Consider your bathroom. It’s where you get ready for the day, douse yourself in a warm shower, or let all your thoughts and stresses melt away in a bubble bath. But it’s also full of steam, humidity, and water. All that moisture, while fine for a hot shower, isn’t necessarily kind to your electrical components and particularly your lights. Maintaining a well-lit and trouble-free bathroom requires you to know how to shield your lights from the moisture.
The Steam Problem
Bathrooms are unlike many other rooms in your home in one major sense because they contain a significant amount of humidity. Whenever someone takes a hot shower or a steaming bath, the air fills with moisture. This warm, moist air tends to get into everything (including your light fixtures). The repeated exposure to humidity over time can result in issues that you won’t see right away. It can corrode the metal parts inside your light fixtures, rust screws, and impact the electrical connections, too.
What Style of Lights Are Best for Damp Locations?
When you are selecting lights for your bathroom, you will notice ratings, such as “damp-rated” or “wet-rated.” These aren’t just fancy words. They tell you exactly how much moisture a fixture is safe to encounter. “Damp-rated” fixtures are great in spaces like above your vanity, where it’s mostly condensation. But for locations directly over a shower or bathtub, you definitely need “wet-rated” fixtures. These are engineered to resist splash and continuous moisture exposure in addition to protecting electrical components. It’s a common mistake to install lights that aren’t rated for bathroom use, and doing so can dramatically shorten their lives or cause electrical problems.
Learn the Importance of Ventilation
Lots of people forget to flip on the exhaust fan when they shower, or they switch it off before it’s had a chance to clear out the humidity. This fan is built to remove humid air from the bathroom and may exhaust it outdoors. And if you’re not capturing it, all that steam is hanging around, formed up into droplets, which are settling in various places, including your light fixtures. Get into the habit of turning on the exhaust fan as soon as you step into the shower, and keep it running for at least 15-20 minutes after you’re finished.
Recognize Warning Signs and Get Help
Despite all the best preventative measures, it’s wise to look for signs that moisture might be impacting your bathroom lights. The most common signs include burning through bulbs faster than you should be, noticing flickering after putting in a new bulb, and seeing rust or stain on the fixture. Any of those could be symptoms that moisture is causing problems internally.
If you observe any of these signs, don’t discount them, and seek professional help. Attempting to solve complicated electrical issues on your own in a wet place can be dangerous. Call Assurance Power Systems in Delray Beach, FL, and we will repair your bathroom lighting and ensure the safety of you and your family.
