidden trap There’s a catch with the high-wattage stuff. These lamps get hot. If you tuck an 800W unit into a cramped ceiling void without any airflow, that heat just sits there in the gap. Over time, that trapped heat can actually mess with your ceiling materials. You’ve got to make sure the room can breathe. A few practical tips Check your ceiling height before you buy. Standard 2.4m ceilings are pretty easy to work with. But if you have those fancy high ceilings, you’ll need more power or a reflector that focuses the beam. Otherwise, the heat just disappears before it ever reaches you. And please, for the love of your electric bill, hook these up to a timer or a motion sensor. Infrared heats objects (like you), not the air. Leaving them on all day is basically like heating the outdoors. Match the wattage to your square footage, and you’ll have a bathroom that feels exactly how it should.